Wabash College in Indiana???.

I went to Wabash for a year before transferring to another DIII liberal arts college.

Wabash is a great school. My professors were fantastic. The school's reputation in Indiana and regionally is really strong. Programs are really rigorous and guys tend to be competitive about grades (I think the social vacuum contributes to this). When I transferred (to a school that is rated consistently higher than Wabash), the study habits I had picked up at Wabash made me one of the hardest working students at my new school. At least when I was there, Wabash was freakishly competitive, academically.

The social situation was just awful (for me) and is the reason I transferred. Sure, some of the frats have arrangements with sororities at Purdue and other schools, but girls do not flock to campus. In my experience, they did whatever the opposite of "flock to campus" is. They cme to our parties because they had to, and the girls that came were the sororities' "C team" and couldn't wait to leave.

Crawfordsville doesn't provide any sort of social scene, either.

It was miserable.

That said, the guys who were from Indy and already had lots of friends at nearby schools managed OK. They worked hard during the week and then took off to socialize with their friends on the weekend. I was from out of state.

Great school. Great (local/regional) reputation. Awesome profs. Miserable social scene that's borderline psychologically unhealthy, in my opinion. Not much diversity--I am a Midwestern white guy, and wanted to be exposed to something other than the Midwestern white guy perspective in and out of the classroom.

Some guys made it work, and the few classmates I kept in contact with are wildly successful.

Take a visit and check it out. You know what you want out of your college experience and maybe Wabash can deliver for you. I couldn't get out of Crawfordsville fast enough.

You sound like the biggest tool imaginable.

ncac guy wrote:

You sound like the biggest tool imaginable.

I agree. You post seeking confirmation bias, and then when people don't tell you that Wabash is the greatest school ever, or to consider other schools, you assume tool status and debase their argument because it is 'immature', a very immature move on your part.

I went to school in the Midwest, and I have never heard of Wabash. I am very familiar with WashU, and it had recognition even when I studied abroad. If you want to stay regional for law, then you might be okay, but WashU's name will travel.

Good Luck with your decision, but lose your superior attitude before you go anywhere, lest you actually want to get somewhere.

td1010 wrote:

The social situation was just awful (for me) and is the reason I transferred. Sure, some of the frats have arrangements with sororities at Purdue and other schools, but girls do not flock to campus. In my experience, they did whatever the opposite of "flock to campus" is. They came to our parties because they had to, and the girls that came were the sororities' "C team" and couldn't wait to leave.

Crawfordsville doesn't provide any sort of social scene, either.

It was miserable.

I also went to Wabash and agree with your assessment of the social scene. I stuck with it and ended up going to grad school on the West Coast. It was a great education, but I couldn't have lasted another day in Crawfordsville by the time I was done. By my sophomore year I just made the Friday afternoon drive to Bloomington / Lafayette / Muncie if I wanted to party (with girls).

According to the 2013 census:

Anderson University (Anderson, IN: pop. 55,670)

DePauw University (Greencastle, IN: pop. 10,310)

Earlham College (Richmond, IN: pop. 36,345)

Franklin College (Franklin, IN: pop. 24,194)

Hanover College (Hanover, IN: pop. 3,545)

Manchester University (North Manchester, IN: pop. 6,012)

Rose-Hulman (20min from Terre Haute, pop. 61,025)

Trine University (Angola, IN: pop. 8,649)

Wabash College (Crawfordsville, IN: pop. 15,995)

I would definitely look around. Wabash is an above average team in the D3 landscape, but they are by no means a dominant program. I would look at schools that have either had tradition for a long period of time, or look at teams that have gotten better over the past 6 years or so. St. Olaf, Williams (MA), North Central, WashU would all be very good. Another team I would throw on that list is Central College in Iowa. They would be a good example of a team that has developed dramatically over the past 5-6 years and now they are considered one of the better distance programs in the country. But I wouldn't limit it to just the running programs...you need to be happy every day with the classes, people, and campus culture. If you're not, it will affect your performance on the course/track. Good Luck!

Wabash falls behind WashU in the most recent rankings. Guess WashU is clearly better than Wabash now right? Since you put so much weight in those weekly rankings.

Nope. Washu is better. Because they are better in both distance programs and academics. Wabash is the best they have EVER been. Washu is a little bit down this year. Wabash isn't even close in terms of tradition. Jmo

I agree with you 100%. Was just making a joke out of the fact that the OP felt Wabash was better just because they were ranked a few spots ahead of WashU a few weeks ago.

Yeah a little research shows that there is no one from Indiana with those times (422/938) so you're embellishing a bit (great impression to send to a coach) or just a troll.

But Wabash is fine school. Good network opportunities vs. no women. I've heard stories from girls who visited to party and said it was an extremely awkward social scene and they were treated as one could imagine in a such an environment.

Also have heard stuff about the programs specifics, but I don't want to spread any hearsay.

What you can research for yourself though is that in recent years they have a had a handful of 25:xx guys quit the team...although that's not unusual for XC....but less likely in D3 than D1 perhaps.

All guys schools are a blast. Too bad there are not still more of them (VMI, Citadel, etc. were fun when they were all guys). Wabash is a great school. Plenty of opportunity to meet girls, etc. Met and hired a lot of smart guys from there. They are were perfectly socially adjusted. If you visit and like the program, go for it.

Coming from a Hiram alumnus, Wabash couldn't even hold our jock straps in cross country. You might as well go to a school in Soviet Russia.

Mdwstrunner wrote:

Nope. Washu is better. Because they are better in both distance programs and academics. Wabash is the best they have EVER been. Washu is a little bit down this year. Wabash isn't even close in terms of tradition. Jmo

Not true...1992-6th, 1993-11th, 1994-4th, 1995-3rd. Mdwstrunner check your fact. Tradition???

Goshen College is another small Indiana school to check out. I did not go there but really wish I would have looked into it more. My brother went there. They've had a good program recently and have really nice and knowledgeable coaches.

Very good academics too, without an overly heavy workload.

Plus, their tuition is low for a private school, and they are NAIA so it would not be hard to get an athletic scholarship.

Check out some other good NAIA programs in Indiana. There are some good teams and almost all of them are small colleges. If you are planning on running in college it is more than worth it to visit and meet the team and coaches. Even if you think a college might not be on the top of your list, it will only take a part of one day to visit, unless you do an overnight visit, which I recommend.

After many people asking me to in person, I thought it was time I add to the thread. I'm a current Senior on the Wabash team. Come to campus and meet coaches, etc. like the rational people on here have said. By all means, visit DePauw as well. Plenty of guys go there who want to run slower than they did in high school. That being said, they're a great school, have good science programs, and offer a huge amount of financial aid. Their Greek life dominates campus though, so the social dynamic is a little weird for a small liberal arts college.

If you're serious about running and academics at Wabash, you will be too busy to spend every weekend at home or at Ball State getting drunk. If you need girls, there will be roughly two times a year that you can find a sober, single, intelligent girl on campus who isn't someone's sister. Some guys have found girls at DePauw to spend time with, and in my case it has worked out very well.

Wabash's team isn't quite to their highest point as a program, which a previous poster mentioned. The highest point was when Coach Busch was an athlete. After returning about a decade ago to coach, he has been resurrecting the program. Last year, the team broke Calvin's 17 year streak of Great Lakes Regional titles, after finishing 2nd quite a few times. The team is clearly on the rise. In track, we've had a couple individual national champs recently as well.

OP, If you're really rocking the times you cited and not embellishing or trolling, schedule a visit and see what the place is about. You can find contact information on our school website, just like every other school.

Additionally, a "Handful" of 25:XX guys quitting the team is completely erroneous.

Bump

IN HS Runner wrote:

Does anyone know anything about this school? It's all-male but what's it like? They have a really good distance program, but I've never heard of their coach? I'm a 4:22/9:38 runner and I'd really like to be on a good team at a small school. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

It is a good, expensive school. Be aware that you will be under tremendous pressure to excel academically (a good thing IMO). Don't get caught up in the frat BS and you should be fine.