Process for being recruited at D3 Colleges?

As you know, D3 schools don't offer athletic scholarships, so technically everyone is a walk-on. Some coaches actively recruit; some don't. Some may have a performance requirement to be on the team, but most won't. (There may be Title IX limits for male participants if the school has football.) Your times as a junior should be fine to be considered a walk-on at most schools. E-mail coaches now with your junior XC and track results, and indicate that you are planning to apply, and that you would like to be considered for recruitment. In some cases, a coach can help influence an admissions decision if you are planning to participate in an extra-curricular activity. A coach can also help with a campus visit where you can meet others on the team as well as the coaches. You also want to go through the standard admissions process with admissions deadlines and campus visits. The worst case scenario is that a coach doesn't want to talk to you until you're already on campus as a freshman. It's OK to tell the coach (or an admissions rep) that your decision to attend is contingent on knowing that you can at least walk-on the team if you don't hear anything from the coach about this.

There are NCAA regulations on recruiting with times of the year, campus visits, etc., and a coach should be able to share these details with you.

I'm running for a fairly athletically competitive and academically selectice D3 school next year, and I have a comparable GPA (3.73 UW/4.40 W). There is no real recruiting, since it's not D1 or D2, but there's still a process. I only visited a few schools, and with the one I'm going to, I had a good opportunity to get to know the coach, and I visited the campus three times before I applied.

As far as your times go, most D3 coaches would gladly take you on to their program. The college where I'm going boasted 2 All-Americans in XC this past season who never broke 5 minutes for the mile in high school. One of them didn't break 10 minutes in the 2 mile either. You have plenty of time to get into the 9:50s or 9:40s and 4:30s for track, and you also have time to get into the 16:30s for cross country this fall. Just work on improving yourself because that is really the division 3 creed. Good luck!

running next year wrote:

The college where I'm going boasted 2 All-Americans in XC this past season who never broke 5 minutes for the mile in high school. One of them didn't break 10 minutes in the 2 mile either.

Did the other one break 10?

As the others have said it's pretty simple. Your application process and timeline will be the same as anyone else except that you might have some extra meetings with coaches and team members when you visit the campus.

Look at the results from their recent meets to get a sense of where you'll stand. Write to the coach and express interest in the school and if you're current times aren't comparable to what their current back of the pack people run inquire whether there are qualifying times to be on the team.

Some coaches can influence admissions decisions but if you're not going to be a contributor early on don't count on it. You may never know whether the coach intervened in your admissions decision or not. All you can do is show interest, be polite, and get faster.

Thank you all for the advice! I guess I'll just have to wait and see what ends up happening

confused? wrote:

running next year wrote:

The college where I'm going boasted 2 All-Americans in XC this past season who never broke 5 minutes for the mile in high school. One of them didn't break 10 minutes in the 2 mile either.

Did the other one break 10?

OP, please share. I assume you are exaggerating. And confused? pointed out that you implied that a sub 10 min 2 miler did not break 5 in the mile. But if you are in a program with 2 all americans that hadn't broken 5 in the mile, this would be a pretty exceptional coach and program. Which school?

Im one of the recruits for Williams next year. Junior year I ran a 2:00 4:37 and a 10:09 3k steeple with a 31 act. Senior year I got a 34 Act and dropped my xc times down to low 16's and indoors ran a 4:24 1600 and 1:57 800 which in addition to me being a steepler (something they like to see) got me offerred admission. This Spring Ive continued to pb but I committed to the school in March. If you have any specific questions about me talking with the coach or getting recruited Id love to help!

OP, please share. I assume you are exaggerating. And confused? pointed out that you implied that a sub 10 min 2 miler did not break 5 in the mile. But if you are in a program with 2 all americans that hadn't broken 5 in the mile, this would be a pretty exceptional coach and program. Which school?

GHBD

Josh Sack, quit while you are ahead.

I have a question that's slightly relevant in this thread. I scored a 35 on the ACT and have a 4.6 overall gpa, but my pr's are 1:56 and 4:17. I know those times are sufficient for d3 schools, but I would really like to run division 1, does anyone have any advice on talking to coaches about getting recruited? My school runs very low mileage as well(averaged 30-35mpw this season), should I bring that up?

Sorry about the late reply, I didn't realize this thread was still alive. I've talked to a few of the coaches in schools I'd be interested running for, but I don't know if I should stay in contact over the summer and if/how I should bring up the actual recruiting process at any point.

Talking to a few of the coaches *is* the actual recruiting process. Maybe in the fall you'll visit a few and hang out with some team members and talk to the coach, then there's a bit of a "So how interested are you in going to _____" where they try to see if you'll commit to going if they commit to getting you in.

They don't want to go out on a limb for you if they think you're going elsewhere, and they all probably talk to each other anyway. One of the reason so many coaches/schools like early admission is that it's a signal that you're committed to that school, so they are more likely to work for you.

The academics are good enough that, like people said, most coaches are happy to have you on the team regardless of how much they'll get out of you. Most of the schools you mentioned (Pomona, Swarthmore, I assume NESCACs) are very small schools, so admissions cares about each person they take, and most sports get very few (sometimes 0-2 per year) actual "recruits" from a "this person may not be the smartest, but they're really fast" perspective. The vast majority of the team will be made up of really smart kids who are various levels of fast -- and some of the non-"recruits" will get a lot better in college and become the fastest on the team.

The good thing about nobody being officially recruited/scholarshipped is that there's less pressure when you get there. Some top "recruits" will quit the sport altogether, others will get worse. Some non-recruits will quit alltogether, some will improve. But there's not really a distinction once you're on campus, I'd say.

Good luck!