Amherst College men’s team

we're talking about a 7% admit school here, without telling us an SAT (which will need to be mid 1500s probably), with a marginal time for the amherst team. you're not in a dictating spot where you can nitpick coaching out of the gate. i would make a list of 10-20 nice schools with your major(s), get in touch now -- these type teams will have admissions prereads -- and make contact. see how they respond. see if you survive prereads. you need to get that ball rolling now as they may do early prereads, early admissions, and fill a roster early.

only when the process starts to move along and you have feedback and admissions responses would i care about coaching. because the picture of elite school admissions i get is you apply to several schools with 5-10% admissions, plus maybe safeties, and you kind of take what you get. maybe amherst and bowdoin say ok, but chicago, NYU, williams, and carleton say no thanks.

only at that point would i care if team a appears to be better coached than team b.

you're not asking d1, you're not going pro, and on the other end you're not applying to some 50% admissions d3 where getting in can be predicted.

i would save the nitpicking for deeper in the process when you have a list of feedback schools who want you, and you're either deciding who gets an application, or which admit gets your deposit.

you're trying to spin this like an easy admit and is it worthy of your sports when the process works the opposite, they barely let anyone in -- 1 in 14 or so -- and you may have only so many viable options who will let you go.

anyhow, if you want to go there at all, concerns or not, you make contact and see if they are interested and initiate a preread. and you might as well get 10-20 more going if you're applying to schools with tiny admissions rates.

Welcome to the NESCAC, my friend.

unless you learn something about the training that is way out of the mainstream, its likely that the program is fine for most and very good for some (they have definitely had a fair number of standout performers). In most cases its not the training that prevents development but the athlete's attitude, consistency, maturity, social choices, time management, etc. its also likely that every school has a similar success rate, but Amherst gets such good recruits that they stand out more. Overall--can't argue with the consistent success of the program. Great finishes in cross, indoor, outdoor with distance and mid-distance prominent.

I'd warn against posting times or any other type of info that can identify you on public forums—coaches do read on here, and at least at my old institution, I know it was slightly frowned upon to be asking on LetsRun, although they can be a wealth of information.

To answer your question though, I wouldn't read too much into it, as the program is currently rebuilding after two coach departures over the last ten years, with the most recent in 2023. The program is consistently qualifying for nationals again in XC, and seems to be making fairly consistent improvement elsewhere as well, with athletes placing well in the NESCAC championships on the track. I've heard fairly positive things through the grapevine about the current coaching staff as well.

The most important thing though is getting in contact with the coaches, talking with them, and getting a sense of the program, training philosophy, etc. and seeing how you gel with it all. If you can get an official visit, that's even better and will let you get a personal feel for whether you'd fit in well with their program.

sorry but the deal is this. we are talking elite college recruitment. and admissions. if you are a walkon level guy and you get into, say, the #2 LAC in the country, it's hard to say no, and i struggle to believe many kids would make the decision on his "development" basis. what, are we going to go to ithaca or UW-L instead? this isn't d1, he's not going pro.

now, i might buy he contacts and applies to the whole top 10, magically gets in several, then makes a sports decision among academic titans. but generally most kids in his spot, knowing amherst is a 1-in-14 shot, would just be happy to get admitted. and only if you had other admits of a similar nature would sports come into it.

"amherst admitted me and i am going to run there" would probably suffice unless you also got a yes from pomona or williams or swarthmore. only at that point would you turn into a jock and say swat's team is just ok, and maybe this coach is better.

i mean it's like saying a yale admit recruit might suddenly get second thoughts based on the coach there. not unless stanford was also calling, sorry. the argument superficially convinces but is not how that level works.

If you think they have a coaching issue go to MIT instead. Or Hopkins or NYU. Better yet go to UCSC and do whatever honors program is there.

he never said what his SAT is. he's not good enough on track times to get admissions help at amherst. at which point he's a standard admissions 1-in-14 shot at even getting amherst. assuming he has the requisite 1540ish SAT.

MIT is 1-in-20, similar SAT. hopkins 1-on-16, similar SAT. you're suggesting even more difficult "gets" as a sports improvement. which he will probably be just as marginal for the track team. so, again, no admissions help.

you're then at the mercy of admissions, not in control of selecting which coach gets you. at least not until admissions decisions go out.

your strategizing makes no sense. whether he gets any of these schools is more like luck since he won't be a lead recruit. if you want admissions pull it needs to be a weaker smartypants team, not a top one. more like swat or bowdoin. but at hopkins or MIT a smart kid who can run pretty good is a dime a dozen. they pick you, not the other way around.

Dude who are you and why do you just ramble to yourself