If you were a top high recruit who had good offers from every school, where would you choose?

The top D3 schools that are also good running schools don't offer athletic or merit aid (MIT, Williams, Amherst (ok running), etc).

However, their endowments are very large, and they're a little 'flexible' with financial aid. I know of a few athletes who came from upper-middle class backgrounds (think between $300-400k) who received financial aid since they were highly desired by the schools.

It's technically not allowed, but they'd do it in such a way that they have a reason for why a certain athlete was allocated a scholarship when he didn't need one.

rojo, are you posting under the name lease? I hit reply to you and it shows re: rojo

Nah, we're different guys (although I know rojo--we coached at the same college, at different times).

LRC is being really glitchy lately. I tried to reply to someone's post, hit the "Quote Post" button, and got a quote from someone else entirely--maybe from a whole different thread. And stuff like this has happened more than once. No idea what's going on.

I know that URochester and NYU have (or at least had) merit scholarships. They're both well regarded academic institutions, and they've both been D3 national champions in cross.

Incorrect . Dartmouth & Yale have 12 indoor meets , Stanford has 9. Also the weather is not as good in the NE regardless of schedule

Dude don’t get wrapped up in geographical pride.

It was a silly statement. It was obviously a poster who ran D3 and didn't realize the deal.

Nope. Schools like Notre Dame and Stanford use a similar formula for determining cost based on need and elite athletes receive a scholarship on top of that.

Some of you guys recommending D3 for the elite runners are just silly. Take Leo Young. Let's assume that he gets 50% off at Stanford based on income and another 50% off for running. That means he would pay $40k per year at a D3 school. That means he would pay $40k at an Ivy.

Looking at the entire package and if money was NO object, Stanford. Great brand, good athletics, almost perfect climate. A close second would be Vanderbilt. Actually, I might choose Vandy just because I like the TN vibe more and the weather is pretty temperate.

If I were really choosing where I thought I could get the best education and a team that’s still really high caliber, probably a school like Colorado School of Mines. Or Cal Poly SLO. Or Carnegie Mellon. Schools that aren’t necessarily on everyone’s radar but which graduate very good, very smart, very capable employees.

I’d say Stanford, Princeton, Cornell and Villanova set you up for good career options, as well as getting great opportunities in track too… maybe NAU or Oregon if you are a total running god and know you have a high probability shot at going pro. Cal Poly for mid d fiends.

Is this a joke? As someone who went to Princeton and coached at Cornell for 10 years, I think you talking about Cornell's massive size and grad focus is wrong.

Fact: Cornell is undergrad focused. When I gave my recruits campus tours, I always pointed out how Cornell was roughly the same size as Harvard but we have 2/3rds of the students in undergrad. THey have 2/3rds of the students in grad programs.

Yes, Princeton is a lot smaller and doesn't have a big grad school but Princeton is not a small school. To be honest, if you want a small school feel, you need to go D3. At Princeton and Cornell both, you can become a lost number. If you want to have relationships with professors, you can but you need to seek it out. I imagine at a D3 school it's kind of different.

The top runners this year signed with Stanfird, UVA, CU, Wake, Washington, Oregon, ISU, NAU, and Duke. Amazed at how they could go anywhere yet chose hardly any of the schools mentioned in this thread. It's almost as if most posters are fairly off base when it comes to making major life decisions.

It would depend on how I was recruited. What the coach said and how he spoke to me. How other people from the university interacted with me, etc.

That's often the difference of why a top recruit chooses one over another when they have many choices.

I can't make this decision without seeing these schools and based solely on reputation.

Posters are essentially saying that people like Tuohy and Young and Cook made terrible decisions.

Stanford is my first thought too. Better weather than any Ivy League school.

you went to Princeton?

If I was graduating HS this year, it would definitely be UW or Stanford, leaning towards UW because they have a better Mid D squad and I like the PNW area for exploring

Currently studying Engineering and both schools have good programs. Other options could be Michigan or Wisconsin but if I had to redo it I’d probably leave the snow behind…

Stanford. I don't like east coast winters enough to go to an Ivy.