What schools should I consider for a scholarship?

29 is a decent score but not quite high enough to really help much. It is about the same as your 800 time. You will be disappointed to find out how much the schools will charge you on the west coast.

D2 schools are terrible. You would be better off going to a decent D3 school. I see your logic in wanting to score in a crappy D1 conference but that is only 1 meet. You will be stuck running at the B level meets otherwise. The fun of running D1 is travelling every week to the huge competitive meets but your team wouldn't be doing that. I think UW Milwaukee is your best fit. Maybe WIAC if you want to win. You will be late in the process for UW unless you run some fast indoor times.

Scholar Expert wrote:

29 is a decent score but not quite high enough to really help much. It is about the same as your 800 time. You will be disappointed to find out how much the schools will charge you on the west coast.

D2 schools are terrible. You would be better off going to a decent D3 school. I see your logic in wanting to score in a crappy D1 conference but that is only 1 meet. You will be stuck running at the B level meets otherwise. The fun of running D1 is travelling every week to the huge competitive meets but your team wouldn't be doing that. I think UW Milwaukee is your best fit. Maybe WIAC if you want to win. You will be late in the process for UW unless you run some fast indoor times.

For the love of God, stop telling him to stay in Wisconsin. He specifically asked for advice on how to get out of Wisconsin and move out West, and he gave very good reasons for wanting to do this.

Again, UCSB and UCSC are probably the best fits for you. You could also fit in at UC Irvine and UC Davis. Occidental and Claremont McKenna are both liberal arts colleges and don't have compsci. The REALLY good compsci school in California is Harvey Mudd, but their admissions standards are very steep.

Your thinking is outdated by 5 years though. Tech jobs are leaving California in droves, being moved to places like Texas and elsewhere. The cost of living on the west coast is sky high, and the quality of life is a lot lower than you think. I totally understand wanting to spend some time outside flat as a pancake Wisconsin.

You should enroll in a cheap Wisconsin college where you can walk on or something, and you could simply spend your summers car camping in the Rocky Mountains and West Coast. There are tons of youtube videos about how to do this.

You'd be better off trying to get a tech job with the Wisconsin state government, or with a city government, where you would have job stability, sky high quality of life, pension, early retirement, and ample vacation time.

Moving to the west coast for a higher salary just means paying sky high rent, not being able to own a house, and paying sky high taxes, in addition to the lower quality of life.

Get in your car right now and go for a 2 week road trip, sleeping in your car and hiking/running all day out west.

What about Colorado School of Mines or Colorado State? Both have great coaches and great proximity to beautiful trails and the mountains.

Mines is a selective school, and a degree from there holds credibility, particularly around the region.

Mines is ranked 80th by US News. Wisconsin is ranked 49th. Mines = $57k. UW = $25k. This is a 17 year old kid looking for advice. Just because he thinks he wants to go out west means nothing at this point. He has a major picked out also. That will change about 3 times so why advise him how to go west and spend twice what he could spend in state. Foolish Americans never think about money. We all deserve whatever we want regardless of the cost.

You should look at the WCC schools if you want West Coast low D1 and a good education. They can be pricy but they also have some good academic scholarships. Athletic scholarships in that conference are almost unheard of. For your major, I would look at Santa Clara, St. Marys, LMU, and University of San Diego. Good luck.

ranker of schools wrote:

Mines is ranked 80th by US News. Wisconsin is ranked 49th. Mines = $57k. UW = $25k. This is a 17 year old kid looking for advice. Just because he thinks he wants to go out west means nothing at this point. He has a major picked out also. That will change about 3 times so why advise him how to go west and spend twice what he could spend in state. Foolish Americans never think about money. We all deserve whatever we want regardless of the cost.

The whole point of this thread is him getting a scholarship, mitigating cost. He will look at the costs of all of his options and make his decision accordingly. You have absolutely no idea what the specific school costs are or what his specific financial situation is. Stop acting like you do.

My advice is to start train seriously for the 800 right after xc season is finished, so november through january. Then run a fast 800 indoors. You are ripe for a big pr. Getting down to 152-53 in january will open a lot more doors. If you wait until May there won't be any scholarships left.

University of Portland is the best non power 5 distance track school on thr west coast, and you could easily walk on but probably no scholarship. Seattle U will be like a high school track team. Most D1 schools outside of the power 5 conferences are not a big step away from a serious high school environment.

You should be looking at academics first anyway.

Schools have these things called websites that list the cost of attendance. Sure there are scholarships and other reductions, but to say that you have absolutely no idea of the cost of attendance says that you are absolutely ignorant.