Colleges where it sucks if you’re not Greek or sporty - help us avoid them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates is sporty, but not divided athletes v. non athletes. No frats and has never had frats. Weirdly I think one thing that fosters community at smaller schools is having one dining hall. At a school of 2000 or so, if there are two dining halls you can bet the jocks go to one and the artsy types go to the other.

Yes, you’re right, the one dining hall thing is a big community builder at smaller schools. Especially when they only serve meals for specific periods of time.

You can see almost every other student at the school if you show up at, say, 4:45 when they start serving dinner and stay drinking coffee till, say, 6:30 when they stop. Ask me how I know this.

Agree with both of these, as a fellow small college grad, but I do remember there being entire tables in the dining hall (strategically located near the buffet line) of just the soccer team, baseball team, etc.

I went to a small LAC with 1 dining hall and 100% there were sections of the hall "claimed" by the various sororities, fraternities, and sport teams. I liked my experience but it was too much like high school.

Did we go to the same school? Our single dining hall was the same way. It was big drama if you sat with a different group for lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates is sporty, but not divided athletes v. non athletes. No frats and has never had frats. Weirdly I think one thing that fosters community at smaller schools is having one dining hall. At a school of 2000 or so, if there are two dining halls you can bet the jocks go to one and the artsy types go to the other.

Yes, you’re right, the one dining hall thing is a big community builder at smaller schools. Especially when they only serve meals for specific periods of time.

You can see almost every other student at the school if you show up at, say, 4:45 when they start serving dinner and stay drinking coffee till, say, 6:30 when they stop. Ask me how I know this.

Agree with both of these, as a fellow small college grad, but I do remember there being entire tables in the dining hall (strategically located near the buffet line) of just the soccer team, baseball team, etc.

I went to a small LAC with 1 dining hall and 100% there were sections of the hall "claimed" by the various sororities, fraternities, and sport teams. I liked my experience but it was too much like high school. [/quote

Did we go to the same school? Our single dining hall was the same way. It was big drama if you sat with a different group for lunch.

That sounds terrible. Can you please say where or at least give a hint?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates is sporty, but not divided athletes v. non athletes. No frats and has never had frats. Weirdly I think one thing that fosters community at smaller schools is having one dining hall. At a school of 2000 or so, if there are two dining halls you can bet the jocks go to one and the artsy types go to the other.

Yes, you’re right, the one dining hall thing is a big community builder at smaller schools. Especially when they only serve meals for specific periods of time.

You can see almost every other student at the school if you show up at, say, 4:45 when they start serving dinner and stay drinking coffee till, say, 6:30 when they stop. Ask me how I know this.

Agree with both of these, as a fellow small college grad, but I do remember there being entire tables in the dining hall (strategically located near the buffet line) of just the soccer team, baseball team, etc.

I went to a small LAC with 1 dining hall and 100% there were sections of the hall "claimed" by the various sororities, fraternities, and sport teams. I liked my experience but it was too much like high school.

Did we go to the same school? Our single dining hall was the same way. It was big drama if you sat with a different group for lunch.

Weird! I can't imagine a college like that. My midwestern SLAC had no greek life and lots of mixing in the dining hall (though it did have some separate 'language' rooms where you were only supposed to talk in the language you were studying).

[Anonymous]

Area colleges where it would be fine to be not Greek or not sporty: VCU, Mary Washington, St. Mary's in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates is sporty, but not divided athletes v. non athletes. No frats and has never had frats. Weirdly I think one thing that fosters community at smaller schools is having one dining hall. At a school of 2000 or so, if there are two dining halls you can bet the jocks go to one and the artsy types go to the other.

Yes, you’re right, the one dining hall thing is a big community builder at smaller schools. Especially when they only serve meals for specific periods of time.

You can see almost every other student at the school if you show up at, say, 4:45 when they start serving dinner and stay drinking coffee till, say, 6:30 when they stop. Ask me how I know this.

Agree with both of these, as a fellow small college grad, but I do remember there being entire tables in the dining hall (strategically located near the buffet line) of just the soccer team, baseball team, etc.

I went to a small LAC with 1 dining hall and 100% there were sections of the hall "claimed" by the various sororities, fraternities, and sport teams. I liked my experience but it was too much like high school. [/quote

Did we go to the same school? Our single dining hall was the same way. It was big drama if you sat with a different group for lunch.

That sounds terrible. Can you please say where or at least give a hint?

np but Colgate was like that when I was a student in the 1990s. I don’t think it was a big deal to move among tables, though, but you wouldn’t for example
sit down at the football table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bates is sporty, but not divided athletes v. non athletes. No frats and has never had frats. Weirdly I think one thing that fosters community at smaller schools is having one dining hall. At a school of 2000 or so, if there are two dining halls you can bet the jocks go to one and the artsy types go to the other.

Yes, you’re right, the one dining hall thing is a big community builder at smaller schools. Especially when they only serve meals for specific periods of time.

You can see almost every other student at the school if you show up at, say, 4:45 when they start serving dinner and stay drinking coffee till, say, 6:30 when they stop. Ask me how I know this.

Agree with both of these, as a fellow small college grad, but I do remember there being entire tables in the dining hall (strategically located near the buffet line) of just the soccer team, baseball team, etc.

I went to a small LAC with 1 dining hall and 100% there were sections of the hall "claimed" by the various sororities, fraternities, and sport teams. I liked my experience but it was too much like high school.

Did we go to the same school? Our single dining hall was the same way. It was big drama if you sat with a different group for lunch.

DP - just wanted to add that my daughter is at an LAC with a single dining hall and really likes it. In fact she preferred this as we were looking at schools. It’s very communal. Her whole friend group meets up there and others join as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Area colleges where it would be fine to be not Greek or not sporty: VCU, Mary Washington, St. Mary's in Maryland.

I work at JMU and yeah, there are kids who party and also TONS who don't. It's a huge school. Most students are not interested in football or greek life. Like the earlier poster who talked about UVA, there are a zillion clubs and activities for every possible interest.

[Anonymous]

This thread has got me worried that my reserved introvert is making a mistake just applying to small schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has got me worried that my reserved introvert is making a mistake just applying to small schools.

Don't be. My reserved introvert is loving the small school experience! There's no harm in adding a bigger school to add a potential option, but it sounds like your DC thought things through and feels good about smaller schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP your kid needs to loosen up and have fun

Not to blow your mind, but neither Greek nor sports are required to do that.

[Anonymous]

Sewanee

[Anonymous]

Pretty much every school has a greek system and every school has sports of one type or another. Join or don't join. It's not a big deal.

If you are thinking small schools -- they will be D3 athletics which means that they will not be doing their sport 2/3 of the year. If you were thinking possibly a big school like a Big 10 or SEC they will have lots of sports and a greek system and those kids will collectively make up about 10% of all the kids on campus.

Understand that kids can be in a frat/sorority and also participate in other things. Pretty much all do. So - what then really is the concern? I want to party, but I do not want to party with people in a frat/sorority? That seems odd. Frankly, if the prospective student is looking not to party (at least according to their parent) then don't go to a party. The reality is pretty much everyone will go to some and try it on for size. They may like it. They may not like it. They may like parties put on by XYZ grojup and not ABC group. Fine. Even a small school can be a big place and effort needs to be given to find your groups. In a big school there are more groups to try though you have to find them too.

None seek you out. That bears repeating. Absent being on a sports team -- campus groups do not come knocking on your door saying "here is a personal invite". They put up signs where allowed and have internet presence, and your kid shows up or not. That's it. Kids have to stick their noses out there. It is the only way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much every school has a greek system and every school has sports of one type or another. Join or don't join. It's not a big deal.

If you are thinking small schools -- they will be D3 athletics which means that they will not be doing their sport 2/3 of the year. If you were thinking possibly a big school like a Big 10 or SEC they will have lots of sports and a greek system and those kids will collectively make up about 10% of all the kids on campus.

Understand that kids can be in a frat/sorority and also participate in other things. Pretty much all do. So - what then really is the concern? I want to party, but I do not want to party with people in a frat/sorority? That seems odd. Frankly, if the prospective student is looking not to party (at least according to their parent) then don't go to a party. The reality is pretty much everyone will go to some and try it on for size. They may like it. They may not like it. They may like parties put on by XYZ grojup and not ABC group. Fine. Even a small school can be a big place and effort needs to be given to find your groups. In a big school there are more groups to try though you have to find them too.

None seek you out. That bears repeating. Absent being on a sports team -- campus groups do not come knocking on your door saying "here is a personal invite". They put up signs where allowed and have internet presence, and your kid shows up or not. That's it. Kids have to stick their noses out there. It is the only way.

At several small schools we’ve toured the tour guide says the teams tend to live together in off campus houses. These teams -even DIiI — tend to hang out, work out, live together all year. (Yes, they are in other activities too.) So no, they don’t seek you out but a non-athlete is not often included in their socializing. In the schools in small towns there’s not much to do on weekends if you’re not on a team or Greek. Many clubs do not fill weekend nights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much every school has a greek system and every school has sports of one type or another. Join or don't join. It's not a big deal.

If you are thinking small schools -- they will be D3 athletics which means that they will not be doing their sport 2/3 of the year. If you were thinking possibly a big school like a Big 10 or SEC they will have lots of sports and a greek system and those kids will collectively make up about 10% of all the kids on campus.

Understand that kids can be in a frat/sorority and also participate in other things. Pretty much all do. So - what then really is the concern? I want to party, but I do not want to party with people in a frat/sorority? That seems odd. Frankly, if the prospective student is looking not to party (at least according to their parent) then don't go to a party. The reality is pretty much everyone will go to some and try it on for size. They may like it. They may not like it. They may like parties put on by XYZ grojup and not ABC group. Fine. Even a small school can be a big place and effort needs to be given to find your groups. In a big school there are more groups to try though you have to find them too.

None seek you out. That bears repeating. Absent being on a sports team -- campus groups do not come knocking on your door saying "here is a personal invite". They put up signs where allowed and have internet presence, and your kid shows up or not. That's it. Kids have to stick their noses out there. It is the only way.

At several small schools we’ve toured the tour guide says the teams tend to live together in off campus houses. These teams -even DIiI — tend to hang out, work out, live together all year. (Yes, they are in other activities too.) So no, they don’t seek you out but a non-athlete is not often included in their socializing. In the schools in small towns there’s not much to do on weekends if you’re not on a team or Greek. Many clubs do not fill weekend nights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown

Virtually no Greek life to speak of. Big enough that the athletes don’t dominate, tons of clubs and activities. I didn’t attend, but I work there and interact with a lot of young alumni; it very much seems like a place where people find their niche.