Liberal Arts Colleges where football games are packed and a social event

[Anonymous]

Holy Cross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure, but the University of Alabama might have a football team. If so, then it might be a good bet that the games get a lot of students attending as football is big in the South.

Is this supposed to be sarcastic? The University of Alabama MIGHT have a football team? It’s like saying MIT and CalTech might have some science majors.

[Anonymous]

Lehigh, not exactly a libearl arts college, but pretty small, parties extremely hard and tailgates are pretty big. Lehigh-Lafayette is a campuswide bender.

[Anonymous]

Where did the brother go?

If we know that we can figure out something that is close. The issue is that a lot of D1 schools don't have a game day experience that resembles an SEC or Big 10 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke, Tulane and Vandy. Midsized privates in competitive conferences.

Here’s the complete list for my kid:

Stanford
Northwestern
Duke
Notre Dame
Michigan
Vanderbilt
USC
Wake
Tulane
SMU

What about this list makes you think your kid has any interest in a LAC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke, Tulane and Vandy. Midsized privates in competitive conferences.

Here’s the complete list for my kid:

Stanford
Northwestern
Duke
Notre Dame
Michigan
Vanderbilt
USC
Wake
Tulane
SMU

From this list, which schools give more that a handful of merit awards? Maybe USC (though they are reducing merit aid)? SMU? Don't know about Wake or Tulane.

For merit awards, you need to look for schools outside the T30.

SMU definitely. USC is automatic if you are NMF.

After that, Tulane is more generous with merit, but maybe for 20% of the top kids…and then it drops off a cliff.

SMU gives a bunch of merit and has the highest acceptance rate.

Michigan of course is a huge school…if that’s on the list then why not every decent school?

USC recently slashed the amount they give to NMFs to a flat $20k/year.

[Anonymous]

Lehigh and Lafayette, YES, although Lafayette in particular feels pretty small.

Syracuse, YES. It's not a LAC, but it's the type of school where most kids can be happy.

[Anonymous]

Have a daughter at Lafayette, and we as parents have been to two football games. Lehigh game was a great event...full stadium with tailgating and the campuses have extra energy those weekends because of the rivalry...clever banners hung by students ridiculing the other side, more parties, etc.
The second game was over a Family Weekend, and was a bit lackluster. For all home games, I believe, the school sponsors a block party event and there is tailgating, but on a small scale. And the interest from students in all the games beside Lehigh is fairly low per our daughter.
We reside in SEC country and are avid college football fans. There just is no way at a LAC to replicate the gameday weekends (plural) like you find at the power conferences. And it's not just about the size of the crowds or stadiums, it's about the relative lower interest in the games.
Lafayette-Lehigh is very cool, but obviously comes just once a year.

This aside, it's worth mentioning that she has been happy with her academic environment.

[Anonymous]

SMU might be a good option as it offers scholarships as its yield rate for accepted students is low (about 17%)

[Anonymous]

Check out Tulane. Mid- size research university with liberal arts college, and the students can double major across colleges if they want (business and poli sci, for example). Football is decent, and it has that fun culture your son is interested in. They have competitive full tuition scholarships for top students.

[Anonymous]

I went to Midd (albeit a LONG time ago) but we always tailgated at football games, and hockey & lacrosse were always fun & well attended too. (Men’s & women’s I should add - women’s lax are multi year national champs).

[Anonymous]

Is it the rah-rah tailgate and game culture he likes? Or football specifically?

If he's willing to look at basketball schools, he could put Duke, Villanova, Marquette into the mix.

But again, once more for the people in the back: The more competitive the school, the less merit money they give out. You don't need to bribe people to say yes to Duke. If you need merit money, look into finding a good likely, not a good target or reach.

[Anonymous]

Miami University.

Midsized university (16k students) and the football program is known as “The Cradle of Coaches.” Oxford also has that small town campus life you describe. Hockey is big there is too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teach your kid that only losers do things like that.

D3 football at LAC is like going to bad high school football and most kids at LACs hate the football players who are only there because alumni from the 1950s (when the LAC was in the Iron Bowl or whatever) would revolt if the team was killed.

Girls rugby is likely to be a rowdier scene.

Oh, yes, great suggestion! Girls rugby is a perfect substitute. OP, just tell your son that only losers like football. Girls rugby crowds will offer the exact same atmosphere. And they give lectures on toxic masculinity at halftime, so he can enjoy (re)education with his football-like experience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure, but the University of Alabama might have a football team. If so, then it might be a good bet that the games get a lot of students attending as football is big in the South.

Is this supposed to be sarcastic? The University of Alabama MIGHT have a football team? It’s like saying MIT and CalTech might have some science majors.

There's so much stupidity and trolling in these threads that sarcasm is often lost.