Ivy League Running Controversy + Recruitment - Should I be concerned?

No, you shouldn’t worry based on stuff on letsrun. There are serious runners and coaches at those three places and you can do well. Gtown runners aren’t going to be quite as academically inclined as ivy runners. Use your visits to get a feel for each program. You seem to be looking at more urban schools. Check out Penn if you haven’t already.

Thanks man, appreciate it! I did look at Penn but unfortunately it didn’t fit into my final 3. It feels so wrong cutting out such amazing schools but I guess that’s just a part of the process.

You will find that the majority of the posters are former D3 runners who base recommendations on feelings as compared to facts. Read the study. If you are smart enough to get into an Ivy on your own merit, you probably souldn't attend because your earnings will be the same as if you attend your ultimate running school. Now if your cost is equivalent, then go ahead. But I am guessing that you are a well off distance runner who will discover that you will pay close to $300k fir the Ivy when your local state school would give some nice academic aid and a small athletic scholarship bringing your cost down to $60k for 4 years. Your parents can buy you a house with the $240k and you will be set for life. The same people who will tell you to attend the Ivy will dispute the results of the study conducted by an Ivy professor. That's irony.

Competitive running is very trivial in the grand scheme of life. What matters is your physical/mental health and doing something that helps others. Therefore I suggest the school that you sense will meet what matters.

protip the academic "prowess" of the ivy league schools that you seem to worship are nowhere near as important as your own iniative in your direction of study

No, you shouldn't be worried about participating in XC/TF in the Northeast. Not every school is like that, but those schools did have some bad stuff happen recently that can be concerning to recruits.

Go on those official visits and see for yourself on how those programs are. Get a sense of the team dynamic/atmosphere and see if it is a good fit for you. What does your gut tell you?

If the controversies are still a concern to you, ask the student-athletes about them (coaches will try to brush it aside, while I think the athletes will present a more honest response). Many of the coaches/athletes involved in those controversies are no longer at those schools (at least Harvard that I know of) so they shouldn't be an issue anymore.

But go and see for yourself, and then trust your gut. It's your future.

C/M Runner wrote:

But go and see for yourself, and then trust your gut. It's your future.

Yep.

My son competed in the Ivy League (not Harvard or Columbia) for four years, finishing a few years ago, and had a great experience. I thought the Heps conference atmosphere was pretty great.

Go with what feels right for you.

state school academic champion wrote:

protip the academic "prowess" of the ivy league schools that you seem to worship are nowhere near as important as your own iniative in your direction of study

...Says the State U. grad trying to assure himself that he's OK too.

Like another poster alluded to, this site is filled with former D3 runners not fast enough for D1 who will tell you they almost went to Oregon with their 4:30 mile p.r.

It is also is filled with folks who never went to an Ivy who will pontificate on about how their education from Western Central Missouri State University is equal to Columbia and Princeton. Right.

Tiger dad wrote:

C/M Runner wrote:

But go and see for yourself, and then trust your gut. It's your future.

Yep.

My son competed in the Ivy League (not Harvard or Columbia) for four years, finishing a few years ago, and had a great experience. I thought the Heps conference atmosphere was pretty great.

Go with what feels right for you.

Let me guess which one your son went to... Princeton? lol.

But yes, Heps conference meet atmosphere is unequal to anything else out there. If you can attend one of their conference meets on your own time (I don't know where you live so who knows how doable it is for you), you should so you can just experience it.

Ivies suck wrote:

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/03/01/the-ivy-league-earnings-myth

Read the study.

It's an extremely safe bet that you've never read the study. But you still link to that U.S. New and World Report article every time some inquiry about Ivy League or similarly selective schools comes up. (I'm confident that the author of that article didn't read any of the studies by Krueger and Dale, either.)

As to the original question, I have an observation: Coaches come and go, for a variety of reasons. Athletes do, too, for a very different set of reasons. I suggest that you focus on the more enduring and less transient qualities of each school and its environment.

Appreciate the reply. Thanks! I selected these schools to challenge me not only as a runner, but also as a student and as a person in general. I genuinely don’t think you can get in this type of situation better than in the Northeast.

Haha. That’s what I thought. This is quite a comical website a lot of the time. The message boards always seem very hostile towards the athlete, e.g. Rachel McArthur’s transfer and any Ivy athlete ever.

Right on the nail. That’s why I’m looking at these schools. My high school coach and I always discussed how to find the right school and we agreed that I should pursue a college where I would still be happy if running didn’t work out. These are three schools that would be big reaches for me if it wasn’t for running and visiting each of them I was blown away by the environment and opportunities at each of them. My goal was to also push myself as a person and these are the perfect schools for that.

The Ivies are the most closed minded of al if the universities in the US. Try to express an opinion that differs from their definituon of right and wrong and you will be beaten down. They also do not challenge students. Once in, you are guaranteed your 3.0 just for showung up and paying the bills.

You should be concerned about rats at Georgetown.

you should be concerned you are contacting letsrun for advice. and you have ivy league brains.

There’s an athletic recruits sub forum on college confidential. I’d go there with recruiting questions on Ivies. You seem pretty good at filtering out the noise here on letsrun, which is great. Keep in mind that the academic pressures on athletes will be greater at Harvard than at, say, Oregon. That will affect your running. But the flip side is that when you go to Heps you’re competing against true student athletes. And you’re spending your free time and long runs with other bright students.

C/M Runner wrote:

Heps conference meet atmosphere is unequal to anything else out there.

Hear, hear.

Every kid I know who has run at the Ivies said that the academics were a breeze. Show up for most of the classes and you will get a B. Try that at a power 5 and you will fail. The ivies pride themselves on a nearly 100% graduation rate. When 50% of the kids attending will pay tbe full $300k, they won't flunk them. If you have followed the college admissions scandal, you will find that many kids graduated with a 3.5 GPA even though their real life ACT was 25. Everyone passes. Just be ready to worship socialism and transgenderism or you will be in trouble.