What path for college running do i take?

Many years ago, when I had the same decision to make, I chose to be a big fish in a small pond and went D3. I made friendships in college that have lasted a lifetime.

How much do you value academics? I don't know the female needed times, but could you look at mid-tier NESCACs?

I know someone who really wanted to run in college but was accepted to Stanford and wasn't fast enough so he basically hobbyjogged on his own with the running club. He made the right decision and didn't turn it down to run at a weaker school, really enjoying his time there

Your times are D3. I'd focus my energy there. There are many, many great D3 schools that aren't in the middle of nowhere -- CMU, WashU, Tufts, Emory, and so on.

I can appreciate that you want to run in college, but the academic side of things is just as if not more important for you here. Go to the best school for your future.

What are your academics? Intended major?
Given you’re most probably not going pro, why insist on a D1?
My S25 is same age and similar profile. PRs in all 4 distances, but considering it a rut year. We filled questionnaires at 30+ schools across divisions, got 2 calls from “highly rejective” D3 schools. All they cared about is he might actually be smart enough to get through admissions!!
D3 gives the same team feel, travel, confidence. There is no serious money in running anyway.
Believe me, you won’t be winning their NCAA championship, lots of good competition there.

People who don't do sports make friendships in college that last a lifetime. D3 schools are expensive, they don't get state money like the state Universities, making them more expensive. So I hope OP is taking into account how they're paying for college and isn't another person who will be complaining about massive loans in six+ years. Make a good financial decision. You can go to a state school and run unattached in races on a club team if you can't make the university team. And really, OP can probably be a walk-on most places. Title IX often makes women's cross teams super big to get extra numbers of athletes to counter the massive football team. Pick a school first and apply and all that, next year run faster and you will have a spot on the team. You are already a borderline walk-on most places, just get a little bit faster and you'll definitely be able to walk-on at most universities. There are people running north of 5 minutes for the mile on most D1 rosters.

I agree. Several neighbors paid $300K for educations and now are complaining about it. My so ran f9r our local stsye school getting about 25% off for academics and 10% for athletics. His cost was about $75K. His school has much more name recognition also.

For many people, those high sticker price "elite" D3 schools end up LESS expensive than a state university option. If your family makes ~$100,000 or less per year, the well endowed liberal arts colleges are often nearly free.

Our family makes a bit more than that, but it still came out cheaper to send our son to an "elite" east coast liberal arts college than to the (D2) directional in-state university. A fair number of the kids I've coached have had similar experiences.

But really, look at the whole experience. Look at the academic and social atmosphere. Look at the athletic options. Look at the living environment. Look at the price after financial aid. Will you be able to afford to go there, and will it likely be a positive 4 year experience regardless of if you get injured, or change majors, or whatever.

Just based on your times, you'd fit right in on most solid D2 teams, be a great pick-up for the top D3 teams, and be a top recruit at any NAIA school.

5% of students get admitted to highly selective schools. Let's focus on 95% of the students. A school like North Central costs $25K on average. Instate students pay on average only $22K at University of Illinois which is a much better school..

i would research "where" i want to go to college -- i mean locations, states, cities -- then research schools -- at all levels -- in those areas that have quality academics and have your desired "majors." make a big big list. then cross-reference that list by track times in your events for those teams -- that you can find off TFRRS. the teams where you like the area, have the grades and scores, and fit in their level of runner, that's your wheelhouse. start there, do the questionaires and email the coaches with a set of information, GPA, SAT, events run, PRs, key finishes in big meets. include XC if you want to do that in college.

if you start wheelhouse then move up, then you know you will have all else fails the interest of X Y Z schools who need someone exactly like you, no improvements required, no magic enters the formula. having stirred that up, only then start working on reach schools, higher academics than you have, faster runners than you are.

the big mistake kids on here repeatedly make is they start with dreamy reach schools and forget to have safety schools and places where they are admitted who want them to run. if you have done your job at step 1 -- picking areas you like, with academics you want, where you can run -- then your "worst case scenario" is a town and school that make you happy anyway. if you let dreaminess drive, you either end up hating the schools you let recruit you, because they are picked for ego reasons and not actual fit, or you end up the sad sack on here pouting because the one school he applied to, with the idea of walking on, has either told him no, you can't make the team, or the track coach has no clue he exists. so work your way from wheelhouse outwards. then the core schools and track teams definitely know you exist. it's a much more fun process to be wanted and mutually happy, than to be desperate.

re "d3 stereotype," if you do the process i laid out, you will find that there are in fact a mix of D1 and D3 in the locations you want to be. that alone deals with your "all D3 are in cowtowns" stereotype. yes, many D3 are in rural cowtowns, but there are also plenty of D3s in cities along the pacific coast, LA (a whole conference in and around the city), santa cruz, portland, seattle, as well as schools in eastern cities, NY, chicago, etc. and good academic ones. UAA has a bunch of city schools. NESCAC is a mix of rural and city schools but they are all at least good if not great academically.

re D1 vs. D3, you would already make some D1s, honestly, though currently not the good ones. you would have limited options. you would be very competitive D3. personally i would ignore the labels, and do the analysis i laid out. find schools that will make you happy and would want you to run there. my one caveat on all this, is understand from your standpoint, D1 is small fish big pond. imagine you are chasing whatever girls win your races. now make 95% of the field a xerox of those girls or better. that's D1. D3 you give up that but it's mostly runners like you. you will have a chance to score points in meets, to have success. having been at a D3 that often ran against D1, it was cool but also the vague desperation of fighting to move up the standings from near bottom. and people have dreams of escaping that, and some walkons do, but like D1 aren't scrubs or lazy folks, generally. when you're dreaming about how it's going to go, remember your team and the other teams are full of kids with the same dream and plenty of work ethic. it's like an ego thing where if i just go there and they let me walk on i will dominate. realistically it's maybe you'll be the one kid who goes from nowhere to scoring a couple points at conference as an upperclass.

re the "economics" posts, i personally rank ordered it academics finances sports. i focused on good academics and weeded out weaker schools at layer 1. i feel like that protected the investment. you then see what offers, scholarships, financial aid, etc., they make. i would apply to a mix of state and private, not assume. my experience state was theoretically lower tuition but my family couldn't even afford that out of pocket, so it really mattered what the aid offer looked like. the aid offers were generally better from good academic private schools for me. i then having narrowed it down to good schools who had made doable financial aid offers (or even good ones), made my choice.

if you are going to need financial aid, familiarize yourself with the statistic "percent need met." the closer to 100% the more of your need they will meet. there are schools now who meet need and are either tuition free below an income number, or do not do loans anymore but meet all or nearly all need. there are then also schools that meet need but do loans to do it. there are then schools who don't meet as much need or lean heavily on loans. it is more complicated than suggested.

I get the ROI arguments but most schools publish graduate hiring and income data, and the argument is less pertinent if tuition is free or the school doesn't do loans. and my personal experience the state school i got in was nowhere near my best offer and completely disinterested in me playing varsity sports.

last, it was counter-intuitively my experience that the aid offers were better the higher i went up the food chain. i might get offered a higher percent in academic scholarship at a weaker school, but if they met less of need then the aid overall was less competitive. i might get offered athletic scholarships at D2 or NAIA but the schools seemed like they had less financial oomph and were trying to make up for it with the athlete discount.

no, when i look these days and see schools offering free tuition for below a family income standard, or need met without loans, or full need met, it's often very good or even the best schools. big school endowments. happy graduates.

i do agree that at a point of sliding down the pecking order private schools that meet less need and ask more loans, and aren't as big names, might be less worthy on ROI. but that's actually the opposite of "don't attend those big name east coast elite schools." only an idiot turns down harvard or williams. it's maybe don't bother with Itty Bitty Unknown Mediocre Liberal Arts College.