What factors did you consider when choosing a college, and what factors do you wish you had considered?

If you can go DI, go DI.

Make sure that you mesh with the coach on almost everything and that you personally believe in his training philosophies. If you get stuck with a bad coach who got the job because of his athletic achievements (ie Johnny Gray) you won't end up doing well 99 times out of 100.

Do you like having a lot of resources? Check out bigger conferences like the PAC 12.

Make sure you know what the program is like. Is it distance heavy or balanced when it comes to track? If it's the former you will most likely be doubling and or tripling so that the head coach feels he's getting his money's worth out of you.

I personally would have gone to a more prestigious school because I'm going to get a graduate degree and it looks better. On the flip side, large state schools allow you to take classes online and generally are less rigorous.

Teammates are okay, but at the end of 4 or 5 years there will be a whole new crop of people on the team. However, you should try and find a team with good runners that can push you.

If you're a 5k or 10k runner, I have no idea why you wouldn't go to a school at altitude.

Finally, go to a school where they offer you money. When coaches give you money they have an investment in you whereas walk ons are largely replaceable and generally ingnored (excluding DIII schools that don't give out scholarships). I've seen so many walk ons that fall by the wayside when injured because the coach doesn't care whatsoever. This is a little different if you get a spot on the team because the coach has somewhat of an investment.

At the end of the day, the PAC 12 has the best distance conference but if you're going to a 'balanced' track school pick somewhere in the SEC or BIG 12

Some of you are putting way too much importance on running in the college decision for non-elites. The majority of us are going to run for four years, graduate, and go get a job. In the end, it's really not all that different from playing intramural basketball.

I wish I had chosen one that was more fun. I didn't realize that choosing a top 25 school vs a top 50 school didn't matter that much. And if I had chosen the worse one I would have had almost the same degree but liked the school and had fun.

Also size. i would have fit in better at a school with 10-50 thousand instead of 5 thousand.

I chose D3 over a full ride in D1 because I couldn't find a d1 that I felt a real connection with, and didn't want sports to be my main focus.

Looking back I still think it was a great decision, the d3 school was cheap and the few hundred I pay per month is not noticeable. On to of that, it let me enjoy sports a lot more rather than get burned out. I still coach and compete a bit which is nice.

1. Best scholarship offering

The weather, it fruckin sucks here in the winter. Very good education though.

Main choice was actually the coaching/team. I wanted to be a good runner and I sorta always knew I would end up in a career that would not use any degree I could get in college.

I also chose based off location, within 3 hours of home. Far enough away but still close enough.

And a state school because tuition was far cheaper than other places I could have gone.

In retrospect I would have been a business major because I ended up starting my own business in a trade. I don't at all regret choosing my school for running because I was and still am passionate about running, and I made great friends. I would just have done business.

I think if you really don't know what you want to do with your life, as I didn't when I was 18, going somewhere affordable where you can pursue your passions is great. I had other friends who went Ivy League and got in debt and work office jobs and they are mostly happy, but I think that was their goal. They'll be debt free in a few years and their salaries will trump mine, and that's fine. To each their own.

Best question would be to ask yourself where you see yourself in 5 and in 10 years.

I've posted this on another board already but here it is again. This is what I tell every HS kid:

My take:

STEP ONE

ACADEMICS: There's undoubtedly a top 5% of colleges and a bottom 5% of colleges. For the remaining 90% in between, there's very little discernible difference between them despite what all those goofy rankings tell you. What makes the difference in that 90% is how well a particular institution fits you; that's what makes one "better" than the other. Even at that, what makes the top 5% the top 5% isn't what they teach, it's who they let in. I've long held the hypothesis that if you took Harvard, Yale or Stanford's incoming freshman class, split it in half randomly, left one half there, sent the other half to a garden variety state university and could test them upon graduation, you wouldn't see a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Smart, motivated people grow where ever they're planted.

However, (and this is significant), what that top 5% gives you isn't so much a better education but better access. It opens doors simply because of the name on the diploma. I turned down a Tier One (and those rankings are a joke, IMHO) law school to go to a Tier Three law school. I graded on to law journal by being in the top 10% of my class after first semester and never looked back. I had plenty of opportunities, but there were undoubtedly a few doors that would never be open to me because I didn't have a brand name on my diploma. And I wouldn't change my decision even today, twenty years later.

So, what to do:

Find the colleges at which you feel the most comfortable. The ones that make you feel like you belong, that inspire you, with which you feel a connection. The places you feel like you'd grow and learn and want to be even if you weren't running. Places that are good in the areas you want to study. If you want to be an engineer, who cares how good their journalism school is? Look for places that act like they actually want you there instead of doing you a favor by letting you in.

Once you have this list, THEN consider the relative "quality", to the extent that can even be measured accurately.

Then, and only then, proceed to the next step.

STEP TWO

RUNNING: First, be very cautious about going someplace because of the coach. Coaches sometimes leave, and if you're recruited, you sign a letter of intent with the school, not the coach. If the coach leaves, you still have a commitment to the school.

Second, pay more attention to your potential future teammates than the coach. You'll spend far more time with them and be influenced as much or more by them than you will the coach. These will be your comrades in arms, the ones that will either help make you better or try to destroy you or not give a damn about you. Choose them carefully.

Third, look for trends in their athletes. Trends and patterns are much more important than individual results. Do they keep running after college? Do they get better as the years go by or are they cooked by their senior year? It looks like you haven't been running long; do they have a history of developing undeveloped talent? What will you be expected to be able to do the day you hit campus?

Now, take the list from Step One and match it with the list from Step Two. Where they intersect, that's the school(s) you want to go to.

I applied only to large state schools, a few Big 10s, a Big 12, and a WAC. Was all set to go to one of the monster Big 10s next state over but at the last minute I slapped together an application to a top academic DIII. I got in even if my grades and test scores were nothing special. I decided that smaller classes and extra attention from professors trumped the glitz of a big time state school. I wasn't planning to run but was recruited by coaches who saw me running after I'd been to campus for a couple weeks.

It was good for two years but I should have transferred out. Great academics but poor social life. My parents wanted me to stay so I did. Ended up getting a degree there plus a post grad bachelors and then masters at one of the large schools where I had originally applied. The DIII education has helped but those last two years were rough personally.

I knew I didn't want to go to a big state school or run D1 (though I did look at Ohio State and Eastern Michigan briefly). Aside from that, I read some college guide books (internet wasn't what it is today back then), and then visited 3 colleges that were possibilities. Ended up where I did because it had a great journalism program, the campus was nice and I liked the athletic facilities.

The OP mentions running and how he could have been better elsewhere. While I don't doubt that, sometimes we tend to think if only we were in another environment or if only we did more running that we would have turned into superstars. I sort of thought that after college but then had a 4-year period when I ramped up the running big time...up to 140 mile weeks. I got a little bit faster at 5k and 10k, but I never put together a good marathon. For me, the extra time on task didn't make me improve much.

Things I considered:
Ability to run and be decent on the team/fitting in with the team (I ran for one season and quit to focus on partying)
Cost
Academics
Not being too far from home but far enough to get away - Should have been more open to going further away.

I wish I would have given more consideration to:
Having big time sports - I think it adds a lot. Got to experience it in grad school and realized I missed out in undergrads
Academics - I went to a very good (top 35 USNEWS) school but got in to better and turned them down for the reasons listed above
Quality of the women - Very few attractive women at my school. I dated one of the better lookng girls on campus but whenever I went back home with her I realized that she was average at best.

Don't have time to read the thread at the moment but this is a easy one for me.

I chose the college I went to 100% based on running. That's all I cared about.

Now that I'm 20 years removed from college I think I should have used my running to get me scholarship money at a non top 10 running school. That and go to a highly rated school for, ya know....getting an education.

Loved my college experience but I was a 14:20 5k runner. Ran a 8:50 3000m in high school. In the mid 90's that was alot faster than in todays world. lol. Should've used the running to go to a great school. Instead, went to a average state school to run 14:20 5k's.

I went to CU because that was the place to be.

But I should have gone to the D3 twenty miles away from my high school. For a lot of reasons I think everyone after would have been the same, but maybe not. I do know I would have competed a heck of a lot more, and been more succesful.

Girls wearing Dolphin short around campus. Early 80's, just being real.

I simply went to the closest college to my house.
Like an extension of high school.

It turned out well, so I wouldn’t change it.

It happened to be one of the best track programs in the nation.
I walked on, hung on and eventually became a team captain.
Good times.

Initial choice:
I choose the best team. But it turned out to be a competition everyday in practice and I hated it, even though I was successful.

Transferred: I considered :
Giving up running and going to Big State U.
Or:
Small private in which my success would be important to the team, and if I would enjoy myself.
What I thought college should be like. Academic focus, professional faculty and staff, professional campus.

Got a good education, and top athletic experience.

Wish I would have considered more:
School's prestige and alumni association involvement.

As a working professional, I see that many hiring managers and companies only hire from certain schools. Or only invest/mentor new hires from certain schools, independent of size of school.

D1 track and cross country program
Highly ranked engineering school
Good climate
Decent percentage of girls on campus (ie. I wasn't going to a military academy or a place like MIT)
Affordable education

Both schools I went to checked most the boxes. After my first year I transferred to the state school because the private college I went to initially (which at the time was one of the cheaper private colleges) on a partial academic scholarship wouldn't chip in any additional athletic money even though I beat a number of scholarship athletes as they decided to bring in a bunch of foreign athletes the following season. Cut my student loans by half when I went back in state. It was a good experience all around as I got to see different parts of the country and I was able to graduate with a level of debt comparable to today's students at public universities when adjusted for inflation.

It was a fun way to spend four years and I obtained a worthwhile degree from a good institution that allowed me to be successful in my career. The most important thing when considering a college is to get a degree in a field that pays well from a recognizable school in the place you want to live. The reason many people have issues with student debt nowadays is they spend too much money on worthless degrees.

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oh brother wrote:
What factors did you consider when choosing a college, and what factors do you wish you had considered?

For me I actively thought about:
- D1 vs D3
- School's academic reputation (i.e. prestige)
- How comfortable I felt on my visit / how much I liked the guys & girls on the team
- Urban vs rural campus

Things I didn't really think about too much, but probably should have:
- Coaches
- Other recruits / team performance
- School's academic philosophy (e.g. strict core requirements vs. loose requirements)
- Overall school social scene (e.g. frats vs bars)

In the end, I wound up choosing a school that made me really happy and set me up for a great career post-college. However, I certainly think I could have developed into a better runner at other schools and had more team success. Especially while I was still at school, I wondered whether I should have thought more about factors that I didn't.

What factors did you consider?

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