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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]  My impression is that athletes at Williams College and at many SLACs are the happiest students and that social divides exist at many SLACs between athletes and non-athletes.

SLACs are great for two sport athletes. Isolation is countered by travel for competitions and close camaraderie among teammates.  [/quote]

Nope.  My friends -- all non-athletes -- who are recent Williams grads and loved it have never cited this (or anything remotely like this) as an issue.

I'm not saying it's garbage, necessarily, but it does smack of someone casting about to try to find an overly simplistic (and inaccurate) way to categorize the differences between thousands of diverse colleges and universities out there.

Coupled with DCUM's chronic class paranoia that "they" -- the wealthier, the more gregarious, the more athletic -- are out there having more effortless fun than poor pressured DC who's been strategizing for college applications since turning 13.  [/quote]

Your friends may have loved their time at Williams, but also may have experienced or recognize the athlete/narp divide and just not cared for whatever reason. It is real at Williams, Amherst, Midd, etc. Don’t know about Wellesley. [/quote]

I have heard kids carry on about this at other schools beyond a few nescacs.   But it applies to all manner of cliques.  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.   Some people will get out of their lax, theatre, track, computer science, etc. comfort zone and some will refuse.[/quote]

Worth considering that a school where 40% of the kids are on intercollegiate teams might feel different than a school where 10% are.[/quote]

I think this divide exists at a lot of small schools. You have 750 kids playing sports in a population of under 2000, that's a divide. It becomes less obvious when the school is bigger. We looked at this when our oldest was touring small colleges. The athletes get some special treatments, its less noticeable at a larger school. [/quote]

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