We just went through this, so feel free to PM me for a longer conversation. Daughter is now a senior and looked at NESCACs, IVYs, Patriot, plus Rice, Northwestern, JHU, CMS, and PP.
Timing: if she’s a top recruit for NESCACs, you should be prepared to make a commitment in early July. Last year was slightly easier b/c NESCAC pushed it back to August, which put it closer to the timing we saw with Ivys. PP and CMS were very early last year. Patriot league went into the fall, as did Rice. Northwestern was mid-summer.
Some questions: distance or sprints? It seems she is hoping for D1 even though, perhaps, some D3s could be more competitive than D1 for her. Does she know this? It’s ok if that’s her choice (a teammate of my daughters was determined to “go D1” even though the D1 she found the most traction with was less competitive (and less academically regarded) than several D3s. Just make sure she’s closing the doors on D3s knowing all this info.
We were told, and found it to be true, that Ivys want truly excellent athletes who are very good students. NESCAC is the opposite - truly excellent students who are very good athletes. So, generally, if you can pass a NESCAC preread, you should be fine academically at (nearly) any D1. The bigger question for Ivys is how excellent an athlete is she.
Truly, feel free to PM me. I found some private conversations with members here immensely helpful when I didn’t want to clog up the board with tons of little questions. Now I’m happy to pay it forward.