It is very hard to listen to all the odd obsessions and chest pounding on these threads when it comes to choosing schools and putting other people’s choices down. Playing NCAA Women’s lacrosse is a balance of competition and academics, find your daughter’s balance.
The first list is the 2021 Final Coaches Poll Ranking. If Lacrosse is the most important thing to your daughter, stay high on the list, seems pretty simple. This is the list made by the coaches of all the teams, probably the best indicator you will find. Most of these teams are common to the top 20, there are a couple missing that sometimes you see in the top 20. There is movement every year, this is how they stacked up last year.
The second list is a 2021 Composite Academic Ranking list (TOP 20, some have no W Lax teams). If Academics is the most important thing to your daughter, stay high on the list, seems pretty simple. This list is a composed from many sources. There are many, many organizations that rank the academics, so depending on what list you look at (Forbes, US News, Fortune, CNBC, Niche etc…) you will find a different ranking. Very standard is the top 7 of the following list, stay at the top of any and all those lists. Again it is a composite ranking, it takes all the most popular lists, compiles all those results into one final list for 2021 (This list is much more stable that the lax rankings year to year).
The point to this post is stop trying to put other peoples college choices down because they don't align with your own, find your own balance.
2021 IWLCA Division I Coaches Poll – June 1, 2021
1 Boston College
2 Syracuse
3 North Carolina
4 Northwestern
5 Stony Brook
6 Notre Dame
7 Florida
8 Duke
9 Loyola Maryland
10 Maryland
11 Virginia
12 James Madison
13 Denver
14 Rutgers
15 Drexel
16 Stanford
17 Johns Hopkins
18 Jacksonville
19 Temple
20 Massachusetts
2021 Top Academic Colleges Composite Ranking
#1 Stanford University
#2 Harvard University
#3 California Institute of Technology - Caltech
#4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
#5 University of California, Berkeley
#6 Yale University
#7 Princeton University
#8 University of Chicago
#9 Johns Hopkins University
#10 University of Pennsylvania
#11 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
#12 Columbia University
#13 Cornell University
#14 Duke University
#15 University of Michigan
#16 Northwestern University
#17 New York University
#18 Carnegie Mellon University
#19 University of Washington
#20 University of California, San Diego
Lol, I don't know where you got your academic rankings, but this is the gold standard that came out yesterday. Way off from your rankings.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universitiesDoes it really matter which list ?? All of the universities on the lists are excellent.
At a quick glance it looks like a total of 16 schools that offer DI Women's Lacrosse made one or both of the lists that means if girls are looking to use lacrosse to help them get into a great academic school maybe 120 players from around the country will have the opportunity.
If the player wants to go to a Top 20 caliber school as well as play for a top 20 caliber lacrosse program your looking at approximately 8 (in a given year) schools approximately 60 players from around the country will have that opportunity.
If the player wants the opportunity to go to a top 10 caliber school and a top 10 caliber lacrosse program there are maybe 4 or 5 schools (in a given year)so you are looking at approximately 30 - 35 players from around the country.
How many Long Island players have a realistic shot at go to play at one of these schools?
The large majority of players will not be going to schools on these lists that is just reality.
Try to find the best fit, there are a lot of great opportunities out there.
Good Luck to All
The only schools that offer top 10 lacrosse and top 10 academics are Northwestern. Oh yea, just one. Close contenders are Princeton, Penn, Duke. Close and looking in are Hopkins, Stanford.
All pretty silly but I will play along.
In the past five "full seasons of play" only 10 teams have finished the season ranked in the Top 20 every year. They are:
Maryland
North Carolina
Boston College
Syracuse
Northwestern
Princeton
Virginia
Stony Brook
Florida
Penn
Based on actual performance, the above are arguably the Top 10 Programs.
2020 was a shortened season with no Tournament so we don't know what would have happened and 2021 was not a "regular season".
Pretty sure Princeton checks all the boxes for being considered Top 10 Academically as well as being one of the Top 10 Women's Lacrosse Programs.
Below are the Final Rankings 2015 - 2019 for Northwestern and Princeton:
Northwestern
2015 - 6
2016 - 12
2017 - 13
2018 - 8
2019 - 4
Average Rank: 8.6
Princeton
2015 - 9
2016 - 15
2017 - 7
2018 - 10
2019 - 6
Average Rank: 9.4
Penn Finished the season in the Top 20 every year but only 1 Top 10 finish.
Stanford finished the season ranked in the Top 20 in 3 of the 5 years with 1 Top 10 finish.
Notre Dame finished in the Top 20 in 4 of the 5 years and finished 2X in the Top 10.
Duke used to be a perennial Top 20 program, many times ending the season in the Top 10 and going to the Final Four but has been inconsistent the past few years.
Johns Hopkins is very competitive, they consistently finish the season in the 15 - 25 range (not top 10) but certainly one of the Top 20 - 25 Programs.
I believe the post that you are responding to said "Top 10 caliber" meaning they have been Top 10 from time to time (not many programs can say that), Princeton certainly is Top 10 academically as well as Lacrosse. Penn, Stanford and Duke have been there, Hopkins is on the bubble for Lacrosse and Notre Dame is pretty darn good with both academics and lacrosse.
