Originally Posted by Anonymous
my daughter went through the process just 3 years ago. it was an eye opening experience. first she was not a top d1 recruit but a mid level one. she was asked by a mid level d1 college to come visit and discuss the possibility of playing at their school. the coach proceeded to tell us that most freshman get very little athletic money and most of their aid comes from academics ( we had this conversation before with other schools). she then proceeded to tell us about the amount of time that was to be spent playing/practicing. it was almost 20 hours per week and that did not include travel time for away games. i then asked what was the 4 year graduation rate of the team and it was only 40%. she told me most kids go an extra year. so the school was $60,000 per year all included. so what ever money they gave me i would be paying back to them later on. needless to say my daughter decided that she wanted to go to a d3 school with a team graduation rate of 90% in 4 years and got plenty of academic money and still plays lacrosse. the best of all worlds. ask yourself how may hours your daughter will commit to playing and can she handle a real class work load and get good grades? also a question everyone should find out is what is the TEAM graduation rate in 4 years and what percentage of kids stop playing or transfer to another school in the first 2 years due to lack of playing time or burn out of being over worked. it take a very special kid to have a balanced school/social/athletic life at most d1 schools. and i don't think a kid in 8th or 9th grade really knows how much work is ahead of them at a d1 level program when the commit. parents please be fair to your kids let them enjoy the game and have the same college experience you did. help them make the right choice and not just based on the fact that it is a d1 lacrosse program.
great post and don't forget that unless you are a top player, most teams want you in certain majors and not ones that require big commitments. Middle and bottom roster players need to register in majors the coaches approve of. The top players can do whatever they want