Post Graduate. I believe it was originally used by wealthy families whose kids didn’t have the grade coming out of HS to get into elite universities. It than became a way for student athletes who didn’t have the grades to get into a college even with the help of a coach. Many athletes from many sports use the PG year in order to get into college. Many college coaches would like all of their recruits to do a PG year.
Aside from this Stanford story..
While prep schools happen for kids from wealthy and non traditional hot beds for lacrosse, the PG year is not necessarily common. If you have a good player and student that already plays in a hot bed why would you waste the 70k and take the kid away from friends and family?
It seems that PGing is more common on the boys side and whether from a hotbed or not it is a way for the kid to improve their grades and test scores so the coach can get the kid through admissions at the most competitive universities. I believe that in the vast majority of cases the player will have a commitment from the college coach before doing the PG year. They go in knowing that they will be attending Duke, Yale, Princeton, Harvard etc… I do not believe many are paying full freight. I’m sure for some (especially boys) it is a great opportunity even if it is not used to get into one of the most competitive universities. Late bloomers are much more common with boys the extra year to mature academically, physically and socially can be beneficial especially for a kid that is young for the grade.
