Social Divide at SLACs

[Anonymous]

Patriot League: American University, Army West Point, Boston University, Bucknell University, Colgate University, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Loyola University Maryland, and the United States Naval Academy

What a bunch of irrelevant colleges.

[Anonymous]

Obviously not into sports if don’t know Patriot League but NFL, NBA, and MLB have grads from those schools.

[Anonymous]

What does narp mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does narp mean?

Non athletic regular person.

[Anonymous]

What would this "divide" look like in real life? My kids are not athletes in college (did do sports before college), and I have no idea if a "divide" exists at their schools. I don't think any of their freinds are athletes (nto that I'm aware of at least), but I don't think they did that by design.

[Anonymous]

I think small, isolated campuses whose student populations are in part organized into pre-structured groups that spend hours together every day will naturally tend to divide into kids inside and outside of those structures. There is no mystery to this, and denying this divide exists is an odd thing to do. I'm sure the effects of that divide differ from school to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would this "divide" look like in real life? My kids are not athletes in college (did do sports before college), and I have no idea if a "divide" exists at their schools. I don't think any of their freinds are athletes (nto that I'm aware of at least), but I don't think they did that by design.

I think it's a bigger issue for male students. At several schools like Bates, Williams, Bowdoin, Hobart, more than 40% of total male population are varsity athletes. Women's participation rates aren't as high. So for men, half your male classmates are bonding together with their teams at practice/preseason, on road trips, etc.

Many of the remaining non-athlete men are heavily involved in theater or band or robotics or another activity. If you go to Bates, and you played varsity soccer in high school as your primary activity, but weren't recruited to play at Bates, you may feel a bit lost/excluded. Your HS passion is no longer your social group, but at the same time college is just as small as your high school was. If you go to Penn State, 1-2% of the kids are NCAA athletes vs 45% at Bates, so it's in your face all the time that you're not part of that group anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My SLAC DS who was an athlete dated a non athlete and had lots of non athlete friends. Why are you looking for a problem?

If you’re an athlete in college you’re going to meet girls the same way every guy meets girls in college. It’s likely going to be a non-athlete because most girls they meet won’t be athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If kids are good athletes they are going Ivy then Patriot League unless squash or fencing at Williams.

Nope, many kids including mine turned down Patriot League offers for NESCAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would this "divide" look like in real life? My kids are not athletes in college (did do sports before college), and I have no idea if a "divide" exists at their schools. I don't think any of their freinds are athletes (nto that I'm aware of at least), but I don't think they did that by design.

I think it's a bigger issue for male students. At several schools like Bates, Williams, Bowdoin, Hobart, more than 40% of total male population are varsity athletes. Women's participation rates aren't as high. So for men, half your male classmates are bonding together with their teams at practice/preseason, on road trips, etc.

Many of the remaining non-athlete men are heavily involved in theater or band or robotics or another activity. If you go to Bates, and you played varsity soccer in high school as your primary activity, but weren't recruited to play at Bates, you may feel a bit lost/excluded. Your HS passion is no longer your social group, but at the same time college is just as small as your high school was. If you go to Penn State, 1-2% of the kids are NCAA athletes vs 45% at Bates, so it's in your face all the time that you're not part of that group anymore.

Two words: Title Nine

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t compare the social status of star quarterback to the track team athlete. Attend the sports events at some of these schools. You will see the only people in attendance are parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would this "divide" look like in real life? My kids are not athletes in college (did do sports before college), and I have no idea if a "divide" exists at their schools. I don't think any of their freinds are athletes (nto that I'm aware of at least), but I don't think they did that by design.

I think it's a bigger issue for male students. At several schools like Bates, Williams, Bowdoin, Hobart, more than 40% of total male population are varsity athletes. Women's participation rates aren't as high. So for men, half your male classmates are bonding together with their teams at practice/preseason, on road trips, etc.

Many of the remaining non-athlete men are heavily involved in theater or band or robotics or another activity. If you go to Bates, and you played varsity soccer in high school as your primary activity, but weren't recruited to play at Bates, you may feel a bit lost/excluded. Your HS passion is no longer your social group, but at the same time college is just as small as your high school was. If you go to Penn State, 1-2% of the kids are NCAA athletes vs 45% at Bates, so it's in your face all the time that you're not part of that group anymore.

Two words: Title Nine

Not sure what point you're making, but the stats are publicly reported here: https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/institution/search

The smaller the school size, the more extreme the athlete percentage is compared to total student body, hence the social divide problem at some of the SLACs.

Bates:
Male unduplicated athletes is 400 out of 865 total male students = 46%
Female unduplicated athletes 300 out of 888 total female students = 34%

Hobart William Smith
Male athletes: 414/775 = 53%
Female athletes: 308/813 = 38%

Princeton:
Male athletes: 606/2744 = 22%
Female athletes: 441/2835 = 16%

Penn State:
Male athletes: 525/21,497 = 2%
Female athletes: 380/19,454 = 2%

So if you're a boy that goes to Hobart and you're not on a team, you are in the minority. That might feel uncomfortable for someone who isn't used to that. "What team are you on?" probably get asked a lot (naively) by athletes to non-athletes in the beginning of freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would this "divide" look like in real life? My kids are not athletes in college (did do sports before college), and I have no idea if a "divide" exists at their schools. I don't think any of their freinds are athletes (nto that I'm aware of at least), but I don't think they did that by design.

I think it's a bigger issue for male students. At several schools like Bates, Williams, Bowdoin, Hobart, more than 40% of total male population are varsity athletes. Women's participation rates aren't as high. So for men, half your male classmates are bonding together with their teams at practice/preseason, on road trips, etc.

Many of the remaining non-athlete men are heavily involved in theater or band or robotics or another activity. If you go to Bates, and you played varsity soccer in high school as your primary activity, but weren't recruited to play at Bates, you may feel a bit lost/excluded. Your HS passion is no longer your social group, but at the same time college is just as small as your high school was. If you go to Penn State, 1-2% of the kids are NCAA athletes vs 45% at Bates, so it's in your face all the time that you're not part of that group anymore.

DC at Bates and an athlete. Half of friends are non athletes. Says that is true with many people. But yes, if your life was soccer before, it will be a hard adjustment but there are plenty of clubs to join.

[Anonymous]

With exception of Tufts, the NESCAC schools are in very very remote locations beyond middle of nowhere. Looked at Bowdoin recently great academic rep but DD disliked the isolated location wants to be near a city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With exception of Tufts, the NESCAC schools are in very very remote locations beyond middle of nowhere. Looked at Bowdoin recently great academic rep but DD disliked the isolated location wants to be near a city.

You had to go to Bowdoin to realize it isn’t in a city. Jesus, people here are stupid