I am interested in hearing from parents and/or students who have navigated the academic D1/D3 line during athletic recruiting. My junior TF/XC son has been reaching out with success to a variety of mid/high athletic D3 schools (UAA, NESCAC, NCAC etc) and has had lots of good interactions with coaches so far. He has recently had some PRs that are pushing him further into consideration for Patriot League (and maybe higher?) D1 territory. I want to support him for whatever he wants (both athletically and academically) but feel a bit ill equipped for this transition! I’d be interested in hearing from those who looked at both types of schools and learning what was the determining factor in where you ended up ultimately.
Has he reached out to any of the D1 coaches or has he been only targeting D3 so far? If not, he needs to be reaching out ASAP. Is he thinking Ivy at all?
S23 (different sport) originally said “no D1” (not that he would have been D1) because “they own you”. They literally own ALL of your time. It could be completely different in TF, but make sure he looks into the time commitment (not just with training, but traveling and any other commitments) at both levels.
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He had reached out earlier to some Patriot League schools earlier with some mixed responses (I am guessing they’ll be more interested in him now…). He did a tiny bit (1 each) of Big 10 and high D2 with no response (and still that way). But he just tried his first Ivy outreach and got at least some engagement on the other side! I am super nervous we are going to screw this up!
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This is what I worry about! I am a huge D3 fan myself, and in general I think he likes the idea of better balance. But I also think the leveling up is very tempting to him…
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My son was all in on D1 as a sophomore. He was 100% convinced that was his path, and he had received some positive feedback from coaches. Two things swayed him. One was some frank conversations with older teammates who were D1 and engineering. It’s tough. Some schools bluntly discouraged the combo and those who were pursuing it gave him some pretty helpful feedback on the difficulty of balancing that combination. He was already second guessing the right choice when covid hit junior year and recruiting was turned upside down. He ended up with D3.
I’ll echo the advice people often offer which is to be sure that if he sustains an injury that precludes competition, he would still be happy at the school. My son ended up missing sophomore and junior years because of an accident and he was definitely happy that he had chosen the D3 school that felt right academically and socially.
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He is definitely thinking STEM major of some sort, so this is something I think about all the time! Plus he is also a high level musician who I think would like to continue playing at least at some level beyond high school.
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With a STEM major in consideration be sure and have him ask about schedule conflicts with labs in particular. Some programs accommodate with multiple sessions and really work to be sure students can balance things - other programs are pretty rigid - at least that was the feedback he received in a different sport.
Ultimately, they have to determine the tradeoffs. My daughter really thrives on a schedule I can’t fathom - even post graduation - she does not like down time. Other kids want a different college experience.
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My son seems to (mostly) thrive in that kind of environment as well, balancing hard classes, high level music in multiple ensembles and high level athletics. My sense is that the music though will drop back to a supporting role in college (which will help some with the balance as the other two ramp up).
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The good thing about the Patriot League is that the travel is more manageable than in conferences like the Big !0.
Don’t be conned into thinking D2 competition is necessarily better than D3. In many cases it isn’t. I’m not familiar with TF, but I’m assuming you can look at times to figure it out.
Is it possible that right now your son is on the high of “could” go D1, rather than thinking through what that would mean? It’s flattering to get the attention and it feels like a new world is opening up, but it’s not always what is right for you in the end. There is something to be said about going to the school that loves you back, and it seems that D3 may be where he finds that.
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This is a great point. Would he be comfortable being bottom of the roster in D1? Often that means all of the training and practice time, but not getting to run all of the meets. With entry restrictions, not all athletes travel to the meets. And D1 athletes rarely have free time for things beyond school, so music will have to take a backseat.
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He says he doesn’t want to be near the top of the roster immediately. He started just outside varsity as a freshman in HS and worked his way up, and I think that is his ideal situation for college too. I just don’t think that is necessarily the best way to get a slot!
If you can share rough PBs while retaining anonymity that might help folks provide some insights.
I have seen this situation quite a bit where kids start out thinking D3 and then realize during junior track season that D1 might be a possibility. My own kids were sort of in that boat because they started thinking about it in 9th grade. They were only considering D1 by the time spring of junior year rolled around. That sort of happened naturally as they saw the types of athletes that went on to run D1 and how they fit in that cohort. That’s sort of been the way it worked out with most runners I’ve known, though a few did decide on D3 when they didn’t get the offers they wanted from D1 schools.
I can tell you that D1 is not the pressure cooker some people think, although it can be at certain programs. There’s a big difference between Indiana and Wisconsin and Oregon on the one hand and Dartmouth and Princeton and Penn on the other. There is plenty of balance at the latter types of programs and student athletes are students first.
Really, there’s probably not a ton of difference in a runner’s day to day life and the balance of athletics and academics at Williams and Ivies or some of the Patriot league programs. The runners are just faster for the most part at the D1 programs and probably on average a bit more driven to spend time on their sport.
Some of the potential advantages of D1 can be facilities, access to better coaching (not always), better fit with a training group, etc.
There’s no problem doing STEM and running at Ivies. I have less personal experience with Patriot schools but I imagine it’s the same there. I know an Ivy athlete who was an accomplished musician and was able to continue at an Ivy but I think you really need to talk to the coaches and music folks about the details of that.
I would just cast a wide net and contact all the Ivy, Patriot, and other relevant D1 coaches to start. If his times are looking good now they’ll probably be a lot better in a month.
He doesn’t have to make these decisions now. Part of the recruiting process is learning about the schools and programs. It’s best to just dive in and start learning.
If your concern with D1 is less faculty contact or something like that, it wasn’t an issue for my kids. Great academic experiences for both and really good friendships with teammates and other classmates still.
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D3, Patriot and Ivies aren’t subject to the new NCAA roster limits so that adds some flexibility. Nice thing about track is you can find good competition at any level. NESCAC and UAA just had their conference championships this past weekend and may have regional D3 and all-division championships ahead of D3 nationals. Example: NESCAC schools have NE D3’s next weekend, and NEICAAA (All Divisions) the week after before D3 Nationals on the 21st. Not sure if there are comparable opportunities in other regions, but wouldn’t be surprised. Take a look at the NESCAC and UAA etc., results to assess his probability of scoring. That will give you a good gauge of his attractiveness from a recruiting standpoint athletically. Grades and test scores are a whole other consideration.
From a D1 standpoint, as stated, with a 45-person roster limit, it gets dicey outside of the aforementioned conferences unless they’re very fast. So like the BC, Duke, Tulane and Rice types are a tight fit. BU (great distance tradition), less so.
TLDR: From a competitive standpoint there are plenty of fast enough kids at the solid “academic” D3 programs and plenty of opportunities to race great competition so that shouldn’t negatively impact your choices. Other factors (coaching, facilities, music options) may make D1 options more attractive, however. BU is Patriot League, so no roster caps, awesome music and the fastest indoor track in America, with opportunities to run at New Balance, Reggie Lewis and Harvard indoor tracks as well. Boston kids are spoiled by the options available to them in the winter which sets you up well for spring. FWIW.
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Yeah, but I mean, the sooner the better. Coaches will get busy with NCAA’s soon, then New Balance/Nike/Adidas. Then AAU/USATF, etc. Depending on the school, some kids get locked down early fall. No idea whether OP’s kid is more XC or track, but if track, I agree with casting a wide net, but reaching out a bit more intently. These coaches have been tracking (and indirectly connecting with) some of these kids since summer after sophomore year.
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Yes, I agree. Start now with contacting coaches. When I say he doesn’t have to decide now I mean he can explore all the alternatives and see what his options are. Then make an informed decision. I think it’d be a shame to exclude D1 from the start without learning more by contacting the coaches.
One thing on your comment re: competition at D3 being adequate: I think that can be true for many but it really depends on the athlete. There’s a pretty big gap between distance runners at the top end of the Ivies and those in the NESCAC, and that can affect both access to appropriate/robust training groups and conference competition.
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Thanks for the great feedback (as usual!). He had a couple of big jumps in PRs this winter/spring so that he is still not quite Ivy level, but in the high 9:0X, mid 4:1Xs, 1:57 range in track. Cross time is still off fall fitness which has improved since then, but 15:2X but on a fast flat course. So he is pretty well rounded, but just starting to hit the kinds of times that would be necessary to make the jump. If I were to guess, I’d expect the racing conditions in post-season (doubling up, warmer temps) are not going to lead to much lower times in the longer track distances, but they might lower his split in the 4x800 a bit more. Right now he is in the heart of junior crunch season for everything (AP exams, multiple music performances, meets, volunteer stuff) while at the same time trying to rescue a couple of lower (B+) grades in core courses for the first time, so it is going to hard to put more on his plate! I do understand the urgency if he wants to at least consider making the jump though.
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He is equally at home in (and equally likes) both track and XC. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I don’t think he won’t be doing any National Competitions this summer - though he has done them with his team in the past (not as an indvidual). He’s got a really short summer and already has essentially 5 weeks tied up with various things already (and is taking a summer online course (that shouldn’t be hard, but will take a little time). Are Nationals something he really should do if considering high D3 or Ivy or Patriot League schools? He is finally fast enough that qualifying wouldn’t be an issue now, at least for the mile or 2 mile. But it is a huge time and money sink for sure. He doesn’t need another backpack. 
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When my son was that busy junior year, I drafted the emails he sent to coaches, and kept track of everything on a spreadsheet for him. He literally did not have any more time to give to recruiting. As recruiting progressed, coaches would call or text my son and my role naturally diminished.
But at this stage, you could do a spreadsheet with all schools, coaches info, etc, as well as drafting the initial emails for your son.
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