College Decisions

Dumb question. There are no full rides.

None of those things are important at all compared to education. If you don't get a degree that allows you to make a living doing something that you find enjoyable (or make a lot of money doing something you don't care for), then there is no point in going to college.

Should probably change your statement to there are very few full rides. I can think of two on our team that are on fulls right now

Fart Garfunkel wrote:

None of those things are important at all compared to education. If you don't get a degree that allows you to make a living doing something that you find enjoyable (or make a lot of money doing something you don't care for), then there is no point in going to college.

Each school has good academics and I looked at that too. They all offer the course area that I want and tick those boxes

Scholar Expert wrote:

Dumb question. There are no full rides.

Maybe in D1

A full ride includes housing, books, food, travel, and other expenses. No track athletes are getting full rides charged to the program unless the parents make $150k and the kid had a 2.5 gpa and 18 ACT and ran 3:58 in high school. Those kids don't exist.

Scholar Expert wrote:

A full ride includes housing, books, food, travel, and other expenses. No track athletes are getting full rides charged to the program unless the parents make $150k and the kid had a 2.5 gpa and 18 ACT and ran 3:58 in high school. Those kids don't exist.

Slag go fast. Once gud runer.

Now slag run 4 NAIA. Slag will rise again

You missed two big criteria:

Geographic location (affects strength of alumni network for your future career as well as first post college job)

A coach that will be responsive to what works best for YOU training-wise (or a coach who is less inclined to individualize plans but has a one size fits all plan that is consistent with the type of training that works for you)

Lots of women and some men get scholarships that they mistakenly call fulls, as the athlete is on full scholarship between academies and athletics. Especially at mid majors.

Usually good XC teams have 3/5+ scholarships in men's and women's XC, with money heavily concentrated in the hands of the few.

My kid took most $$ at the best school. Program and facilities were just okay. Now it’s looking like they are NCAA bound. Coaches and team change. Loans follow you for a long time and degree lasts forever.

You got it. I have a son on a 25% scholarship who also had a 35 ACT so he gets a bunch of academic discounts. He lives in an apt and the school pays his tuition and books and sends us $7k every semester which more than covers his rent. People at arms length would come on this site arguing that they know a full ride kid when he is really only 25%. There are no full ride distance guys. Morgan McDonald wasn't. Grant Fisher wasn't.

"Full Rides" may not exist in strictly athletic form, but I run at a small D1 program and a majority of our guys pay for only their books or less than $1000 a year.

If you can get a 1300+ on the SAT and your parents don't make $150k+ you can already get about 75% at most schools before anything. Tack on an athletic scholarship and its pretty easy to get most athletes up to 90-95% paid for. There may not be many athletic full rides out there but you can definitely get a good deal to run, as well as get a good degree.

Haha, you are right in that a lot of guys, like your son, stack aid to get a full but there are also a lot of guys on true full rides running XC.

I am a coach on a fully funded, well rounded track team. Three quarters of our aid is tied up in 9/14, men/women athletes. A lot on full rides. Big points expected. But, the vast majority of the team is walk on, with some of books to 10%. Not every team does it this way but a lot of teams do.

In competitive conferences you only need 6-10 guys scoring an average 8-12 points to be top third consistently. Better to have big sccholarships in a few guys.

For OP, take the money.

If a guy is being charged as a 100% athletic scholarship, his parents are poor, he had a 16 ACT, and broke 4 in high school. Alternatively, you are an idiot not to have tapped into need based and academuc aid first. We will go with the latter that you are an idiot.

Go to the school that offers the best academics that you can make financially work. Ask about things like job placement statistics in your major. I’m not saying the team quality isn’t a factor, but it doesn’t matter as much as your degree.

College is expensive as hell. Take the best offer.

There are plenty of women on full rides which includes the COA money. Several top men as well, but not as much due to only 12.6 for men and 18 for women.

What fool said there isn't full scholarships in track.

all this semantic stuff is BS.. If I am an athlete or an athlete's parents I don't care if $$ comes from track teams, need based $$, or academic grants,.. If I am not paying it, then it as good as a full ride athletic scholarship

You are corrext. But some people just can't let the full athletic scholarship fantasy go.

Go to the place you like the most. The rest does not matter