Academically decent D2/NAIA schools?

Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Harvard

Thanks for taking the time to respond. As for Truman State, I'd love to check it out as it seems ideal apart from the XC/TF team. But the coach didn't respond to my email or recruiting questionnaire and when I reached out to admissions they didn't help much either. So I guess I won't be pursuing them much.

For your second point, I'm just asking honestly, you really don't think the prestige of an employee's school matters much, especially when starting out? For instance you don't think employers differentiate much between someone who was top of class and excelled at a small, 22 average ACT school and someone who got a degree middle of the pack at a flagship state school or top ranked private school? It seems to me (granted I'm just in HS) I can have all the drive and intelligence in the world but the employer is gonna call the average guy who went to Northwestern instead of me who was the smartest person to ever attend Baptist State Tech of Northern Iowa.

Also, I don't want you to get the wrong idea of me. When I listed my academic position, I was just saying that so people would know where I'm at and what I can realistically aim for. I know there are many people both much smarter and much faster than me. That's why the Ivies, Wash U, UChicago, Carnegie Mellon etc are so good. I know ACT and GPA is not a true test of someone's intelligence.

Not necessarily opposed to it, it just seems most D3 schools I've seen aren't what I'm looking for. But if the right fit is there I have no problems going D3. Just a matter of finding that fit.

The College of Idaho is a good school with good coaching that is NAIA. They give out quite a bit of institutional aid as well. Enrollment is right around ~1000.

@Soccerxc I'm not going to pretend to know everything about landing a good job out of school, but from my experience, the name of the school that is on your degree (especially business) doesn't matter. How you conduct yourself in an interview is going to pull more weight. I graduated from a Midwest NAIA school in 2016 and have had 3 employers since then. After the first job, I'm not sure how many interviewers asked or cared about college or GPA. They were just curious about my experience in advertising (I work at an ad agency).

I'm not sure what the case would be for Economics, but I think you are putting too much emphasis here.

My advice is to visit schools and try and picture yourself living there. Is the town somewhere you can live for four years? Does the coach and teammates seem like decent people who support each other and have a similar goal they are trying to achieve? Class sizes? Especially at small schools, you can usually meet with department heads and ask questions, during your visit.

If you/your family doesn't have a lot of money, then money should play a large role in the decision. You really don't want to have a ton of debt if you don't have to. With a 33 ACT you should be able to get some solid money. Maybe even a small athletic scholarship at an NAIA school or D2.... you never know!

If interested in liberal arts curriculum: University of Minnesota, Morris

soccerxc wrote:For your second point, I'm just asking honestly, you really don't think the prestige of an employee's school matters much, especially when starting out

It absolutely, 1000000% does. I guarantee you. Google won't even look at a resume without a brand name school on it.

Afterwards, debatable. But coming out of school? Only people with defensive mechanisms for their own bad choices would disagree.

Coffee Monster wrote:@Soccerxc I'm not going to pretend to know everything about landing a good job out of school, but from my experience, the name of the school that is on your degree (especially business) doesn't matter.

No offense champ, but it doesn't matter if you're applying for a job at like, the Dunder Mifflin of your town. If you're applying to Google/Microsoft/etc, it 100% does and it does this kid no favors lying to him about it.

He's got the firepower on that career curve. Telling him that it doesn't matter and that he should just hope that an elite company should consider him a diamond in the rough even though he went to a non-academically challenging school is dangerous, dumb advice.

I call B.S.

"It absolutely, 1000000% does. I guarantee you. Google won't even look at a resume without a brand name school on it.

This is not true. I ride road bikes with many of the Google staff at lunchtime in Boulder (was on the ride when the guy cut off his arm descending flagstaff crashing into the trailer). I have done business with them. Many of the staff have degrees from Midwestern "no-name" schools. Most of them are "normal" guys who are emotionally intelligent and work hard.

Listen here: Nobody cares where you get your bachelors, so long as it's an accredited school. You can't go to some sketchy online place, but other than that, find a place where the profs have strong industry relationships. It's a big massive lie that you need to go $250 into debt to "make it". Go to a school where you'll be challenged and are good enough to travel for meets. It's awesome and some of the most rewarding times you can have.

That's bullshit. None of those guys got Google as their first job out of school coming out of a no-name school. None.

Second job, third job, maybe. But first? Zero chance. Google doesn't even look at those resumes.

Oklahoma City University is an NAIA school with a very good business school. Plus they have won a couple cross country championships in the past few years.

Mines. Best of the D2. Regionally elite university. Good weather, culture, lots of trails nearby. Good team.

The NE-10 schools are great academically and have a great athletic history.

Good joke.

If they are great, what descriptor do you use for the hundreds of schools that are better? Usually when something is ranked in the center mass of the larger group, it is referred to as average. NE-10 schools are average. They are nowhere near great. One or two may be called good. One or two are even below average.

I thought we are talking strictly d2 schools here for a student athlete. If that’s still the case then multiple NE-10 schools are very high up on this list.

https://www.ncsasports.org/best-colleges/best-division-2-colleges

railin gupp wrote:

That's bullshit. None of those guys got Google as their first job out of school coming out of a no-name school. None.

Second job, third job, maybe. But first? Zero chance. Google doesn't even look at those resumes.

Nope. I also went to a decent D2 schools (ranked 150-200 nationally for all schools) and know many people working in big tech who did so out of school. That's not inherent to all D2 schools, but it's not some fallacy.

No. The OP wanted to know if there are any that are decent academically. The answer is that none are great and there are only 5-10 that are good. Mines is the best and it barely ranked in the top 100. Most D2 and NAIA schools comprise the bottom 200 of all schools.