Take Scholarship from D2 or attempt to walk on at D1?

Take the scholarship and focus on your core classes. Develop and earn your spot on a D1 roster if it's a good fit. Too many people get caught up in the D1 D2 thing, just go where you will be a factor in the team. Those times don't necessarily fit with the big D1 schools and would be hard to make any travel squad in the smaller ones.

Just focus on developing in an environment you will be able to travel and get races in before you test the waters of the D1 crowd.

Scenario A; go to the best academic school you can get into, preferably with the crappiest running program.

Walk on, focus on school..get good grades.

Scenario B: go to the best academic school you can get into with a decent running program

Fail to walk on, focus on school, get into or start a club running team, have a great experience in college with zero regrets.

just please do not go to a school with the focus on running (spoiler alert - not worth it)

Most D2 schools are not good academically. I don't believe that you are actually getting an athletic scholarship with those times. They probably found something else that they are masquerading as an athletic scholarship to make you feel good.

I think youd probably enjoy being king of the d2 team and having free school vs being the water boy of the team and going in to massive debt and probably dropping off the team so you can get a crappy job to pay for school

If your commitment to XC in college is "maybe" then that's a showstopper for DI. A distance runner in DI is required to run XC.

I agree with another post that said something like pick the best academic school that is affordable.

Does the D2 school have any majors that you're interested in? If so, assuming the D1 school isn't well known for academic rigor I would go there.

I don't understand your reply.

I just said to take time to develop in an environment you'd be able to travel and get races in. If you have developed then transfer. I guess to you I'm Satan for giving the OP my opinion. I went to a D1 school and had plenty of success, it was tough for the people who walked on and only got a few local races in, they just never had the chance to get many races in. I appreciate you being a troll Jimmy21 but next time make a little more sense.

Why r u going to college? If it is to pursue a degree to be able to work in your chosen field then that should be your basis for comparing schools.

If it’s for competitive running then pick the school that is more likely to help you achieve your running goals.

Go to whichever school you would like better if running was not a factor. I wish I would have went to the most enjoyable school for me, even if that meant running on the club team. Don’t get bogged down by money or pressure to be on a team. Forget about running for this decision.

That's dumb. For most runners, being part of the team is the best part about college.

A big omission in your scenario is your financial situation. Unless you will turn pro (very unlikely given current PR's) or come from a family where cash is not an issue, your college years will be about preparing for life's challenges while finding out how good a runner you can be.

Most of your best and most rewarding running/races/accomplishments may actually happen after college. It's hard to do doubles to try to qualify for the Olympic marathon trials if you have 6 figures of debt that limit employment choices in your twenties and thirties.

Starting out without debt, a degree and 4 years of professional coaching will sound pretty good to almost everyone you

might ask.

where You go to college doesn’t matter unless you’re in a very specific field, so go somewhere that is cheap and you can be involved in what you want to be, like running. When I was in high school I was stuck on the prestige of a school, d1, Private vs public, Ivy League. Now 20 years later none of it matters. Besides the degree you’re going to have the debt and the memories to take with you.

D2 is dumb wrote:

Most D2 schools are not good academically. I don't believe that you are actually getting an athletic scholarship with those times. They probably found something else that they are masquerading as an athletic scholarship to make you feel good.

Most D1 schools are not good academically.

Cheap and involved wrote:

where You go to college doesn’t matter unless you’re in a very specific field, so go somewhere that is cheap and you can be involved in what you want to be, like running. When I was in high school I was stuck on the prestige of a school, d1, Private vs public, Ivy League. Now 20 years later none of it matters. Besides the degree you’re going to have the debt and the memories to take with you.

This.

There is no real value in running at a D1 school if you aren't going to run sub 1:50 as a soph.

Focus on academics, and enjoy your time. Being dragged to every 4th meet at a D1 is not fun, nor is being the guy who works the home meets.

Be the big fish in the smaller bowl.

You should consider D3 schools too. You're really not that fast. Even in D2 you're going to get rolled. If you go to a D1 school you'll get cut in your first year. If you can actually get money from some D2 school then do that. But really I'd pick the best school, your times aren't that fast to make such a large life choice based on running.

Of the top 25 ranked colleges, 22 are D1 and 3 are D3. That leaves no room for any D2 schools.

omygoodnes wrote:

Cheap and involved wrote:

where You go to college doesn’t matter unless you’re in a very specific field, so go somewhere that is cheap and you can be involved in what you want to be, like running. When I was in high school I was stuck on the prestige of a school, d1, Private vs public, Ivy League. Now 20 years later none of it matters. Besides the degree you’re going to have the debt and the memories to take with you.

This.

There is no real value in running at a D1 school if you aren't going to run sub 1:50 as a soph.

Focus on academics, and enjoy your time. Being dragged to every 4th meet at a D1 is not fun, nor is being the guy who works the home meets.

Be the big fish in the smaller bowl.

+1

I went D1 based singularly on my major and wish I'd gone to a D2 school with the same major. I know I would have personally had a better experience in running.

Smarter than a non runner wrote:

Of the top 25 ranked colleges, 22 are D1 and 3 are D3. That leaves no room for any D2 schools.

Rankings aren't a real measure of prestige and excellence, they are a popularity contest to impress status-seeking sheeple.

Ain't no way you are getting 1/4 scholarship from ANY school with your times. No chance. This is completely made up scenario, so mods, please just delete it now.

And your "falloff in times at distance" is laughable. You don't have anything to fall off from. There are middle school kids running 2:04/4:40.