Where is the demarcation line for choosing a college/university primarily for academics and secondarily for lacrosse for your child if your child is leveraging lacrosse to get into a school they would otherwise not get into? On a 50+ person roster, assume your child will get 1/4 to 1/5 of tuition/yr so $32k to $60k off over 4 years using $40k to $60k/yr for tuition at out of state public vs private. Also assume no merit, academic or financial aid so you are paying full price aside from any athletic help.

My personal feeling is that you always choose Ivy if given the chance, even though you will pay full price. In the ACC, Duke, UVA, Carolina, ND are all easy choices. Hopkins and Michigan are easy choices in the Big 10. I am not including the service academies as they are their own animals.

As you get further down in these conferences and into the other conferences with regard to academic standing, at what point to you shift your attention to the top D3 academic schools; NESCACs, W&L, etc?

Do you send an academically gifted student to a low level Patriot League or MAAC school for the money and the "my child plays D1" or do you send them to Tufts or Amherst for what those schools will do for them during and after college?

This is meant as an honest question and not as a shot at any particular school or conference and based on the rankings found in US News, WSJ, etc.