How should I leverage running for college?

i would look at d3 (harvey mudd?). I ran at amherst college and really enjoyed it. obviously your grades/sats are the star of the show, not running, but d3 is a good fit for "I want to run in college but mostly focus on academics." Plenty of v strong academic schools in d3

Jesus dude! Congrats on the success in academics. That is very impressive. I'm sure you'll find success in college applications regardless if you run or not.

Really sell the fact that you are under trained and didn't really take the sport seriously until recently. Give the coaches some upside with having you on their team: that if you can get some real training under your belt you'll get way faster. Your academics and the fact you aren't really developed training wise are your selling points. Best of luck

Sounds like you’re made for D3. Even at the better programs I think a lot of coaches would love to have a 4:40 10:00 type of guy that had only been training as long as you have and has the academics you do.

You won’t get athletic scholarship money obviously but I think you’re a great candidate for heavy academic aid.

There aren't any colleges in the "normal top 20" better than MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Cal Tech for STEM enjoyers. If you really want to run in college, find a D3 school that fits what you're looking for academically and will give you scholarship money if you need it. Running should be a secondary but significant consideration.

And don't be driven by brand names like so many posters here appear to be. There are plenty of very good schools out there, including some mid-major d1 schools. You didn't say whether S, T, E, or M is your main interest.

Alright, update, today at a meet I ran a 4:49 1600m leading from the gun with no competition cause coach accidentally put me in the JV section. It felt rough and I did push hard, but I woke up this morning with a sore throat, not sure how much that affects the potential though. Could maybe do better after some speed workouts and adjusting to spikes (I run all races in vaporflies) and having some runners up front to chase. Splits were 1:10-1:13-1:13-1:12. My body feels malleable right now and it feels like if I keep the efforts steady the improvements will keep coming.

Okay, besides that, thanks to the tips from people. I’ll create a better named email, start on contacting some coaches, and consider the typical solid D3 schools. In answer to some others, I’m interested in compsci/physics major, and uh if this demographic means anything… I’m Asian… So suddenly 1590 SAT and all that jazz isn’t nearly as much of an outlier, which is why I feel that running is somewhat important too (I have lots of other extracurriculars but running definitely took top priority around this year). Does this give any more specific school recommendations? Still only have MIT, Caltech, Carnegie planned but those are shooting pretty high and I have yet to really find any solid safe schools to try for my major with a running program. My parents are only really knowledgeable about the top 20 schools which are all pretty elite in athletics too.

Johns Hopkins, Rice, Georgia Tech, Case Western… all great schools.

You have a lot of potential in running, but you need to run more miles this summer, 50-60 mpw or more if it’s important to you to make a roster and continue on in college. See what you do in cross country because you just might pique the curiosity of many of these coaches. 50-60 mpw is solid but still fairly low volume.

I predict that you will lose interest in running before college. Don't even think about it. Your state school is best option and you can run on the club team. If you are a white male, you won't get into the highly selective schools and you will pay $340K if you do. My son had a 36 ACT and the same SAT as you and he got rejected by the Ivies and MIT. He is at Rutgers paying about $10K per year and has a 3.85 GPA. We plan to give him $200K at graduation because he didn't use it for college. I predict that he will cone out ahead where he would have been with the Princeton degree. He can buy a condo and a car and owe very little.

I predict that you will lose interest in running before college. Don't even think about it. Your state school is best option and you can run on the club team. If you are a white male, you won't get into the highly selective schools and you will pay $340K if you do. My son had a 36 ACT and the same SAT as you and he got rejected by the Ivies and MIT. He is at Rutgers paying about $10K per year and has a 3.85 GPA. We plan to give him $200K at graduation because he didn't use it for college. I predict that he will cone out ahead where he would have been with the Princeton degree. He can buy a condo and a car and owe very little.

He already said he was Asian, so he will be even more discriminated against. We noticed how woke the application cycle really got in 2020, and many elite schools going test optional sealed the “equity” deal.

I disagree on the running angle, if he enjoys it. He might end up really improving and being able to use it for a solid D3 experience as others on here have suggested. However, I agree on the cost. NO school is worth $340-350k, all in. But, with his academic prowess, he could probably go to a pretty solid private school as many of them give quite a bit of merit money. Some give full rides, but certainly full tuition, even to the non needs-based kids.

Our goal w our daughter, who was similar but not quite as high on the SAT (right there though), is to get her through both undergrad and med school for the same price or less than an Ivy undergrad. Not sure we will pay all of it, but we will surely help. So I believe that is good advice unless this guy could pull a ton of money at some school like a Davidson, which he probably could.

We went through it and found no private school close to our state school for price. Amd our son couldn't be any higher in terms of coursework and test scores and GPA.

We went through it and found no private school close to our state school for price. Amd our son couldn't be any higher in terms of coursework and test scores and GPA.

We went through it and found no private school close to our state school for price. Amd our son couldn't be any higher in terms of coursework and test scores and GPA.

8/10 - you got the racial angst/anti-affirmative action brigades to bite hard. Nice follow up to the thread from earlier this week by the angry California taxpayer dad.

I agree. I didn’t end up going, but I ended up deciding between Williams and a D1 (also quite good academically) college. I had faster PRs (mid 9:20s) but I ran a little more mileage (50). I only had a 1570, but that’s not a huge difference. Aim for very solid academic D3 schools

Anti racism is a good thing.

Also, what’s your race? By your SAT score, I’m assuming that you’re either Asian or white which will hurt you

I’m just one example, but our daughter got $50,000 off at a top 50 private, which makes it less than the state school. Her classes are like max 15-1 students to professor & she has already secured summer research she actually wants as a frosh. That’s the advantage to going private. It can be done.

Actually I see your caveat “close to our state.” We didn’t care about that. Our daughter cast her net far and wide, and it paid off. She did have to attend multiple scholarship competitions though, so that may be a drawback, Idk. I’m glad she went away from home though where she can’t just drive back on a weekend. She has really grown.

Are your parents willing to pay the coach to accept you on the team so that you can jump ahead in the admissions line? I've heard that works really well.

Seriously, if you want a great college experience, joining a team is one way to go.