If this athlete scores in the 90th percentile or better on the SATs, then being a great/recruited lacrosse player with a 3.5 in non-honors will get him into all of the aforementioned schools and -- if he is already garnering this kind of attention from lax programs -- probably even better. The SAT has been, and will always be, the real determining factor in college admissions.
With rank in class often not disclosed, grade inflation (and in some cases recently grade deflation), and no real way to differentiate High School X's non-honors curriculum from High School Y's honors curriculum, the SAT always makes the difference.
For example, Regis High School has no AP classes, yet every NY public high school offers every conceivable AP class. I would venture a guess that the non-AP classes at Regis are, on average, more competitive and probably cover more ground than the AP curriculum elsewhere. On the other hand, AP classes at one of the trophy publics (like Bronx HS of Science) are probably even more competitive.
Fortunately for the average student lacrosse athlete applying to college, neither school plays lacrosse.
