Here is one set of D3 lacrosse rankings and there are many excellent academic institutions on the list.
https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/media/rankings/college/division-3-women
My daughter plays a different D3 sport. In her sport, D3 coaches can contact players at any time, including freshman year of high school. The contact rules that are frequently mentioned are D1 rules.
The student athlete combination at D3 is excellent. It has allowed my daughter to play her sport, plus go to an excellent academic college and pursue additional interests at college. Based on her D1 friends, that mix is very hard at D1, except for Ivies. Ivies have a better balance than other D1.
Good Luck.
@Hippo21 I agree they can communicate at any time with D3 but my current sophomore’s experience has been that most will tell the players to keep in touch but that they’re focused on the current junior class. This makes total sense of course!
For example my daughter just sent an update yesterday to many coaches saying that she was selected for UA150, and we can see that many have gone and viewed her profile and videos but the ones who wrote back mostly said congrats and keep sending stuff until this summer when they are looking more at the 2021’s.
@TexasMathDad FYI having your daughter apply to something like the UA150 might be a good idea for next year. It’s too late for this year but it’s open to rising sophomores and juniors so she has another chance. The application opens in the late fall, they tell you about acceptance in February and the event is in July in Baltimore. It might be something good to have on her athletic resume and college coaches attend and work with the girls (last year many top D3 schools were there). Because it’s a competitive application process it’s best to send film and recommendations from coaches to improve her chances of selection so it’s good you’re already thinking like that now.
https://www.underarmour150.com/
FWIW, I would rate your daughter quite objectively in terms of lax and academics first. “Might not be D1 level for lax” could mean many things, but be realistic.
I suggest you find some high-academic D1 commits with film on Hudl, SportsRecruits, etc. and compare to your daughter. That is the bar she needs to meet at a minimum. If she isn’t within range of that then think D3, which is a great option and she will actually see the field.
Getting recruited is an expensive journey so make sure you are realistically in the range before you start writing checks.
As far as D2 schools with good academics I didn’t see mentioned above, Bentley and St. Michael’s are both Fiske-rated. I would still look to D3 for the best opportunity if your D is higher academic than athletic.
Sorry for the sequential comments. Anticipating the question of how you find Ivy commits before they are on campus? There are some clubs that are pretty reliable Ivy feeders: STEPS, Liberty, Mass Elite are a few. They usually list commits on their websites and you can Google from there now that LaxPower is sadly defunct.
With legacy status at Dartmouth, a camp there could be worthwhile. The feedback will be helpful because you’re likely to consider it, right? It’d help to know whether lax could be part of the picture for her there.
My daughter chose not to play college lacrosse but the camps/showcases that generated the most interest for my Ivy/NESCAC focused kid were Lacrosse Masters and Elite 180. She attended both events during the summers prior to sophomore and junior year. Elite 180 was great! My daughter liked that she got to play, rather than having to do drills, and spend one-on-one time with coaches. She was able to get to know coaches and they her. Many of the same coaches who attend Lacrosse Masters attend Elite 180 so there is a certain familiarity there too.
She also played in the WNT and received a ton of interest from that. All the coaches in attendance had access to her academic and athletic information as well as her game schedule. She was contacted throughout the summer/fall by coaches looking to fill roster spots but none of the schools were an academic match. Your daughter may have better luck. WNT tryouts are happening now so she might still be able to tryout for your state’s team.
Aside from attending camps/showcases, all the recruited young women we know come from well-connected clubs. A club coach with established relationships at colleges your daughter would like to attend is invaluable. Best of luck!
I can share my DDs experience. She played for a club team and the tournaments that generated the most interest were the President’s Cup, the Capital Cup, and the Champion’s Cup. It was through those tournaments that she eventually found her lax home. Academically, she was on the accelerated math and science track. She took all the honors classes offered at our school, 6 AP courses and one dual enrollment course. She is in NHS and a scholar athlete at her HS. She ultimately decided that a D2 school was the right fit for her as it offered a good balance between strong academics and a competitive lacrosse program. She intends to major in Health Science and be premed so she picked a school that has an almost 90% acceptance rate to medical school. I would encourage your daughter to write to the coaches attending her tournaments letting them know she will be there. Due to the rules she will not get a reply back but the coaches WILL come and watch her games. She should really take the time over the next year to learn the programs, take a look at the majors of the girls on the rosters of the schools she may be interested in, and see what schools may be a good fit for her.
Son was very similar to your daughter both academically and athletically. Recruited by lots of D-1s but not at the highest academic levels. He chose one of the Claremont colleges and has been extremely happy. You may also want to check out U. of Chicago, Carleton, and MIT. For those in my son’s sport, they are definitely recruiting, and their team has been improving each and every year.
FWIW, Carleton does not have a wlax program. I did inquire in 2014 or so if they planned on adding one and was told there were no plans to do so. But that might have changed.
Players from my D’s club are at MIT and U of C and seeing time on the field as frosh, so if you have the academics to get in and are a mid-D1 level player you can probably play right away.
@TexasMathDad - Were there any girls on your D’s club or HS team that signed with colleges this year?
This will tell you the quality of the program your child is in. She can still be great, but you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to get her noticed.
Also, what type of school do you think she wants to go to? Stem? Big state school? Small LAC? Ivy League?
Finally, Can you afford any school or is financial aid part of the deal?
If you can answer these Q’s we will be able to give you a lot better advice.
I agree with @BobcatPhoenix about looking into MIT. The coach was quite candid. She answered all of our questions including the big one about a guaranteed roster spot. But your D must have the academics to be admitted on her own. We were told time and again that MIT recruits the student first.
My daughter plays D2 at Tiffin University – she was not a top D1 recruit but a solid player on a very good HS team (that had many D1 recruits) – she got a nice merit scholarship there and she is definitely a top student there but she loves it and does get to play and make an impact. They are hovering in the top 25 D2 teams – so D2 or D3 isn’t always less competitive; I have seen some D3 teams that could wipe the floor with some D1 teams.
An interesting thing about MIT roster is that there are 3 from the same school. This is unusual, and even more unusual that it is a school in Houston, TX (not exactly a lacrosse hotbed).
Someone at that school knows how to get students into MIT.
@twoinanddone, St. John’s School has four alums who currently play for Northwestern, so I guess they are a pretty strong feeder program!
But if MIT isn’t recruiting or giving a preference, someone knows how to get the kids into MIT on academics alone. It is not a school I’ve seen ranked nationally like McDonogh or SSSA, but there is someone who is knowledgeable about recruiting getting their names out there.
OP is from Texas and, IMO, his daughter will have a harder time getting recruited unless he’s very actively promoting her. A lot of the advice is to go to the showcases, but that’s hard to do if your club doesn’t go to them (or can’t get into them-registration is limited). If OP lives near Houston, he could find out what magic the coach at St John’s is using to get his kids noticed. It is a lot harder to be recruited if you are from an area where there isn’t the same level of competition or the same camp/showcase opportunities.
There is a D2 team in Florida with 5 kids from Colorado, but not from the same high school. I suspect they all played for the same club team and some club coach is friendly with one of the college coaches. Some high school teams play together as a club team too and travel to the showcases.