Why is an academically good D3 college recruiting me for XC/Track?

You're female? They may be trying to fill a roster after being wiped out by Covid (that's true at my D3); they may be following up on a recommendation from your coach(es); they may be trying to establish your school's program as a "feeder" for theirs.

Or they may have seen/heard something that makes them think you have the potential to become competitive in their program.

Yea, i'm a girl. Coaches definitely didn't recommend (not too involved with the team in general), school is in SoCal and not too big so don't know if it'd be a feeder. But interesting, thank you!

By the way, is it considered bad practice to inquire what caught a coach's attention?

Are your academics really really good?

Many D3 coaches try to recruit every girl possible. It isn't a big deal.

confusedrirunner wrote:

By the way, is it considered bad practice to inquire what caught a coach's attention?

Not if you do it politely. "I'm just curious, how did you..." or something along those lines will be fine.

But it is pointless and makes you look silly or unconfident.

confusedrirunner wrote:

I'm a relatively average runner, 12:55 for the 3200m, 6:00 for the 1600m, 20:30 for the 3 mile (from the 2019 season). However, this midwest coach has actively tried to recruit me, but I'm a bit confused since I wouldn't be able to contribute much anyways + have faster teammates. Is there a reason for this?

A couple of questions that you could ask the coach

1) "What do you think would be good goal times for me to shoot for in the upcoming cross country and track seasons?"

2) "What events do you see me focusing on in track?"

These are better than saying "I'm a relatively average runner why are you recruiting me?" and you can get a feel for why the coach is recruiting you. As others have said it could be to establish a team pipeline or something. In high school I ran for a small, rural school that was very successful for our size and location. A D3 coach had heard about us and came to our conference meet and offered a roster spot to everyone on our varsity team/top 7 after the meet. That coach probably didn't see me (the 5th guy) as some sort of future stud, but he probably figured if he could get me to commit maybe I could convince our #1 or #2 to come with me. This could be the case with you.

Yep. 1580 SAT, 4.0 with 9 APs

Some schools can’t get anyone to run for them. I know a girl that hasn’t run in two years that will be running in college and she wasn’t as fast as you are.

Your grades are very good… are you interested in running in college? If you are interested in running your amazing academics could get into a lot of top d3 schools and you could likely good a very large academic scholarship to many mid level d3 schools.

Like others have said lots of coaches recruit tons of athletes using lots of different criteria. They may have sent letters to every women from 15th place down to 40th place at a large invite or conference/state meet you ran at or contacted every girl who ran under 13 minutes. Lots of d3 schools are enrollment driven and many also take chances on athletes. Maybe someone from the college that contacted you knows most girls on your team only run 20-30 miles and they figure if you come to their college and can consistently run 50 miles you may improve a lot (which you probably would, if coached well).

If you are interested in running in college by all means keep working with that coach and definitely reach out to other coaches and fill out their questionnaires and and email the coaches to follow up, mention your grades!

Yes, I am! Would you be able to suggest some D3 schools where my running could aid in getting in in conjunction with academics? I'm planning on majoring in computer science/mechanical or electrical engineering so I've no idea which D3's are good for that (MIT is the only one I know but it's unrealistic)

Yes MIT would likely be tough to run at they are very good in d3. Cal Tech would be a possibility, arguably as good as MIT academically, new coach I believe and not sure how much pull they have but I would image they could get you in as they have a small team that they are hoping to rebuild). The Claremont Colleges (also southern cal) are also very good colleges and one of them may be a good fit. Where do you live and what part of the country do you want to go to school in, I could toss a couple more possibilities out if I know what area you are interested in?

confusedrirunner wrote:

Yes, I am! Would you be able to suggest some D3 schools where my running could aid in getting in in conjunction with academics? I'm planning on majoring in computer science/mechanical or electrical engineering so I've no idea which D3's are good for that (MIT is the only one I know but it's unrealistic)

With your stats MIT probably is not unrealistic. Especially if you're an athletic recruit. Some good STEM D3 schools are MIT, Carnage Mellon, Harvey Mudd, WashU, WPI, and UChicago.

I live in Socal but I don't particularly care which area of the country I go to. Not a big fan of harsh winters/humidity + heat but I can deal with it fine

Comment wrote:

confusedrirunner wrote:

Yes, I am! Would you be able to suggest some D3 schools where my running could aid in getting in in conjunction with academics? I'm planning on majoring in computer science/mechanical or electrical engineering so I've no idea which D3's are good for that (MIT is the only one I know but it's unrealistic)

With your stats MIT probably is not unrealistic. Especially if you're an athletic recruit. Some good STEM D3 schools are MIT, Carnage Mellon, Harvey Mudd, WashU, WPI, and UChicago.

This is a great list of top schools. A very good place to start. And they are right academically you are in the ballpark of getting into MIT your times may be a stretch but definitely world emailing the coach. A good place to start would be looking at these schools and locations and seeing which ones you like and then reach out to the coaches at those schools, do the questionnaire and an email follow up, be specific to the school/program and don’t copy and paste the exact same email to all the schools.

You should definitely look into UC Santa Cruz not a very top college but a well respected UC school that you will get instate tuition at and it’s a cool spot that is far enough from home to be “away at college” but still a pretty easy drive down to SoCal for long weekends or holidays and such. UC Sant Cruz, Harvey Mudd, Cal Tech all good options with good winters. Some other SoCal schools that you would likely get good great academic aid at would be Cal Lutheran and Chapman. Good luck and keep us posted.

Wowow is giving you very good advice. If you can go to Cal Tech you will always have a job and at basically anywhere you want. You can go to any graduate program in the world out of Cal Tech or MIT. Harvey Mudd is an exceptional engineering school. USCD has a near world class comp sci program but not sure if that's D3 for XC. Another thing is academics vs. athletics. If academics is the primary driver then consider that first then narrow down by athletics (assumes acceptance).

No coach is going to use one of their auto admin tickets for you. You will have to be admitted on your own. Most highly selective schools use a need based system for tuition. What is you family income and savings? Two of my children declined admission to Ivies due to cost.