This is exactly right. My D also played a varsity sport at a NESCAC. One of my favorite stories is the team getting back to campus in time for Sunday night dinner. As they were walking into the crowded cafeteria filled with noisy, happy chatter, one of the gals said “they just don’t understand we’ve been at war the last couple of days.” Makes me giggle every time I think about it.
With that said, my D’s friend group was overwhelmingly comprised of other athletes. The athlete parties did open up to all later in the evenings. Well over half of the students were involved with athletics/active pursuits via varsity/club/intramurals and outdoor club, so I feel like at many of the NESCACs if one doesn’t like any of those activities, there will likely be a smaller subset of students to find their peeps.
true, but I think only at small schools will you ever have that high a percentage of athletes! if you happened to have a school with 20K undergrads, I wouldn’t be concerned by the percentage as there would just be a huge absolute number of students.
I think Greek presence is a really similar correlate. I agree with that 100%.
I also think that the divide can feel different for men than women, especially men who were high school athletes. This could impact your line of questioning about this.
My kids are boys who play 3 sports in high school, and who want to continue to be physically active in college. S26 is looking at both schools where he would make the team in his favorite sport if he walked on, but doesn’t choose to, and schools where he probably wouldn’t, but he doesn’t play to try either way.
Dd refused to go to one small remote LAC. She had very valid reasoning. Most students were athletes, belonged to certain groups, or artsy. Since she didn’t belong to any of those categories, she chose to go to another school that unfortunately was very far away, and she wanted to stay close to home. It worked fine.
In her current school she didn’t want Greek life and wanted intramural. Intramural did not happen (only one semester she was able to organize volleyball teams. ) She mentioned that if she would start over, she would probably pledge in one of the Greeks since most students in school belong to one of those. Dd is extremely social, and had made friends before even moving to campus. She has solid group of friends but feels restricted. As a parent, I think she had quite rich college life and many interesting opportunities. It is just she craved for more, and she hates political games that happen in small communities. I don’t believe that such environment maybe suitable for every kid.
My friends with kids doing varsity sports are often at their kids’ colleges, watching games or organizing team events. I imagine having frequent parent presence/involvement at college would influence the vibe.
I think the original question/comment mostly comes from kids/parents who have zero interest in sports, but are concerned that sports are the center of social life. If one’s kid is into playing sports, I’d be less concerned about the fact that there are a lot of athletes. I’d instead focus on the robustness of club and intramural sports at the school.
Also, as others have said, I think the focus on the % of student athletes at LACs is sometimes misguided. The social cultures at two small schools with similar percentages of student athletes can be drastically different. One where varsity teams are the center of social life and parties, another where frats are, and another where neither is. Just like D1 schools where the culture around sports is not all the same (e.g., the sports culture at Penn State vs Dartmouth or Drexel are dramatically different), the role of sports at D3 are not all the same regardless of number of athletes. Some schools are competing for championships and some are just happy to participate never going to win much.
One has to dig beyond the numbers to get an actual understanding of the culture related to sports at the school.
My daughter was a varsity athlete at a ~4000 (on campus) student population school. Yes, most of her friends were her teammates, but not all. She made a few friends in classes and yes, they tended to be athletes too but that’s because the athletes had to attend study tables in the library for their first semester so it was natural that they’d form study groups together. Two of her best friends were from her sorority as she joined to make sure she had friends outside of her sport..
Her coach often made them participate in events the school sponsored, like a 5k or water course challenge. She’d run with a non-teammate if that person ran at the same pace or could be on a fun team with other civil engineers.
So I think there are lots of activities for non- varsity athletes to do fun athletic things with varsity athletes or with others like them at the school.
Other daughter played club hockey (at a VERY low level) at her 10k student school. She loved it and anyone was allowed to play. Do I wish she had dated Josh Allen and married him? Yes I do! She was happy with the amount of athletic opportunities at her school, attended some football and basketball games as they were included with her student fees. There were a lot of organized outdoor outings (ski trips, hiking, camping, mountain biking) arranged by the student activity groups. There were a lot of intramural teams offered.
OP noted that they weren’t interested in the physical facilities at schools, more the social interaction while participating in sports. Well, schools that have a lot of athletes have to spend a lot on facilities, and usually most students benefit from the upgraded facilities. Sure, there may be separate facilities just for the varsity athletes in the big name sports, but usually all the other athletes are taking advantage of the ‘regular’ work out rooms, pools, locker rooms, running tracks and all students can use them and meet other students, varsity athletes and the ‘regular’ students, while doing so.
OP- I’d suggest having your kid try to connect with some of the organizers of the hiking club, the “we forage for wild mushrooms” club, some of the weekend trekking/exploring/kayaking organizations to get a sense of the place. At many colleges, these activities are organized by the “I used to be an athlete but now I’m not” kids and are conducted at a pretty high level (meaning kids who still take their conditioning and workouts seriously). At others, it’s anyone who loves the outdoors and loves being physically active even if they aren’t at the level of a serious weekend warrior.
Your kid will get a sense of what the “athletic but not a team” kids do for fun. If they’re all training for some brutal triathalon and that’s not the kind of active lifestyle he’s looking for- then maybe not a fit. Just as a sidebar- my roommate one year in college was a serious, varsity level athlete (we both had bad lottery numbers so ended up together) and by senior year she had dropped her sport. She found the social life too confining- didn’t want to be eating all her meals, traveling on the team bus, early morning workouts with the same group of people. So don’t automatically assume that every team athlete loves the social confinement– some are actively looking to expand their social horizons!
Adding the perspective of one family – my D3 LAC athlete’s immediate friend group consisted of 4-5 teammates because they spent so much time together, from pre-season, practice, travel etc. But his extended friend group – who he hung out with on the weekends, ate lunch with etc. – consisted of a lot of non-athletes plus his teammate pals. Social life was not dominated by sports – maybe sometimes his friends would wander by a home match on a weekend but it’s not like the school was showing up for any sport in a big way, even when teams were competitive nationally. He and his friends were more likely to go to their friends’ dance, theater and music performances on the weekend, perhaps because those were at night. Interestingly, apart from 1-2 guys from his team, his post-grad college friends are primarily his non-athlete friends.
It looks like you are considering smaller schools or LACs, but a large school was great for my former athlete that wasn’t going to compete in college. He got to enjoy D1 sports as a spectator and loves the school spirit. There is also a club team and/or intramural team for any sport you could imagine and there is a great rec center that is always hopping.
Simply the difference in absolute and relative numbers of kids “leftover” who aren’t athletes and will have loads of time to dedicate lots of time to be deep into, say, debate teams or college model UN or build teams for engineering/robotics. At least this is my concern. It isn’t about UMich or PSU, lots of kids care about the sports teams, is it about is there a critical mass of kids who don’t care about it and care about building robots or joining the debate team and geeking out about those things… At a small school, say Union College where I figured about 35-40% of males are on a varsity sport (and in this case many kids are also greek which takes time too!) I am not sure how much time that has to have dedicated club times (for a kid who loves clubs) as a very specific example.
Look for volleyball nets. There are a few of them at Wesleyan, strung up at strategic places like residence hall courtyards. From what I can see, they’re frequently in use and not at all connected with being on a team. Just the guys from nearby halls and houses getting together.
This is someone who has an athletic kid who is worried that the kids who share an interest in sports will all be tied up in their own teams/cliques. Not someone whose kid has no interest. There was some question about this upthread.