Schools with Rigorous Academics and Big Sports Culture

[Anonymous]

My daughter is interested in the same (and sounds similar: can’t play D1 so looking at club)

UNC
Notre Dame
Vandy
UVA
Michigan

Clemson
Auburn
Georgia
Alabama

She doesn’t want to be as far as the west coast but any of the big UC schools and USC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UT Austin and Texas A&M

Lol no

NP. Confused by this response given that both schools offer rigorous academics and rah rah sports culture.

[Anonymous]

Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, Notre Dame

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is just starting to put a college list together. She's a really driven kid - works extremely hard (school) and plays even harder (plays multiple sports and watches/follows college/pro teams in her free time).

She's looking for campus-focused (not city) schools that would be a good fit - basically with kids who share her academic drive and love of sports.

So far we've got Duke, Michigan, and maybe Northwestern. Other ideas? Are there any Ivys or DIII schools that are particularly sports-focused - like where the whole school gets into it? She really likes the rah-rah school spirit stuff.

All of these schools are reachs even for highest stat students in the current admissions environment. You need to be asking about possible targets and safeties.

I am. Hence my request to help build out the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A chemistry degree at nowhere school is going to be way harder than a sociology degree at Yale.

Are you high?

No, PP is correct. This is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is just starting to put a college list together. She's a really driven kid - works extremely hard (school) and plays even harder (plays multiple sports and watches/follows college/pro teams in her free time).

She's looking for campus-focused (not city) schools that would be a good fit - basically with kids who share her academic drive and love of sports.

So far we've got Duke, Michigan, and maybe Northwestern. Other ideas? Are there any Ivys or DIII schools that are particularly sports-focused - like where the whole school gets into it? She really likes the rah-rah school spirit stuff.

All of these schools are reachs even for highest stat students in the current admissions environment. You need to be asking about possible targets and safeties.

I am. Hence my request to help build out the list.

Which is why the big state schools some PPs have disdained should be considered. All are big enough they will have a cohort of high achieving kids, particularly in the honors program/college.

[Anonymous]

Virginia tech depending on major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is just starting to put a college list together. She's a really driven kid - works extremely hard (school) and plays even harder (plays multiple sports and watches/follows college/pro teams in her free time).

She's looking for campus-focused (not city) schools that would be a good fit - basically with kids who share her academic drive and love of sports.

So far we've got Duke, Michigan, and maybe Northwestern. Other ideas? Are there any Ivys or DIII schools that are particularly sports-focused - like where the whole school gets into it? She really likes the rah-rah school spirit stuff.

Of any Ivy, Princeton would come the closest, as it has the highest winning percentage across sports and students celebrate league titles with things like bonfires.

https://www.collegemagazine.com/which-ivy-league-school-has-the-most-dominant-sports-teams/

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2021/11/22/bonfire-crowds-celebrate-football-wins-and-re-ignition-community-princeton-fall

But neither Princeton nor any other Ivy is going to have the sports focus of a big state school or privates like Duke and Notre Dame. That’s just not the current culture of the Ivies, which is to celebrate individual pursuits more than team sports.

[Anonymous]

Here you go. Now just figure out which schools on the list also rank high in academics.

https://nacda.com/documents/2022/4/21/April21Overall.pdf

[Anonymous]

UCLA
USC
University of Oregon
Stanford
Penn
University of Wisconsin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A chemistry degree at nowhere school is going to be way harder than a sociology degree at Yale.

Are you high?

No. How can you possibly say, with a straight face, that a humanities degree is harder than an engineering, physical science, or pre-med curriculum?

Depends on what your strengths are. My kids do more poorly in humanities classes because writing is excruciating for them. So many students can’t write well.

[Anonymous]

Depending in the caliber of student that OP has… some of the school you all have listed would not quality as overly ‘rigorous’. Clemson? Auburn? Come on.

[Anonymous]

Ohio State
Alabama
VA Tech
Wake Forest
USC
Notre Dame
Penn State

[Anonymous]

Michigan
Wisconsin
Most any ACC School.
Most any SEC school (I’m a Vanderbilt alum and they were terrible at football when I was there. Plenty of people went to the football games, but left early, which was easy to do when your down 24 at the half. But both boys and girls basketball were strong. They women were preseason #1 one year and the men were ranked as high as #5. They have up and down years but in good years its a hot ticket. Baseball is great.


Before the inevitable “but OP said rigorous”, there are plenty of really smart kids at all these schools. OP’s DD will not be the smartest person on campus by a long shot.

[Anonymous]

Wake forest