Whether it is right or it is wrong, some kids may choose a lower academic D1 for the experience over a better academic D3. It does go both ways. I am not saying one way is right or wrong. If you are recruited by say Penn State and Tufts, what do you do? To each his own.
I do not think that this is the scenario that the poster was envisioning, a prior post mentioned Drexel (not knocking Drexel in any way), so the discussion was really more focused on a kid choosing Drexel for the D1 experience over a much higher
rated (academically) D3 school. A kid that is getting recruited by Penn State is in a much different category talent wise than the kid getting recruited by Drexel, and probably 75% of the other D1 schools. However, using your example, I would probably go with Tufts, a top recruit would get a lot of playing time, get an amazing education and be in a position to perhaps win one or more national championships, and as another poster noted earlier, many of the D3 schools offer equal, if not better, financial packages than the D1 schools
