<p>I’m looking for the rah rah vibe.</p>
<p>Seems like we must be forgetting some southern football schools. I am not a football person so I am lost.</p>
<p>Now basketball: you might add Seton Hall & Connecticut…</p>
<p>University of Cairo.</p>
<p>Oh…wait…that’s a Ra Ra vibe. Nevermind.</p>
<p>Supposedly every other person at Williams is on some team or another.</p>
<p>Clown College-- no, wait, that’s a har-har vibe.</p>
<p>dstark,
Am on the fence about Berkeley (went there, too), only based on trends. In about the last 10-15 yrs., Berkeley has become even more immigrant (First Generation) & internat’l in its <em>undergrad</em> population (which is where the greatest sports enthusiasm tends to be). Therefore, not as universal a built-in spectator sports culture that is so American Collegiate, if you will. But before then, I would definitely have kept UCB in, esp. because of close town-gown alliance that gets the locals whipped up, too. Definitely agree that UCLA trumps Berkeley in enthusiasm, at least currently.</p>
<p>I’m questioning Georgetown; seems counter-intuitive. Barely read or hear anything from them about athletics, but I’m no authority on D.C.</p>
<p>I have just heard over & over that the South and New England (esp. Massachusetts) are more intense about collegiate sports as regions go. And was it when the Patriots won the playoffs, or whatever, that the entire town came out into the streets to celebrate, cum alcohol?</p>
<p>Georgetown has a solid basketball team in the toughest division this year division (Big East). They also have produced some of the biggest names in the NBA (most notably Patrick Ewing).</p>
<p>Are there other schools besides Williams where it seems every other kid is on a team?</p>
<p>dstark: are you asking for a S or D? Just curious. From what you’ve said thus far on this thread it looks like you may have a S who wants to play baseball. Sorry if I’m way off…</p>
<p>Anyway: the reason I’m interested is my own S wants to play baseball at the college level (currently HS jr). So I’m interested to follow this thread ;)</p>
<p>What does your child think he’ll/she’ll major in?</p>
<p>I started this thread for a lot of kids. However, I do have someone in mind that is playing 3 sports, baseball, basketball, and is a soccer goalie. This particular kid is probably a division 3 basketball player, might be better in baseball. Anyway, he lives and dies sports, but wants academics too. He is a 3.5 type student, so I don’t think schools like Williams are going to work. (Am I right?) I’m curious to see what else is out there. </p>
<p>Then there are kids like my son, that don’t want to play in college, but want to go to football games with 80,000 like-minded people.</p>
<p>Too early to worry about majors.</p>
<p>DrDrewsmom, besides Stanford, what other schools is your son considering?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>He is pretty open to suggestions…of course, he’d love MIT or an Ivy or a state w/ a great engineering school. He’s also looking at Gonzaga, Pepperdine, UWash. We’re finding that some of those academically sound DIII schools don’t have an engineering school per se, so we have to consider that. Also, he’d really like to stay on the west coast or go to the northeast. Of coures, if he is offered some wonderful scholarship to Miami or somewhere in the SE, I doubt he’d turn his nose up to that. He just prefers to be where the climate is not so hot.</p>
<p>But the South isn’t hot during the school year, for the most part? Well, Florida and maybe Texas, but not Virginia, the Carolinas, etc.? Some of the good small D1s and D3s are there. Can the southerners help with the climate info?</p>
<p>I live in northern-ish GA, and it’s not that cold or hot. It hardly ever snow here(maybe once a year). The highs in Jan-february are in the 50s-60s…sometimes 70s on a good day. Yesterday afternoon(out of school of week), I went outside and read a book. </p>
<p>Baseball and other sports can be played easily year round in the south.</p>
<p>Dstark, I think that it may be a good idea to break down your list in three categories:</p>
<ol>
<li>Participants’ sports for women</li>
<li>Participants’ sports for men</li>
<li>Spectators’ sports</li>
</ol>
<p>Spectator sports like basketball and football tend to get the national attention. However, the participation by students in sports takes many directions, especially in women’s sports. For instance, it’s hard to imagine that UNC is not on the list of soccer fans or players, even if the Tar Heels are more famous for a certain basketball player. </p>
<p>By the way, in the USNews of 2003, one of the feature stories was a story of a student who picked Tulane for its sports culture. They had a big picture of the student with a football in his hands. I also thought that Nawlins and sports did not belong in the same sentence -based on the Saints’ performance. However, it seems that many people think otherwise.</p>
<p>PS You may remember the poster called Caseyatthebat … her son was heavily recruited in baseball and is attending Dartmouth. A friend of mine was in a similar situation and was recruited as a catcher. He also is at Dartmouth. Both had amazing stats. This may be a good example of a school that values academics and athletics.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Has he considered Boise State :eek: ?
I don’t know that our stadium holds that many, but holy cow–there are no pro teams here so the people go bananas for the team on the “smurf turf” 
. And since the recent rankings, all home games are sold out.</p>
<p>BTW, I really am kidding…I wouldn’t sincerely recommend BSU to any serious student unless they just want to live here for some reason.</p>
<p>Xiggi, any clue on schools similar to Williams sports wise, but easier to get into? In other words, schools that fit numbers 1 and 2 in your criteria.</p>
<p>Trinity would fit the bill.</p>
<p>Trinity in Connecticut?</p>
<p>Similar culture to Williams but a bit easier for admission?</p>
<p>Probably Denison-- though their teams are VERY good, is a tick easier to get in to. Kenyon? Grinnell? Trinity? Allegheny? </p>
<p>Go to the ncac DIII basketball & baseball rankings. Look at the teams ranked about 20-25 in national rankings and also the teams that are right near the top of their regional rankings. These are the teams that CARE about the sport-- teams nipping at the heels of the national powerhouses-- but are more going to value your son’s athletic contribution because they are not getting the app of every top D 3 player. </p>
<p>Then sort these teams for academic stat matches or mild reaches. THEN, most importantly, sort for the schools you son would be happy at with or without the sport.</p>
<p>This is one way we sorted when choosing schools for my D to look at. We realized that a school like Emory or Williams (top 3 nationally) would be just too good a team for my D to be an impact player. However at UCSC, CMC, or Pomona (ranked towards #20) she’d be an “impact” player. It helped to have a college player familiar with the nationally ranked teams hit with my D to verify ability level.</p>
<p>We figured if she was an impact player, the sport would be a ‘hook’ and she might be able to get a leg up in admission to an academically strong school.</p>
<p>One caveat-- if you go <em>too</em> low in the rankings, be aware that the school probably does not CARE about the sport. They are not trying to strengthen their team and rise in rankings, they are poor and that’s okay with them. Thus the hook is lost and you are on your own with an academics-only admission. In retrospect I think this was the problem with my D’s ED1 school, which was not on the ranking radar.</p>
<p>Trinity in Connecticut. Student body is virtually a twin of Williams, just with slightly lower stats. Athletics a twin of Williams, just slightly less competitive (though in a few sports, they are better.) Fine faculty. For my tastes, it is a bit heavy on “entitlement”, but many students love it. Located in Hartford, not necessarily a great place, but the flipside is that it has relatively easy access to New York, air and ground transportation is easy (unlike Williamstown!), and many folks will prefer the more urban setting.</p>
<p>Our posts crossed but I thought Trinity in Ct also. I put Denison & Kenyon before it due to location similarities vs. Trin’s urban setting.</p>