<p>LAC's - Any Patriot League school (Colgate, Holy Cross, Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, American) , and throw in Davidson too...schools that are relatively small and in a couple of cases very small that are strong academically but also pretty competitive in Division 1 athletics (with the exception of football, where most are Div 1AA)</p>
<p>Given your ACT score of 28 and your preference for good academics and big sports scene, I suggest the following schools which are all ranked from 25-50 in the USNWR survey. I include their standardized test scores, acceptance rate and % of OOS students to assist in placing your score in context and judging how hard it might be to gain acceptance.</p>
<p>ACT of 28 = SAT score range of 1240-1270 (1255 Average)</p>
<p>1370, 25%, 47% USC
1340, 43%, 76% Wake Forest
1335, 29%, 74% Boston College
1325, 37%, 33% U Virginia
1295, 26%, 7% UCLA
1290, 34%, 18% U North Carolina
1250, 48%, 6% U Florida
1225, 57%, 7% U Texas
1190, 68%, 18% U Washington
1180, 58%, 15% Penn State</p>
<p>Schools with substantial numbers of ACT applicants
29, 47%, 33% U Michigan
28, 58%, 38% U Wisconsin
27, 65%, 7% U Illinois</p>
<p>Should you want to expand this list, the next group of schools, ranked 50-60, would include GW, Syracuse, U Miami (FL), U Maryland, Ohio State, U Pittsburgh, U Georgia, Rutgers.</p>