California has mostly larger colleges, so any “jock culture” from varsity athletes tends to be well diluted among the large student populations, unlike at very small colleges where varsity athletes may be as high as a third or more of the student population.
Tell your daughter to come south - I’m not even sure what lacrosse is. haha
S2 is white, privileged, and played lacrosse. He knows his “I don’t care what you think of me” attitude can be abrasive. No offense taken on the discussion. Carry on.
When I was in college the football players were an order of magnitude worse than the lax players. Hockey was pretty chill but they were mostly from Canada.
Our HS football players are also the lax players, which typically includes a handful of All-Americans. D wants to get far away from that environment.
I’m tired of political correctness, frankly. Lax bros can be pretty obnoxious, unless you’re one of them, like my son. Bash away, I say. I’m enjoying this thread. Long live lax bros, potheads, preppies, hipsters, tree-hugging vegetarians, and everybody!
My kids’ high school in AZ has a Lax club. It’s not an official high school team but D14 says when she was there kids followed Lax and volleyball more than the football team. Other than that I’ve never heard of Lax out here at all.
Re water polo being the lax equivalent in the West: yeah, maybe; but how 'bout men’s volleyball? Karch Kiraly always seemed like a bit of a VB bro.
I don’t think the spirit of the thread is mean at all. OP’s daughter wants something very specific in her college, and I think she’s smart to ask the question before driving to Gettysburg or F&M and running into a huge group of stick waving students; they do tend to travel in packs. I was just pointing out that she’ll be knocking a lot of colleges off her list if that’s important to her. Not that different than a student that wants no religion has to take BC, Georgetown and ND off the list, or someone who wants a drug free campus will not be going to Reed. The schools OP’s daughter has asked about (Haverford, Skidmore) are in Lax Country. It is hard to escape in New England or the Atlantic states.
My daughter got $$$ for playing lacrosse in college, so I’m definitely ‘pro.’ I know a lot of kids who went to top schools to play and they aren’t dumb jocks (BC, Virginia, ND, Georgetown). Her opinion is like @Magnetron son -she doesn’t care what others think of her and isn’t going to change.
“On another thread, you asked if D should consider Haverford if considering Bryn Mawr. Haverford has a huge Lax Bro culture and there is no way that doesn’t carry over to BMC.”
To call it huge is a misrepresentation. Haverford has lacrosse players some of which might be bro-ish but it doesn’t have a bro culture, IMO. Haverford is unique in that athletes get very little if any lift in admissions from being an athlete. Athletes make up a large portion of the Haverford student body given the small student population but it isn’t overtly “jocky”. The athletes tend to be very intellectual as well.
Carleton has been mentioned but it does have a men’s lacrosse club. Maybe it’s not in the leagues of full bro culture but there is a team. S19 is looking at schools that offer lax.
Is it wrong that I’m reading this thread to see if there are any lax schools he hasn’t explored yet. Ha He knows his midwest team is not near the competitive level of the East Coast schools but it has been good for him.
The only sports team in my memory that was ever suspended for hazing in my district was the lacrosse team one year. The hazing was so bad that if they hadn’t been 7th graders, they probably would have been arrested.
Yes, Carleton has LAX, and many other sports, but it is not a school that serious athletes go to, nor one in which athletes are favored, in general. They are often in the cellar in the MIAC standings, whatever the sport. There are exceptions, but…
I mean, if the OP’s D doesn’t want ANY sports at all at the school, then Carleton won’t work, but that’s not what I understood to be the case.
@doschicos I want to correct the impression that Haverford doesn’t do athletic recruiting. In My DS’s senior year of HS, 4 students from his class of 90 were recruited to Haverford as athletes. My understanding is that the next year Haverford continued to recruit from that HS. It was thought by everyone that those students did get a “lift”.
Nevertheless, I think Haverford is wonderful – I go walking/jogging there all the time. Just a bit too close to home for my kiddo.
btw: I don’t know what Lax Bro culture is, but I am pretty certain that CMU doesn’t have many of them.
Haverford absolutely recruits, but what is different about recruiting at Haverford is that going through the admissions pre-read and getting the “green light” does not provide the same level of certainty as it does at peer schools. CC and in the NY Times series on recruiting at Haverford have stories showing that acceptance through ED1 as a Haverford recruit is very much an unknown. For the recruit, the risk is that, if they are deferred at ED1, the recruiting spots at most similar schools have been filled through their own ED1 recruiting, with the Haverford recruit left with few desirable options. Haverford athletic recruiting is probably more like it is at MIT – it sure helps to be on the coach’s list, but being a recruit who has gotten green light after the pre-read could still means it could go either way and the recruit just has to wait it out.
What I find sad about this discussion is the assumptions that are being made on the basis of a sports affiliation. There are plenty of boys that play lax and don’t fit the “lax bro” stereotype. In our town, the lax kids come from a diverse mix of socioeconomic backgrounds and they are actually the ones that party the least.
@HMom16 I agree with you about not painting with such a broad brush, as it can really depend on team culture. My D3 athlete says the lax players he knows on a top 10 D3 program are polite, respectful, good guys – the coach builds a culture of respect and only recruits guys who fit his program. For me – as the parent of a D3 athlete – it isn’t a single sport, but a particular swagger that can stem from any sport or background. And as much as I adore having boys, having a kitchen full of hungry boys, listening to the sound of boys playing video games or basketball – some of it also just comes with the 18-24 year old male territory and even among wonderful, sweet, caring young men, the swagger and puffed out chest can appear.
And yes, athletes in season are not generally not partying hard if they want to see the field . . .
Lacrosse is at southern schools - just look at Duke. And for the ultimate in the lax bro stereotype - google Duke lacrosse and chaminade high school from several years ago. The Duke lacrosse team’s hiring of strippers to perform at their parties led to false criminal charges and ruined boys lives.
There are lax bros who don’t play lax, and there are lax players who aren’t lax bros. I think all women’s schools are your best bet for avoiding this “type”. Many urban schools will be fine too.
It would probably be helpful to the OP to come up with a better description of what she wants to avoid in terms of vibe. I have my own idea of what she means, but it probably isn’t what others think…
Ah yes, it would be shocking to hear that women’s colleges have “too many lesbians,” for example. I’ve never heard that in my entire life!
“Lacrosse is at southern schools - just look at Duke. And for the ultimate in the lax bro stereotype - google Duke lacrosse and chaminade high school from several years ago. The Duke lacrosse team’s hiring of strippers to perform at their parties led to false criminal charges and ruined boys lives.”
Better yet, watch the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “Fantastic Lies” which is about the infamous “Duke lacrosse case.” I don’t know that those boys had their lives ruined. In the end, they were saved from a rogue DA because their parents had the money to hire top defense attorneys. To their credit, a lot of those players have spoken out about the fact that things could have turned out differently if they had been poor minorities.