I don't think you realize how competitive its become. I went through this with my older child who didn't play a sport. 1400 SAT and 3.9 GPA and got denied from Northeastern on Early Action. The population of the country went from 240 million approx in the mid 1990s when we all went to college to 330 million today. That's a 38% increase in students without any increase in the amount of universities. More people chasing the same spots leads to inflation of entry requirements. If you think your typical lax kid would be able to get into Lehigh, let alone an Ivy, without lax you're just not getting it. The kids who are getting into those schools have exceptional board scores, high GPAs with AP classes and ridiculous extra-curriculars, not to mention killer essays. Straight A's aren't enough. Maybe a certain percentage of lax kids would meet those requirements regardless, but that's a very small percentage. Lax remains one of the few ways a normal kid from the suburbs can gain entry into an elite institution.
I don’t disagree with you. I do realize how competitive it is now and much of it driven by test optional and suspect ranking devices. My point was that except for a very select few standouts, most people should not be doing lacrosse to get into the highest academic schools because the chances are slim. But that being said, lax never hurst as it builds teamwork, character, and strengthens resumes in general and definitely helps poor-average students punch above their weight class to get into schools they may not have ever gotten into but those students aren’t getting into the top 20 academic lax schools. In fact ive seen more of the opposite where a kid “punches down” choosing a lax commitment just to say they committed when they could have gotten into a much better school that has MCLA or no lax . But everyone has their own priorities.
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