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.