Mid-Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, VA, DC, NY) - Decent D3 Program

I like Ramapo

I looked when my son was checking out colleges and was surprised at how fast club teams are at the Ivies. (He ended up not running in college.)

Not sure what academic level you're looking at. JHU and Haverford have very good reputations and I'm sure other posters can add plenty more. Good luck! Glad to hear you want to keep running and improving.

Top ranked schools often accommodate very good runners because they attend for the academics over scholarships they might earn at less rigorous schools.

Here’s my pitch for the University of Mary Washington:

1. We never got super blue chip recruits. Most guys were like 4:30s for 1600, 9:50-10:30 for 3200, 16:30-18:00 5k guys. However, we had multiple sub-4:00 1500, sub 8:45-3k, sub 15:20 5k guys by the time they graduated.

2. Their conference includes teams in California, so you get to travel across the country for meets. That’s tight.

3. The south region for D3 is WAY less competitive than the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast. Much better odds of sneaking into XC Nationals one of these years.

The team has fun traditions and the coaching staff has some alumni that are really developing talent.

Thanks for the replies so far. JHU and Haverford are out, I’m smart but not that smart.

Mary Washington seems a little smaller than I was looking for are there any larger size D3 or D2?

Thanks again

I would check out many of the centennial conference teams, if you're from NY Genneseo is an elite program and the rest of the d3 sunys are good.

salisbury university could also be an option

Unless money is no object, I would strongly consider the D3 state schools in NY or NJ. The value of the private liberal arts colleges that are all over the mid-Atlantic just isn’t there (and I say that as a graduate of one). If you put the work in, you’ll improve anywhere you run. Choose academics and economic value first.

Think Public wrote:

Unless money is no object, I would strongly consider the D3 state schools in NY or NJ. The value of the private liberal arts colleges that are all over the mid-Atlantic just isn’t there (and I say that as a graduate of one). If you put the work in, you’ll improve anywhere you run. Choose academics and economic value first.

Agreed! Private schools are not worth the money. York College (Pa) or Elizabethtown College ($$$$$) might be an exception but I'd never go this route again. I am still paying that crap off! PSAC schools are affordable and a place like Edinboro could lead you to develop quite nicely.

Elizabethtown has a phenomenal program. I know a bunch of the guys that ran there and many of them continue to enjoy the sport and improve post collegiately. York College’s program is on the rise and they have a good coach. Stevenson University in Maryland has a great coach who I have done some training with in the past. He’s got a very scientific approach to training. Not sure of your religious preferences, but if that’s something important to you, Messiah also has a good program and a good coach. If Jesus isn’t you’re thing, definitely avoid that one though. The assistant distance coach at DeSales is a guy I raced against a bunch in college who briefly went on to run pro for Hanson’s.

Based on the times you’ve run, these are all programs that would be a good fit for you in terms of being able to have a spot on the team and still receive attention from the coach. The powerhouses like Haverford or Johns Hopkins are probably out of your reach. Some smaller D1 schools might take you if you can make some improvements. I went from mid 17s for my junior year PR to 16:15 my senior year and was able to run D1. You just won’t be on their radar yet and will need to be more proactive about getting your name out there.

Consider this:

Hagerstown Community College Men's Cross Country won the 8K Hood College Open on Saturday, October 16th, in an average time of 26:42, against a field of 18 participating 4 year schools and teams from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. Finishing in an average time of 27:09 and taking second place was the University of Mary Washington, and Franklin and Marshall placed third with an average time of 28.35.

Dickinson is usually pretty decent. Elizabethtown seems okay. Gettysburg isn't too bad. Hamilton could work for you. You mention D1. There are definitely schools, kind of the bottom feeders, in the NEC and Patriot League that could be interested in you. That's also true for many Pa. Conference schools but you don't seem interested in D2. But if cost is an issue you might want to reconsider.

HRE wrote:

Dickinson is usually pretty decent. Elizabethtown seems okay. Gettysburg isn't too bad. Hamilton could work for you. You mention D1. There are definitely schools, kind of the bottom feeders, in the NEC and Patriot League that could be interested in you. That's also true for many Pa. Conference schools but you don't seem interested in D2. But if cost is an issue you might want to reconsider.

For PA Commonwealth schools, there's Shippensburg with Spence, and then everyone else if they still have programs.

From what I've seen, Haverford (in PA) is a very solid, national-qualifying-level D3 program with good academics as well, although it is probably pretty expensive. Like someone else in this thread mentioned, state D3s would be a solid option (SUNY Geneseo, if you're willing to go up to upstate NY, is incredibly strong).

CrispyChicken wrote:

HRE wrote:

Dickinson is usually pretty decent. Elizabethtown seems okay. Gettysburg isn't too bad. Hamilton could work for you. You mention D1. There are definitely schools, kind of the bottom feeders, in the NEC and Patriot League that could be interested in you. That's also true for many Pa. Conference schools but you don't seem interested in D2. But if cost is an issue you might want to reconsider.

For PA Commonwealth schools, there's Shippensburg with Spence, and then everyone else if they still have programs.

I don't know how far under 18 the OP is or how much further he'll get before graduating. He may be a bit in over his head at Shippensburg though I'd highly recommend that he check it out if he does want to look at D2. Someone else mentioned Edinboro and the same may be true there. But no one seems to know what Edinboro's future holds. They're supposedly going to be combined with Clarion and California into one university, though all three campuses will remain open. What that will mean for sports is up in the air. The hope is that each campus will keep its teams but the NCAA doesn't allow multiple teams in a single sport from the same school. All the other schools in the conference seem like they're keeping their programs. The conference meet was Friday and everyone but Clarion and Millersville were there.

He might also want to look into SUNY Geneseo or Scranton.

Assuming you could run ~29:15 for an 8k (about equivalent to ~17:45 5k ) , that would’ve gotten you 92nd at Mid-Atlantic Club Running Regionals at Lehigh yesterday.

If you want to go to a bigger school any of the top clubs yesterday would give you more than enough support to get better. I know a ton of people who have majorly jumped in fitness from high school just by showing up and following the training plans. None of these kids are doing it for anything more than the enjoyment of running and I think the NIRCA system deserves more credit.

Gonna bump Dickinson here, their men's team hasn't seemed to be able to put it together lately but their women's team has been a perennial top 10-15 contender the past few years. Seeing as they have the same coach the men's team could have some success while OP is in college. Seems like academics could be a good fit as well seeing as OP says they're smart but not smart enough for Haverford or JHU, but it does sound like many of the Centennial Conference schools could work, depending on how OP defines a "decent" program. Could also check out Carnegie Melon but they're closer in academics to Haverford and JHU than a lot of the other mid-atlantic schools, Rowan or Ramapo might be worth looking at if OP wants a chance to go to Nationals based purely on how bad the Metro region (except for Haverford) looks but no guarantee that'll hold.

Echoing all sentiments about these schools except maybe E town. They are not as dominant as they were like 15 years ago.

If the private 4 year route is in fact best for you, I would say most D3 schools in this region would be glad to have you. The exceptions may be the highly competitive ones like Haverford and Johns Hopkins. For example, I'm rpetty certain Messiah allows anyone who wants to run on their team on the roster. Some guys run when they can at practice and participate in a few meets and run pretty slow even for D3. But then there is also a core group that is dedicated and competes at the national level. Coach is cool with this and it works for them. Also many of these schools don't have full rosters any way.