Originally Posted by Anonymous
I think there's a sense of punching down where smart lax kids choose a lower academic school just so they can say them committed to play D1 lacrosse, but I think that sense is based on an outdated assessment of what type of school a kid with a 4.0 GPA and 1400 SAT should be able to get into. In 1995, that kid was more than eligible for all ACC and Big 10 and most other schools outside of the Ivies Today that same kid is reaching to get into Tier 3 schools. So are they really punching down, or do we need to readjust our understanding of the reality of college admissions in the 20s? Go onto the boards where hopeful students are discussing admission to Northeastern. You'd be shocked to see the stats of kids who aren't making it. Worse, 10 years from now the amount of commits from Long Island to D1 schools will be halved as the game grows across the country and competition for the already limited spots available will increase. At some point in the not to distant future the Long Island lacrosse commit will be almost as rare as the soccer or baseball commit.

Don’t disagree with all this. The college applications arms race is getting out of hand. I what were once target and safety schools are becoming reach schools. But when I say punching down, I’m thinking about people commuting to low d1 schools when they can go to a high d3 or people committing to a low d1 or d2 or d3 schools for the sake of committing when they could go to an amazing MCLA school. But in the end, any kid that gets into any school is a good thing even if they punched down just to say they committed. Everyone has their own priorities