My parents not letting me run in college

hoodarunner1 wrote:

Barson wrote:

Be careful about small schools with big tuitions offering you scholarships. Most universities are cheaper to go to without the scholarship. The only college in Utah that would give me a scholarship to run cross country alone, (I have a sub 2 800 but only 17:27 for 5k) has a semester tuition of 30k and would lose against my high school team in a race. If you really wanna run for that team I’d try and work your time under 17:00 so you can get a better scholarship

Under 17 from 18:30 in just a few months? Yeah right not happening. My SAT score recently was 1150

1150? Can you even read? Are you sure college is for you? If ‘d suggest moving to the UK where you can run competitively without going to University. And we’ll just chock up your lack of intelligence to being a Yank.

RIT alum wrote:

I imagine that $15K would cover only a small percentage of overall costs? There are a lot other options that still include running and competing. I was a middling runner in high school, but really enjoyed it, and wanted to compete in college. So I got a full academic scholarship to a highly ranked private college with a successful Division 3 cross-country and track distance program. Great coach and awesome group of guys. No regrets at all. Scholarship covered tuition, and summer jobs (and help from my parents) covered room/board, books/supplies.

You must have come from a poor family to get an for scholarship to cover that many expenses. Is you family income under 70 grand?

hoodarunner1 wrote:

So how many miles I week should I be running this summer going into my senior year to run sub 17, my 5k PR is 18:30 as a junior, so how do I break 17? Last summer I ran only 46 miles per week at most and ran 18:30 in the fall, so how much?

You ran 'only' 46 miles? In my opinion that is very much for 18:30. I ran about the same 5 k at the same age and was not even training for it. Did around 30 miles per week for some time (year round average more like 25), training for 400/800 (52/2:00) then. And a 10:30 2 mi/18:30 5 k was just a by-product (you can cearly see missing endurance the longer the distance).

So for someone running almost 50 mpw and really concentrating on 5 k distance I'd expect more like 17:00 at least.

However, at your age it is possible to improve fast, and more than a minute a year is not unheard of. Just train smart, consistent, and maybe increase your mileage a bit (or a bit more, but listen how your body responds to it).

Everbheard of talent? Check results of a high school XC team. A team can have 50 kids doing 50mpw yet have some of them running 20 minutes, some 18 minutes, and others run 16 minutes.

Well.....this wrote:

You must have come from a poor family to get an for scholarship to cover that many expenses. Is you family income under 70 grand?

I regretted my post after seeing the OP's academic challenges. Not a helpful suggestion. And, yes, financial need was factored into the scholarship package. Low income situation. Parents had only high school diplomas; we lived in a trailer park. But I was second in my high school class, and SAT score was decent at 1400. I was a better student than runner, but after being accepted at the college, the coach actively recruited me for XC (my best 1600 was only 4:44).

Why even write stuff like this? If you lived a trailer park, you would have gotten significant Government aid. If the college gave you significant scholarships, your parents would have paid nothing. Was it a highly selective college? Then there is no academic aid, it is all need based and you would have gone for free.

Stop trying wrote:

Was it a highly selective college? Then there is no academic aid, it is all need based and you would have gone for free.

Acceptance rate at the time was about 50%, so not "highly" selective. Government grants covered only a small portion of tuition, and my understanding was that the individual scholarships from the college were independent of financial need, and I needed to carry at least a 3.0 GPA to maintain those. But you're right, they helped arrange the entire package of scholarships based on need. I also had gotten outside scholarships based on test scores and community involvement, not related to income, and that I could have used at any school. Anyway, my initial post was just to suggest other options to the OP, and to cite my enjoyment in running at a competitive D3 school.

English Prof wrote:

hoodarunner1 wrote:

Under 17 from 18:30 in just a few months? Yeah right not happening. My SAT score recently was 1150

1150? Can you even read? Are you sure college is for you? If ‘d suggest moving to the UK where you can run competitively without going to University. And we’ll just chock up your lack of intelligence to being a Yank.

1150 is not a low score at all. Most colleges want a number around 1000 academically. I scored 980 three times and it cost me a few grand at the D2 school I attended. (I'm assuming we are talking about of 1600 here).

18:30 to 17:00 in a few months might not happen, but I could see a 17:30 with proper base training. Read summer of malmo as previous posters recommended. The community college route for 2 years with good training and road racing isn't a bad idea either.

You are making the pint anbout D2 schools being really low academically. Your score would not get you admitted to many D1 schools.

if you really wanted it here is what you would do...

go to a community college for the next two years and CRUSH IT. Don't get a job (if you can manage a bit of loans) and FOCUS on your academics. Next four years will mean a lot for your future income.

Being that nobody studies all of the time, you can also manage to train 8-12 hours a week while FOCUSING on academics. you will eat like you're POOR (you are poor, so this is easy) and you'll lose weight.

At the end of the 2 years, you'll break 17.

year 3, you'll transfer to one of the better state schools in your state and you'll (1) try to walk on to that team or (2) join the running club.

You'll continue to focus on academics but now blend in more social + athletics.

You'll graduate, get a job that pays you 45-60k, and you'll have a great work ethic and a solid baseline for running. In 10 years, you'll break 6 figures at your job, you'll have nice things and continue to do well in local and regional running events.

Its all there waiting for you. Will you take it?

Ever heard of University of Texas at Austin or Baylor? NIRCA is growing rapidly. Although this doesn't solve your individual issues, don't say that there are no "D1 schools in Texas that have a NIRCA club", because it simply isn't true. Every year NIRCA grows exponentially and will probably gain schools like A&M in the next few years. Just wanted to make sure people reading this thread didn't think otherwise.

Here's a list of member schools in NIRCA. Texas is part of the Heartland Region:

https://clubrunning.org/clubs/#

Do your first 2 years at a community college near your home, run for there, and live with your parents.

^^ So under utilized, yet the most practical and economical solution to higher education: JC.