lax culture from an insider

[Anonymous]

It hardly ever happens unless you can't maintain your grades.

College coaches don't have the balls to drop a kid merely based on talent - they will recruit 3 more kids that play your sons position and advise you to look at other schools.

[Anonymous]

It does happen a lot more than you'd guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It hardly ever happens unless you can't maintain your grades.

College coaches don't have the balls to drop a kid merely based on talent - they will recruit 3 more kids that play your sons position and advise you to look at other schools.

Thats pretty much the same thing. All these people who are gunning for early commits for their 9th graders to the Ivies should realize it won't happen. Other places like Hopkins, UVA sure. But it's still not a guarantee like the basketball and football letters of intent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all four of the kids are current sophomores - not freshman so they have taken the PSAT and could have taken an AP course.

My son doesn't play lacrosse but knows two of the boys who made commitments - be happy for all the boys involved.

95% of D1 schools who make verbals, keep their promise. The boys who made the verbals need to maintain their current grades / GPA average and board scores in order to be accepted. So if these kids think they can slack off, think again.

Personally, I think its a good thing. These boys know now when they are sophomores, if they maintain their current GPA and scores they will be accepted into one of the top schools in the country.

Not too shabby.

You have no idea what you are talking about. It is NOT 95% of schools that stick to their verbal offers. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

In Lacrossee I bet you 80 percent of the kids who make verbals, end up going to the school where they originally committed to.

Obviously nothing is set and stone until you sign the NLI, November of your senior year.

I know what I'm talking about as my nephew is going through the process now ans my oldest son went through it two seasons ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all four of the kids are current sophomores - not freshman so they have taken the PSAT and could have taken an AP course.

My son doesn't play lacrosse but knows two of the boys who made commitments - be happy for all the boys involved.

95% of D1 schools who make verbals, keep their promise. The boys who made the verbals need to maintain their current grades / GPA average and board scores in order to be accepted. So if these kids think they can slack off, think again.

Personally, I think its a good thing. These boys know now when they are sophomores, if they maintain their current GPA and scores they will be accepted into one of the top schools in the country.

Not too shabby.

You have no idea what you are talking about. It is NOT 95% of schools that stick to their verbal offers. Not even close.

The PSAT scores that count are when they take it in Junior year. They probably took the practice test. The kids are my DC school that committed this early in no way were the academic stars of the class. They got in to top schools because of lacrosse and pretty much cruised in the easy courses the rest of their HS careers.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this will light a spark in these kids rear ends to bunker down in the classroom.

I've said this before but what difference does it make if you get accepted into an Ivy League school based on Athletics or Daddy's legacy connections. It's all the same.

I know one of one STA lacrosse player who ended up at Harvard not too long ago all because his grandfather was a senator. It's was well know Fact at STA the kid wasn't even close to Harvard material.

[Anonymous]

Last year 3 Princeton lacrosse recruits, another 4 at Penn were declined admission. All of them quietly "decommitted" and found other colleges. One of them was able to squeak into UVA late last spring, but another we know wound up at Loyola in MD which isn't a nearly as strong college. It's been spreading to some other elite colleges. Notre Dame is having problems with admissions for some recruits. Their top kid two years ago wound up having to PG at a boarding school and had to reapply. Duke has had their too recruit rejected in each of the past 4 years. Each time the kids had to go for a PG year and had to reapply. Lacrosse is a minor sport. The coaches have been intent to guide kids who weren't qualified on the academics, and now the admissions offices are saying no at a higher rate. Kids who are Ivy recruits in 9th and 10th grade should be scared straight to get top grades. I think for a lot of these kids the recruiting attention they get can be a good motivator to excel in the classroom. It won't be sad if they do cruise along and don't get in. There are lots of other qualified applicants to these colleges and lacrosse isn't very important to these top academic institutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year 3 Princeton lacrosse recruits, another 4 at Penn were declined admission. All of them quietly "decommitted" and found other colleges. One of them was able to squeak into UVA late last spring, but another we know wound up at Loyola in MD which isn't a nearly as strong college. It's been spreading to some other elite colleges. Notre Dame is having problems with admissions for some recruits. Their top kid two years ago wound up having to PG at a boarding school and had to reapply. Duke has had their too recruit rejected in each of the past 4 years. Each time the kids had to go for a PG year and had to reapply. Lacrosse is a minor sport. The coaches have been intent to guide kids who weren't qualified on the academics, and now the admissions offices are saying no at a higher rate. Kids who are Ivy recruits in 9th and 10th grade should be scared straight to get top grades. I think for a lot of these kids the recruiting attention they get can be a good motivator to excel in the classroom. It won't be sad if they do cruise along and don't get in. There are lots of other qualified applicants to these colleges and lacrosse isn't very important to these top academic institutions.

I agree with your sentiment but think you don't realize that Ivies do care about lacrosse because they care their alum. Typically Ivy alums have given large sums of money. Many Alums DO care about lacrosse and alums that live lax tend to have lots of money. Go to any lacrosse game, whether at the school or at a national tourne,not, and you will seem loads of alums proudly wearing school colors and cheering madly.

[Anonymous]

As an aside, PSAT scores from the fall (October) won't be available until January 7th. So nobody knows how they did yet, and since the test is entirely new this year (to align to the totally new SAT) no one can really predict how kids will do.

[Anonymous]

I'm the Dartmouth poster from yesterday. In response, it may be true that lacrosse programs in the Ivy league get some special influence. I think what the other poster wrote is accurate that influence can be gained via exceptional financial support, but with only one exception I don't see that. At Yale two lacrosse alum families have endowed the entire program and also made material donations to the university. One is a $200+ million donor who was a founder of the Chinese browser company. At the other Ivies there aren't any other examples of lacrosse alums appearing as huge donors and it is important to remember that there are well off donors from all facets of these universities from sports to the arts to the graduate schools. I also know one of Andy Shay's assistants very well and the room for exceptions they have with admissions is very close to zero. Like all other coaching staffs, the one at Yale is well aware there are some bad outcomes coming in the next few years with kids who went carried away with the "committed" position. I do believe that these Ivy staffs are doing their best to recruit strong students who are also strong lacrosse prospects, but the speculation risks attached to kids before their junior year is completed are high. Everyone should understand that for what it is. Good luck to all of the parents and kids aspiring to attend these colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Dartmouth poster from yesterday. In response, it may be true that lacrosse programs in the Ivy league get some special influence. I think what the other poster wrote is accurate that influence can be gained via exceptional financial support, but with only one exception I don't see that. At Yale two lacrosse alum families have endowed the entire program and also made material donations to the university. One is a $200+ million donor who was a founder of the Chinese browser company. At the other Ivies there aren't any other examples of lacrosse alums appearing as huge donors and it is important to remember that there are well off donors from all facets of these universities from sports to the arts to the graduate schools. I also know one of Andy Shay's assistants very well and the room for exceptions they have with admissions is very close to zero. Like all other coaching staffs, the one at Yale is well aware there are some bad outcomes coming in the next few years with kids who went carried away with the "committed" position. I do believe that these Ivy staffs are doing their best to recruit strong students who are also strong lacrosse prospects, but the speculation risks attached to kids before their junior year is completed are high. Everyone should understand that for what it is. Good luck to all of the parents and kids aspiring to attend these colleges.

Thank for coming back! One more question: if great schools like Duke, Standford, UVA, Georgetown and Hopkins can recruit freshmen and sophomores, how do the Ivies expect to compete for the top prospects if they can't really promise a kid a spot until junior year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Dartmouth poster from yesterday. In response, it may be true that lacrosse programs in the Ivy league get some special influence. I think what the other poster wrote is accurate that influence can be gained via exceptional financial support, but with only one exception I don't see that. At Yale two lacrosse alum families have endowed the entire program and also made material donations to the university. One is a $200+ million donor who was a founder of the Chinese browser company. At the other Ivies there aren't any other examples of lacrosse alums appearing as huge donors and it is important to remember that there are well off donors from all facets of these universities from sports to the arts to the graduate schools. I also know one of Andy Shay's assistants very well and the room for exceptions they have with admissions is very close to zero. Like all other coaching staffs, the one at Yale is well aware there are some bad outcomes coming in the next few years with kids who went carried away with the "committed" position. I do believe that these Ivy staffs are doing their best to recruit strong students who are also strong lacrosse prospects, but the speculation risks attached to kids before their junior year is completed are high. Everyone should understand that for what it is. Good luck to all of the parents and kids aspiring to attend these colleges.

Thank for coming back! One more question: if great schools like Duke, Standford, UVA, Georgetown and Hopkins can recruit freshmen and sophomores, how do the Ivies expect to compete for the top prospects if they can't really promise a kid a spot until junior year?

There are two answers. One, some Ivies do give out offers to kids who are freshmen and sophomores; others won't until after the sophomore year (but some will give out soft commitments).

The second is because of academic standards (some more than others) obviously some/many top players would never be interested/accepted into some Ivies.

BTW, Stanford doesn't have a D1 men's program. They play at the club level for men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Dartmouth poster from yesterday. In response, it may be true that lacrosse programs in the Ivy league get some special influence. I think what the other poster wrote is accurate that influence can be gained via exceptional financial support, but with only one exception I don't see that. At Yale two lacrosse alum families have endowed the entire program and also made material donations to the university. One is a $200+ million donor who was a founder of the Chinese browser company. At the other Ivies there aren't any other examples of lacrosse alums appearing as huge donors and it is important to remember that there are well off donors from all facets of these universities from sports to the arts to the graduate schools. I also know one of Andy Shay's assistants very well and the room for exceptions they have with admissions is very close to zero. Like all other coaching staffs, the one at Yale is well aware there are some bad outcomes coming in the next few years with kids who went carried away with the "committed" position. I do believe that these Ivy staffs are doing their best to recruit strong students who are also strong lacrosse prospects, but the speculation risks attached to kids before their junior year is completed are high. Everyone should understand that for what it is. Good luck to all of the parents and kids aspiring to attend these colleges.

Thank for coming back! One more question: if great schools like Duke, Standford, UVA, Georgetown and Hopkins can recruit freshmen and sophomores, how do the Ivies expect to compete for the top prospects if they can't really promise a kid a spot until junior year?

There are two answers. One, some Ivies do give out offers to kids who are freshmen and sophomores; others won't until after the sophomore year (but some will give out soft commitments).

The second is because of academic standards (some more than others) obviously some/many top players would never be interested/accepted into some Ivies.

BTW, Stanford doesn't have a D1 men's program. They play at the club level for men.

Thanks. And FWiW, I have a daughter and Stanford is recruiting for its women's team pretty successfully these days. They have an up and coming D1 women's program and, well, it is Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Best university in the world.