UNC's lacrosse recruiter left over the summer. I wonder if he was smart to see this coming. Now he is in the same position at UPenn.
UPenn just publicly committed a 2018. A high school freshman with no grades, no scores. From a lacrosse evaluation perspective, the recruiting tournaments for clubs in fall don't start until this weekend.
This is lunacy. An Ivy League school allowing a coach this latitude? I am sure this kid is an exceptional lacrosse player, but if I had a UPenn degree I would feel pretty embarrassed and offended by these admissions spot hall passes for kids with junior high school transcripts. Most applicants to UPenn submit perfect grades and scores into their senior year, and most of them don't get in.
Who is the commit? From Long Island?
Must be either PA/NJ/LI or NE. The Canadians and MD kids generally do not go IVY (there are exceptions so don't go crazy). Now, before we all get crazy, keep in mind that this kid does not even have a "likely" letter and certainly has not passed through admissions. All he has done is commit to the admissions process when the time comes. If he doesn't get the grades, he will not get in and he'll play elsewhere. No winks or faint promises will get the kid in - he will have to earn it although for sure he can get in with grades below the avg penn applicant - but they still have to be very strong grades and test scores before he gets his "likely" letter. Unfortunately, we're now likely to see a bunch of these "diaper" committed to the admissions process announcements from the other IVYs too. Just grin and bear it.
I'll tell you what's crazy though. A kid committing to High Point over Cornell. Clearly a 4 year lax decision and not a 40 year consideration.
How do you know? Have you spoken to the kid or his family? Could it be that Cornell is over his head and he would rather a higher gpa at High Point? Could he want to be a teacher or police officer and thus could not justify the additional debt at Cornell? Could he not want to shovel snow before practice or play February games in Ithaca? Maybe he got an offer he couldn't refuse or maybe he fell in love with the High Point campus. Or better yet, maybe he just couldn't stand being around people like you for 4 years, not everyone wants to take over the world. Considering the kid goes to one of the toughest high schools in the country, I'd say it's fair to assume that he and his family put a lot of thought into this decision and came away with High Point being the best decision for him. I guess they should have called you first though…
Or maybe he just wants to work for a IVY grad.
Sorry to tell you, but I can wipe my hide quarters with many Ivy league degrees. Many of these people are social misfits with a unique ability to regurgitate information. When it comes to real world application, many are incapable of transferring their supposed superior intellect. Do yourself and your son a favor, pick a school based on fit. Not US News rankings. Ask yourself this question: How legitimate could these "IVY" degrees be? Are they really taking the best students? Half the kids accepted are from "unrepresented groups" that go for free, with academic records far below those of many of the rejected pool of applicants. These rejected applicants just also happen to be from the current racial majority. Now, use your IVY degree to follow here. If these under qualified applicants can make it through, how difficult could it be? Ahhh the smoke and mirrors are lifted. Here's one for you IVY nuts. Recently, a news show interviewed 6 random students on the campus of Harvard. They were asked: Who is a greater threat to world peace? ISIS or the United States. ALL six students said the United States... Is that what they're teaching these days???
