<p>My neighbor’s son is asking me for assistance, since I am from MN originally and pretty familiar with Carleton and have a few relatives who are alums. He is a prospective physics (maybe chem) major, very strong in math, and good enough to be a high-level D3 or lower-level D1 lacrosse recruit. Finishing up his junior year and has been contacted by a number of coaches. Neighbor kid absolutely loves everything he has read/heard about Carleton, but really wants to continue playing lacrosse on the varsity level (not club) in college.</p>
<p>I don’t know exact stats, but he did mention 32 ACT composite, 780M/670V/690W on SAT (I think that W # is correct, the first two are for sure). Grades are good, but not great… I think around 3.5 UW, albeit in honors and AP curriculum at competitive NoVA h.s. - weighted GPA is somewhere in top 25%, so can’t be too shabby!</p>
<p>Anyway, I guess I’m wondering where some of y’all prospective (or current) Carleton students looked for similar atmosphere and strong physical sciences. A couple schools that came to mind in a quickie search were Bates, Haverford (a little small?), Swarthmore (reach?), Wesleyan (ditto?), Oberlin. Maybe Colgate, Colby or Dickinson, though those are a bit preppier and frattier in feel, I would think, which he doesn’t want. </p>
<p>Colorado College and Hendrix also have/will have lax - not sure if he wants to go that far west, but are either remotely similar to Carleton?</p>
<p>Thanks for any help you can provide in adding to/subtracting from this list, and providing any insight about the schools I mentioned!</p>
<p>First, check out this web-site … <a href=“http://www.laxpower.com/common/college_men.php[/url]”>http://www.laxpower.com/common/college_men.php</a> … it shows 138 DIII programs for lacrosse. DIII schools, at least in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, are more likely to have lacrosse varsity teams than, ironically, DI or DII schools. Using geographic, schools size, and major constraints this list will shrink a lot … then I would check all the remaining schools. DIII schools for the most part do not have a lot of bucks for recruiting so these coaches will probably be very receptive to prospective players contacting them (they probably have a contact form on their team web-page). In particular check out these leagues … North Coast (Ohio including Oberlain) … the NESCAC (Williams, Amherst, etc) … and the Centennial (near Philly) … for schools somewhat like Carleton.</p>
<p>Second, I would do a school search independent of lacrosse and then see if these schools of interest have lacrosse. I’d also then investigate similar schools to these initial interests … for example, on the Princeton Review website it will list schools that kids interested in Carlton are also typically interested in (and maybe these similar schools field varsity lacrosse teams). FYI - if being in the midwest is part of the draw of Carleton that will limit the lacrosse choices quite bit.</p>
<p>Colgate is Div I lacrosse, athletic scholarships and ranked in the top 25 in the country. Very different level than the Div III schools mentioned above (all of which are very strong at the Div III level). I’d add Middlebury (in NESCAC) to the list of schools mention above; lots of similarities to Carleton.</p>
<p>Sorry, I should have indicated that I, and my neighbor’s family, are pretty knowledgeable about the various lacrosse programs out there, so I was hoping for a bit more of a fit/feel comparison than anything, for those that have visited Carleton and other schools common for cross-applicants.</p>
<p>Colgate might be a little out of his league in the lacrosse departement (they are better now, evidently, than they were historically). That said, lacrosse is one sport where the dividing line between D1/2/3 talent is pretty blurry, as the top D3 teams like Salisbury or Gettysburg would paste about half the D1 teams. But there are definitely more D3 teams out there, and neighbor’s son sounds like he’d be more interested, and a bit fit at a top LAC in D3.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Princeton Review suggestion - I forgot about the “other schools” feature. Coincidentally, many of the schools mentioned above are on the Carleton list, so I must not have been too far off.</p>