If you were a too high school recruit where would you want to run in college?

NAU and Oregon would be my #1 as I truly care about academics...

Reality is when you are 18 and a top recruit you probably think you are going pro. Academics are a secondary priority at best. That is why NAU and Oregon will continue to get top runners. Also, going to a very rigorous academic school will can make fitting in running harder. Grant Fisher is a prime example.

NAU, Oregon, Stanford, Colorado, UNC and would be my top 5 choices.

Huh? What place were those teams at nationals last week? They aren't getting the most top recruits. Not close. He didn't ask about distance runners.

I’d be way too high school to run in college. Probably enough to make coaches leery of my immaturity.

If I were hypothetically a genius and top recruit and all-around athlete, I'd go do genius things and skip college like many other geniuses who didn't go to or finish college (Gates, Zuck, Jobs, etc.), run for Very Nice Track Club and adidas Terrex, climb for Five Ten, mountain bike cross country for Ineos, mountain bike free ride for Redbull, and drive rally cars for Subaru Motorsport USA and Hoonigan.

That wasn't the question. He didn't ask about a .00001% genius. He asked about a top student. Tens of thousands of top students get rejected by elite colleges. They reject thousands of kids who have perfect test scores.

The top academic schools who placed high in track for women

2-Florida, 9-Harvard, 10-Georgia, 14-Michigan.

For men

Florida-1, Stanford-3, Georgia-7, Washington-9, Harvard-11.

Combined, Florida wins. Georgia and Harvard are good choices.

Sorry, I graduated from maybe the most applied-to college with an engineering degree, and also have a masters, both from a loong time ago, but I kind of have a jaded view of the worth of a top undergraduate university these days.

So are you saying that nowadays, where the degree is from really doesn't matter anymore?

I have a kid going to college soon and all the friends are looking at brand name schools and I'm pushing state schools because it's all the same generic degree without the debt into their 30's and 40's.

If it's me, as a guy, and academics are important, then I look at:

Stanford, Washington, Harvard, Wake Forest, Virginia, Villanova, and North Carolina. Good schools, good programs, good coaching. That would be my personal top tier.

If you can run for each team, I think one of the determining factors would be how much your parents make. If you are under a certain income, I would look at Stanford or Harvard. A guy that was a freshman on my high school team when I was a senior ran at Stanford very briefly. Really, it helped him get in and he quit after 2 years. His family struggled with money pretty badly, though. He went for free. It's hard to beat a Stanford education that doesn't cost you anything. He works as a product engineer in the Bay and makes a boat load of money.

For me it’s Stanford and it’s not even close. Where else can you get top 5 academics, pleasant weather year round, and an elite running program all in one place?

Honestly? I'd choose Brown or maybe Colgate because they have the best programs for my degree.

Colgate has some great running routes and it's beautiful in the summer and fall, but winter is pretty terrible. But I grew up in Minnesota so I'm used to it.

Brown is ideally located. Not too far from great beaches, Boston and NYC. Providence is an underrated city. Ivy League education plus an open curriculum are desirable.

Both schools are expensive so it would be nice to get the most money possible.

One thing to consider here: If you are elite, one-in-a-lifetime recruit, I think it would be great to go to a school where you have ability to change the culture and make it a place that other great runners want to come to. At Oregon/Stanford, you are just another great runner in a school that has has a history of great runners. At Brown/Colgate, it would be great to be the first Olympian or National Champ from that school in the 800, 1500, or 3200. At other schools, you can't claim that.

I would choose Princeton for their spelling program.

Somehow finances always get left out of these discussions. Assuming you aren’t getting a full ride, try to go to undergrad with zero debt and then if necessary go into debt for grad school.

For example, look for a good enough undergrad where you can expect to graduate near the top and then package a partial athletic scholarship with the available academic scholarships to get an effective full ride.

Unless you are privileged enough to either have rich parents or get bucketloads of financial aid. Then go to an experience top ranked school for free (to you) with that funding.

I was top ten in my event coming out of high school. I had lots of options, well offers to join teams but here was my reality.

Money mattered, my parents for sure could not send me to a private school or out of state without a huge scholarship offer. I had a few of those but not a lot. Keep in mind most good teams have 8-9 kids better than a true freshmen.

After money was I wanted to go to a good team and coach. You want as good of a team as possible, that you can contribute to. If you can make the top 7 as a soph. Probably never making it.

Third was everything else.

On the men’s side, state schools in the west or WUE are cheap, Oregon and CU are not.

Why didn't you focus on highly selective schools if finances were that tight? Were you a crappy student?

Anywhere? Anywhere anywhere?

This question was asked around here a few months ago, and my answer hasn't changed.

I would want to go to NAU. Everything I've heard about Mike Smith sounds like he'd be a great mentor for those formative college years, regardless of the role that running would end up playing in my life further into adulthood. Coming of age on a team with a strong culture, surrounded by beautiful mountains and trails, sounds like a fabulous college experience.

Despite having many academic interests, I've always felt that working in education is the best career path for me. University prestige isn't a big factor in my field, and NAU used to be a teaching college, so its education program is strong. Assuming I had the same academic credentials in this hypothetical as I actually did coming out of high school (National Merit Finalist, top 5 at a rigorous public school, etc.), I would probably qualify for a decent amount of merit aid at NAU, so I wouldn't even be taking up a significant portion of the athletic scholarships they have to spread around the team. If I wanted to go to a top university at some point, I'd look to do that for grad school later in my twenties.

That said, my second choice would probably be Stanford. The resources are top notch, the weather is beautiful, and you'd be surrounded by interesting and accomplished people from a variety of fields. I'd also consider the Ivies (my family qualified for significant need-based aid there, which is part of why I ended up attending one) or UNC.

when i was young i chose a strong academic school. should have chosen a school with good team culture that had a supportive coach, and beautiful trails to run on. if i could go back i would probably choose colorado