Is there anyway to make lacrosse look less elite and privileged on a college application?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| I know, I know but hear me out. DS is a junior at a Mont Co DCC school and loves lacrosse. Picked it up his freshman year after not making the very competitive soccer team in the fall. Had never touched a stick before the first day of tryouts. This is not a school stacked with private school/private club kids whose fathers played D1 and kids that have been playing since they are 5. JV and Varsity are essentially no cuts and every year kids who play work hard to recruit their soccer, football and wrestling friends so there are enough kids to fill the squads. This team regularly gets beaten by other DCC schools and smoked by upcounty W schools. Is there any way to address this in an application? "Yes I'm a white kid who plays lacrosse but I'm not THAT kind of white kid that plays lacrosse?" |
Anonymous
|
depending on where your kid goes to school (public or private) is going to tell colleges a lot more about the privileged or elite factor than whether or not he plays lacrosse.
Public school? Don't worry about this |
Anonymous
| You're overthinking this. Just let him put lax down on his list of ECs. There are bigger things to worry about like grades and essays. |
Anonymous
| You are ridiculous OP |
Anonymous
|
Title: Player & Teammate Recruiter
Org: xyz HS Lacrosse: no-cut ___ program built from soccer, wrestling & football recruits Description: Picked up a stick on the first day of freshman tryouts without any background. Though we're outmatched most days, I've recruited friends, built a team and earned my place. |
Anonymous
Aw, thanks. Bless your heart. |
Anonymous
Include your polo events and write an essay about how you lovingly care for your polo horses yourself, grooms be damned? Lacrosse will look like you're positively slumming it by comparison 
DD sails with her father and rides on horseback. Applications that look full pay are not looked down upon these days, OP. Your kid is not getting a poverty boost if he lives in this area and your family is more than lower working class. He's white so he's not getting a ethnicity boost either. Thus: dwelling on the low caliber of his lacrosse team is unhelpful. It will just mean your kid is bad at his chosen sport - don't do that to him, please. |
Anonymous
|
A lot of people say not to write the essay about sports, but I disagree. This is a case where he could write the essay to highlight some positive aspects of his character -- his willingness to try a new sport, to stick with it even when some rivals were obviously more experienced and polished, etc. (I'll bet this suggestion is going to get hammered, LOL.)
|
Anonymous
I love this description, definitely sounds like Sara Harberson activity listing. |
Anonymous
Huh? It sounds like your kids have lots of resources to be engaged in elite activities. And if that is part of who they are, then reflecting it in their application is reflecting reality. If you're a sailor or a polo player or a lax player that does not come from a high level of resources, you might want to take care that your application reflects your reality. Why have the admissions Department misunderstand the reality of an applicant? |
Anonymous
don't apologize for what you have and offer your child. |
Anonymous
| Isn't it a good thing for a public school to appear "privileged and elite" in this climate to show that you are full pay? My kid plays lacrosse also and I had no concerns at all about how it comes across. My kid's lacrosse team fees are nothing compared to my other kid's club soccer fees and private music lessons and expensive summer programs. |
Anonymous
100% but only if you are really full pay. If applying for aid, screwed. |
Anonymous
| OP here - we are not full pay - lower end of the donut hole and worse off now due to the implosion of DH and my industry under Trump. We are chasing merit. |
Anonymous
| Call it stickball? |