D3 Women’s program (PA, NJ, NY, MD, DC, CT)

Unless the D3 school is MIT, go D1 for the academics and she can run for the club team.

shootpost wrote:

Unless the D3 school is MIT, go D1 for the academics and she can run for the club team.

What if it's Hopkins?

We don't know either how good a student she is, or how fast a runner she is???

But still two good places to start are the US News ranking of small liberal arts colleges and the results of the last few seasons of NCAA D3 cross country and track programs. That allows you to get a quick look at academic strength/reputation and get a feel for which programs are competitive nationally.

While MIT is indeed one of the strongest schools academically in this group especially for engineering and hard science, there are plenty of amazing colleges in this group. Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Carleton, Johns Hopkins, WAsh U, Chicago just to name a few.

If your daughter is a strong runner she may be able to get some admissions help. Also no athletic scholarships, but very generous financial aid if family income below $100k annually. Good luck.

geographical geoff wrote:

shootpost wrote:

Unless the D3 school is MIT, go D1 for the academics and she can run for the club team.

What if it's Hopkins?

My point is that there are a handful of good D3 academic schools. However there are many more pretty crappy ones- limited degree programs, small alumni networks, limited opportunities for students, no name recognition, etc. And the running teams can be pretty bad.

The 5 or so D3 exceptions have been noted. Otherwise your much better off going to a large say big 10 or ACC state school. Better academics, better opportunities, and the club team will probably be better.

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Carleton, Johns Hopkins, WAsh U, Chicago

Don't look at the US News ranking of small liberal arts colleges, its like ranking the best of the worst.

University of Rochester - very good D3 program

very high level research university - large student enrollment - feels like a D1 school as far as size

undergrad + graduate level programs

I am a JHU alum. your daughter shouldn't go to JHU if she is prone to injury. the program there is very insane. typical week is

sunday: long run

monday: 60 min upper aerobic run (half marathon/marathon pace)

tuesday: hard distance interval workout

wednesday: easy day

thursday: speed workout on the track (200s - 400s)

Friday: another UA if no race on Sat. Easy if race on Sat

Saturday: Race or interval workout

This schedule either burned athletes out or injured them. Yes JHU has done well on the women's side but it ruins more athletes than it helps succeed. This goes for the men's side as well.

Look at odac conference results. The schools that routinely finish in the top half of the conference will improve runners (w&l, roanoke, bridgewater, lynchburg). Beyond those, NYU, Mary Washington, CNU, Haverford are very good.

sammytv613 wrote:

Need some help - my junior daughter has would like to run competitively in college on a D3 level, but hasn’t the first clue in what to look for in some programs. She is not the fastest, but is very coachable and has been recovering from an injury her JR year. Wide open to suggestions from this board as it seems the knowledge here is much greater on programs that could be a fit.

Thank you.

Carnegie Mellon.

Every other school listed here is garbage.

Kvothe wrote:

Look at odac conference results. The schools that routinely finish in the top half of the conference will improve runners (w&l, roanoke, bridgewater, lynchburg). Beyond those, NYU, Mary Washington, CNU, Haverford are very good.

Except most of those school are academically terrible. There is more to college then running for some mid level d3 school

Great feedback everyone and thank you. As for student, she is all A’s and decent SAT - some on the list are all great schools we have looked at.

Stevenson could be worth looking into as well. In MD...newer program. Women making big jumpa lately.

what are her pr's

SUNY Geneseo - it’s the Harverd of the SUNY system . I should know, I am a alumni .

Prior to injury - 21:30 5k and 2:20 800 (indoor)

the profit wrote:

SUNY Geneseo - it’s the Harverd of the SUNY system . I should know, I am a alumni .

I think an *actual* Harvard grad might know that "alumni" is a plural noun. A single individual is either an alumnus or an alumna.

I'm not even going to bother with the a/an thing.

sammytv613 wrote:

Prior to injury - 21:30 5k and 2:20 800 (indoor)

I don't know if she will be healthy for outdoor, but 2:20 is a pretty good time for a high school girl. I'd be pretty surprised if any D3 program wouldn't be interested in a girl who has run 2:20. If she could get that down a handful of seconds, might turn a few D1 coaches heads.

She is only in Junior year, she is focused on XC for the fall knowing that spring and summer is recovery. However having lost the XC season this year she feels she missed having any D3 colleges see her. Loving the suggestions so far please keep them coming!

What about some good club running programs for D1 school as someone mentioned earlier in the thread?