11:05 / 5:06 Who could I run for?

You could probably smooze the coaches and walk on at those schools.

This is a serious question. I am clueless about college recruiting but I'm not a dumb blond.

If it is any help, runners from my area with times similar to yours have gone to Oregon State, Boise State and Western Washington... so you could definitely get into those caliber of programs at the very least.

It really depends on your field of study as to how good the school is academically... but in general, schools like UC-Davis or UC-Irvine are solid and their cross country programs are on the same level as Oregon State, Boise State, etc.

Do your research... that is what the internet is for. It took me 2 minutes to find the walk-on standards at FLorida State, one of the best programs in the country. You could easily walk on there.

http://www.seminoles.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/fsu/sports/c-xc/auto_pdf/0809scholarshipstandards

Go to each team's website and follow the "recruiting" tabs, etc. Email coaches, put your name on their radar, don't be shy! You've got a lot of potential if you could run those times off such little mileage.

(This advice is coming to you from a Div I walk-on who ended up conference champion and captain...)

cornell, dawg.

Thanks for the advice already!

What state are you in? If in California, got to a UC.

You could easily get good scholarship money with those times. You won't get a full ride to a top end D1 program, but you could get alot from smaller D1s and most D2 schools I'm sure. It really depends on where you want to go and where you are willing to go. Feel free to contact coaches at schools that you want to go to and ask them. They will let you know if they are interested or not.

Do this:

Go to college websites that you fit in academically. Then check out their XC/Track teams. If you fit, email the coach with your credentials.

I have a runner who was not as good as you who got 4 or 5 money offers because she did this and the coaches were impressed by her initiative.

Good luck. It's a lot of work but it can pay off.

By the way- when YOU initiate contact they can talk with you and even meet with you without violating NCAA rules.

Like, you say to them, I'm coming to your college to visit, can we meet?

You have above average PRs and excellent grades. You could get money from some decent schools with those times, especially since your mileage indicates you haven't tapped all of your talent. No, not a full ride and no, not Oregon or Stanford or FSU. But you should get interest from some college coaches. My daughter's HS PRs were 5:22 and 11:40 and she got full ride and near full ride offers from a few D2/D3 and NAIA schools. Granted, the full ride offers didn't come from championship caliber teams, mostly middle of the pack regional schools in the South, but were good academic schools (Rhodes College, Lipscomb). But she wasn't looking to go to Stanford or FSU and we knew she obviously wasn't a good enough runner for those kinds of programs anyway.

She ended ended up signing for a partial athletic scholarship at a D1 C-USA school. Combined with some academic scholarship money, it covered about half of tuition. And she got to be part of a D1 program and compete against high level runners. Not bad for a girl with mediocre talent from a HS that had never had a girl sign a track scholarship. She was a good student and made herself a decent runner through hard work and dedication. Lots of college coaches want kids like that on their team.

clueless high school girl wrote:

This is a serious question. I am clueless about college recruiting but I'm not a dumb blond.

That's dumb "blonde" young lady.

Blond is a noun for males and blonde is a noun for females.

Blond is an adjective for all applications.

So, yeah, you just might be.

I knew a girl with times only slightly faster than yours who went on to all american at stanford. If the rest of your academic profile measures up to your gpa you might be able to get good financial support at a place like that.

If you don't need full athletic scholarship, I can't really imagine any program turning you away.

Something that no one has mentioned...you could try Ivy League schools, if your SAT/ACT scores match your GPA. They'd all love to have you, would help with Admissions, and give great financial aid. I think you'll have a lot of options with your times/grades. If you'd like us to give you a relevant list of schools, we'll need to know:

1) your PSAT/SAT scores

2) your age

3) how much your family is prepared to pay for college

Once you have a list of potential schools, you can email the coaches and find out a little more about their program and how you'd fit in on the team. Dyestat, Milesplit, and CollegeConfidential are all great places to go to find out more about the college recruiting process. You can also email me and I'd be happy to give you some specific links or answer any questions. Good luck with the process, and try not to stress out so much!

I wouldn't worry too much about your mileage. It's obviously working out okay for you, and coaches are used to kids coming in from different training backgrounds. In fact, most college coaches will prefer a kid running 30 mpw over a kid running 80, because the 30 mpw kid has more potential/upside. I'd say if you want to increase your mileage, wait until after xc ends and then build up slowly over the winter. I'm guessing that the volume you did last summer wasn't the problem so much as how you built up to it. If you haven't talked about increasing your mileage with your coach, now would be a great time.

Those times are pretty solid. Your options are pretty open. I coach at a fairly competitive D2 school and those times would get about 75-90% of a full ride. Most of the time though we only get girls who run 11:30-12:20 for the 3200m.

I was actually being serious.

hmmmmmm wrote:

I was actually being serious.

You're probably right. A girl in our state who ran marginally faster is now at one of the two or three schools mentioned here as the elite running schools. Probably not on athletic scholarship but is listed on the roster.

A couple years ago I coached a girl who ran just about those times; got full ride offers at a couple DI schools that were at the lower half of half their conference. Ended up taking a 70% scholarship at a school that usually makes DI Nationals in xc, with the team placing in the 15 to 30 range at NCAAs. Pressure to perform was on from the get-go, and things didn't go well from the start (injured/redshirted first year), so this athlete transfered to DII after two years and by all accounts is liking it better.

clueless high school girl wrote:

This is a serious question. I am clueless about college recruiting but I'm not a dumb blond.

Deborah Harry wrote:

That's dumb "blonde" young lady.

Blond is a noun for males and blonde is a noun for females.

Blond is an adjective for all applications.

So, yeah, you just might be.

What about not being a dumb blond do you not understand.

William and Mary might be an excellent fit for you. Great academics, good young team (mostly freshman and sophomores) that is showing signs of improvement.