If you were a 9:25 3200m guy, would you go D1 or D2/3?

Forget school and turn pro....lot of money to made as a rabbit for the woman's races...

Come to Texas A&M

IVY LEAGUE!!!

The Ivy league is one of the best (second tier maybe) of the distance running conferences in the nation. Schools like Brown, Dartmouth etc routinely take 9:20 HS two milers and make them into successful varsity cross country runners.

I myself was a 9:25 guy and decided to go to an Ivy league school over a D3 school in Massachusetts. My first year I showed great promise in cross, got hurt and didn't run well for the next year. However, the level of talent my training partners had made me much better. There is definitely a huge difference from being the best runner on your team at a D3 school and "competing" against some other D3 runner far away and competing against your teammates everyday to make it on to varsity.

The ivy league is the perfect spot for a 9:25 two miler because you will definitely not be hot stuff coming in and it will be hard to become complacent/satisfied when your teammates are striving to improve and make an impact in the league. On the other hand, you won't be driven into the ground and lose your love for running... unless you don't actually want to get better.

TLW wrote:

With a 9:25 you should run D1.

I was 30 seconds slower than you at 3200 in highschool and went D1, made varsity and ended up getting all the awards possible. Yea, you are going to work really hard but it's rewarding being at the top and competing against the best runners in college.

D3 all-america certificates are a joke. I'm not

trying to be rude, but it is the truth, and you know it too.

What do you have to run to get the all-america award in cross for D3, 25:15? I remember running 24:40 for 5 miles at a big D1 invite and barely cracking the top 50.

My college decision was between a D3 school and a D1 school. I wanted to see how I stacked up against the best so I went D1, ran 100 miles a week and found out how I measured up against the best.

Truth... Except that for some people D3 is a fine option. I sometimes think about how many all-americans I would have if I went D3, but it will just make it that much sweeter when I get a real All-american cert. I also don't think I would be as fast as I am now if I went D3.

Williams College is a good D-1 option

Go D1, then quit and become a triathlete.

Don't listen to this crap. I was similar to you timewise in H.S. and went D1. Either way D1 or D2/3 will be fine. We had sub 9 guys who blew up and did nothing in college and we had 1 guy who was 9:50 guy in H.S. and ended up in top 7 of top 10 team. Chose your school on academics and cost. Important to come out with a quality education and coming out of school with as little as debt as possible. Being 20 years removed from college I don't look back on places/times I ran but rather the enjoyment I had with the guys on the team as they were a great bunch of guys to hang out with and have as friends. When we get together today and look back on our college days rarely does the talk turn to running but rather the fun we had together as part of the college experience.

go d3. better chance of improving. also better chance of actually winning meets/races and qualifying for ncaa and other championship meets

Pat Casey was a 9:3x guy in high school. And he now has 2 times all-american status, as well as a sub-4 mile multiple times. He transferred from MT State to Oklahoma. He is looking at Nike for when he is done, and will be a medal contender in the 2016 olympics.

I depends on a number of factors, many which are mentioned already, such as cost of school, what you want to study, do you think you may want to go to grad school, etc... I would add two things. First, how hard did you have to work to get to 9:20s? If you have worked your ass off running 70-80 miles a week of base and have generally worked very hard to get there it would be one thing. If you are able to get down to 9:20s with a more modest base and have worked hard but know you have more in the tank that would be another thing. I would be more inclined to go DI and try and work into a top 7 if I had not worked as hard as I thought I could as you would likely have more untapped upside. Second, and perhaps more important, try to find a coach you want to work with who understands your goals and will help you achieve them. This might occur in some DI schools, or in DII or DIII schools. It depends. Some coaches like and silently root for walk ons to succeed in good programs while others really do not want to be bothered and actually view walk ons beating recruited athletes as evidence of their poor recruiting decision making. If you want or need lots of attention you should certainly not go to a high level DI program because you will not likely get it there. You could probably find schools/coaches at all three levels where you could improve, succeed, and be happy. You could also probably find schools/coaches at all three levels that would not work out at all. I would focus on trying to find a coach that you could work with more than the school.

G_D

I was a 9:40 16:00 guy in High school and went to a DI program with rich history...

ended up 8:25 3k 14:35 30:30 guy and feel as though I tapped all of my potential. Go somewhere where you will find out your max. potential...

not to burst your bubble in any way, but the likelihood of a 9:20 2-miler going pro is very slim to none. not saying you cant, but odds are stacked against you realistically. point here is this: go where you can get the best academic experience combined with athletics. whether you were the back of your d3 team or the front of your d1 team, as long as you get exactly what you want out of the experience, who cares what division you do it at? people on here say they were d1, d2, or d3 all americans. are any of these posters pro? not likely. not claiming to be more of an expert than anyone else on here, but i can speak about what ive learned over my last 4 years of being here in college. no, i am nowhere close to all american and run d1 but i have gotten the best academic and athletic experience i could have asked for. i wouldnt trade the experience i got for anything. theres no way id choose a different school even if someone had promised me a national title at oregon, stanford, wisconsin, etc 4 years ago. so if you choose to run at stanford, your respective state school, or wherever it may be, make sure you choose based on what is most important to YOU.

ivyrunner27 wrote:

IVY LEAGUE!!!

You forget that, unless you have a 1400+ on your math/verbal SAT, as a white male middle class kid you have very little chance of getting into the ivy league. 9:25 might get you a little pull at some of the second-tier ivies, but not at the best. Princeton recruits 9:00 guys all the time.

div 3 beacuse you'll get more attention from the coach.

#1 choose for academics. Running is very unlikely to make you a living, but your education will. Find a school that has majors you are interested in. Then pick the best academic of those you have a shot of getting in.

#2 choose for lifestyle. Do you want a small school or a big one? The big school will have more majors, smaller school will have more attention for you by teachers.

#3 pick schools you can afford.

#3 Of the above whittled down list, talk to the coaches. Find one that fits your goals and training needs. With a 9:25, you'll be able to run almost anywhere.

I highly recommend running in college. It was a great experience for me. But even very good runners are very unlikely to become pro. So choose where you will have the best experience and education overall.

Knowing what I know now I would go to the Div. 1 school with the coach I thought I could improve the most with. Weather would also play a solid role in my decision. Being part of a really good team is fun and motivating. when you hear about transfers, generally runners aren't leaving for teams that are worse unless they have to.

For someone else in the same situation I would suggest figuring out how important academics are to them and how important running is to them. Combine the two and pick a few schools with a good combo, then pick the place with the best weather.

I was a 9:40 guy in highschool, walked onto a major D1 team and have been training my ass off with the best guys in the country for two years and now I'm a 8:05 3k guy, I wouldn't be if I didn't take a risk with D1

Go to a good public engineering school like Cal Poly SLO or Colorado School of Mines. Have a guaranteed job when you graduate and then you can afford to enter into all of the races you want all over the country. Enjoy running for the DII school and being a big fish.

I barely broke 10 for the 3200 in high school and went to a small D1 school in Kentucky on a partial scholarship. By my sophomore year I was on a full ride. I ended up being pretty good at the steeplechase and qualified for regionals but never made nationals. I also never broke 17 for XC in high school. I also knew guys that were the same ability as me go to Cumberland College and become NAIA All-Americans with slower times than I ran. Just depends on what you want.