Why are DII schools so academically bad?

Run club or try to walk on D3. Your grades, assuming you take challenging courses, and test scores are too good to go to a shitty D2 school. You will regret it.

Unless it’s Ivy League nobody cares where your degree is from. Employers just want to see the piece of paper. Whether it’s a D1 state school, D2 state school, or weird D3 liberal arts school, or weird religious school nobody cares.

Your academic and running stats fit almost perfectly at DIII schools. You should get some nice financial aid packages based on your academics, and your PR's are competitive. Also note, your PRs are not going to blow the DIII field away, at least immediately, without a lot of improvement.

The degree itself doesn't matter, but you typically have access to much better resources in a more academically competitive school. E.g. research opportunities/networks tend to be more abundant and fruitful

I had similar stats to you coming out of high school. I would recommend you run D3, which will still be plenty competitive. Where your degree comes from may or may not matter during your career, but it's probably safer to get a degree from a well-known D3 school than a no-name D2 school.

You look perfectly suited to D3 at this point (you could always improve, as I am guessing you are still a junior). You could try out for D1 if your times improve as you get older. Most D2 schools are not going to be suited towards your academics, and they have always been that way. Most D2 schools cater to the popular kids from high school that didn't really want to study but still graduated.

You obviously didn't do your homework on a very large cross-section of schools. To lump over 300 schools from one division into an opinion shows lack of maturity and ignorance. By the way there are a large number of D3 and D1 schools with mediocre academics so good luck with your search.

There are a number of very good D2 academic schools. I can name several good Engineering schools and your PR's would be average at best on those teams. BTW your GPA and test scores don't mean squat in the real world. Are you a good teammate, can you work with people?

Name one DII school that has rigorous academics, well known alumni, and a good reputation?

You're a rock star wrote:

You obviously didn't do your homework on a very large cross-section of schools. To lump over 300 schools from one division into an opinion shows lack of maturity and ignorance.

No it doesn't. It shows good pattern recognition.

Colorado School of Mines

learn some kid wrote: Colorado School of Mines

Most famous alumni: Blake Carrington

now, Cal Poly Pomona.

in the somewhat recent past, UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO.

Has it always been this way? wrote:

Name one DII school that has rigorous academics, well known alumni, and a good reputation?

Bentley University

Former Academic. UCSD (San Diego) is one of the best research universities in the world and is not far behind UCLA and Cal. This school really sticks out academically in D2. Weather is perfect.

Has it always been like this? wrote:

Just getting to the point in high school where I’m starting to look at college. Based on my running times, I probably can’t go D1 but D2 looks like a good option. Problem is, all of the D2 schools are absolute crap...what’s the deal? Has it always been like this? D

For reference my GPA is 4.2 and ACT is 34 so definitely looking for a school to challenge me.

Pr’s are 9:48/4:33

Don't lump all schools in a single division into the "all bad" basket. Here's the thing, there's no way you (or me, or almost anyone) is going to be able to tell you that all programs at all D2 schools are all bad. Depending on your area of study, you can find a good program at a number or D2 programs.

I also second the opinion about, unless it's Ivy league (or MIT/Cal Tech/Stanford), where you get your diploma will mean little - except for perhaps some regional recognition.

I hire a lot of engineers - and where they get their degree means little to me and my team; there's a knowledge/experience baseline that is a minimum expectation; from there it's how they work with others and their overall enthusiasm for their work that is the big thing.

Ggggh wrote:

Unless it’s Ivy League nobody cares where your degree is from. Employers just want to see the piece of paper. Whether it’s a D1 state school, D2 state school, or weird D3 liberal arts school, or weird religious school nobody cares.

I really disagree on this. I think some of it might depend on industry, but I have over 20 employees, and I certainly look at the name on the degree.

OP, take a lot of the advice you get on this forum with a grain of salt.

learn some kid wrote:

Colorado School of Mines

This school is garbage compared to the higher quality schools in both DI and DIII. If that's the best of DII, it's a lost cause.

There are certainly schools other than the Ivies whose name makes a difference to employees. In D3 that would include Amherst and Williams, and in New York, NYU is nearly as prestigious as Columbia. Macalester means a lot in Minnesota. Emory in Atlanta. You know, I could go on.

You're a rock star wrote:

There are a number of very good D2 academic schools. I can name several good Engineering schools and your PR's would be average at best on those teams. BTW your GPA and test scores don't mean squat in the real world. Are you a good teammate, can you work with people?

1) He is applying to colleges. His GPA and test scores are pretty much the MOST important factors right now. Just having a 34 ACT alone will pretty much guarantee him admission into a huge assortment of state schools.

2) It most certainly will be significant when he tries to get his first job in any sort of respectable field. I started at BCG, and currently work at Deloitte. It was incredibly rare for either company to even consider someone with a low GPA. The vast majority of hires within the last ~10 years have a 3.4 or above. Hiring someone with a GPA below 3.0 is almost unheard of, and usually only occurs if the candidate was exceptional in some other way.

UCSD is becoming D1.