Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How serous is the social divide for people who have recent experience? How does it manifest? And how problematic is it?

There isn't data on questions like this. All anyone is going to hear are impressions. And it's going to vary school by school.

That being said, young women who choose to go to SLACs seem to be all over the place. There's no pigeonholing. There's enormous diversity for why they are there.

Among young men however - and this is totally anecdotal and backed by nothing at all - it does seem to fall into two groups. LAX bros and gay dudes. I'm sure there are many friendships, but generally speaking - different planets.

For straight non-athletic boys it's either the best of times or the worst of times. But it's not representative of the real world. SLACs inhabit a different reality.

Er...um...what an odd supposition...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How serous is the social divide for people who have recent experience? How does it manifest? And how problematic is it?

There isn't data on questions like this. All anyone is going to hear are impressions. And it's going to vary school by school.

That being said, young women who choose to go to SLACs seem to be all over the place. There's no pigeonholing. There's enormous diversity for why they are there.

Among young men however - and this is totally anecdotal and backed by nothing at all - it does seem to fall into two groups. LAX bros and gay dudes. I'm sure there are many friendships, but generally speaking - different planets.

For straight non-athletic boys it's either the best of times or the worst of times. But it's not representative of the real world. SLACs inhabit a different reality.

-1

Vast generalizations here - and weird.

Anonymous wrote:How serous is the social divide for people who have recent experience? How does it manifest? And how problematic is it?

There isn't data on questions like this. All anyone is going to hear are impressions. And it's going to vary school by school.

That being said, young women who choose to go to SLACs seem to be all over the place. There's no pigeonholing. There's enormous diversity for why they are there.

Among young men however - and this is totally anecdotal and backed by nothing at all - it does seem to fall into two groups. LAX bros and gay dudes. I'm sure there are many friendships, but generally speaking - different planets.

For straight non-athletic boys it's either the best of times or the worst of times. But it's not representative of the real world. SLACs inhabit a different reality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of non athletes hate the athletes. Their fellow students don’t.

This is not an accurate statement. The divide is real at several top LACs. Lacrosse bros are typically the most segregated. next is usually football players.

The most SLAC athlete/non-athlete divides are at Amherst College and at Middlebury College.

Similar athlete/non-athlete divide at all size of colleges & universities, but the larger the school, the less impact it has on a student's day-to-day life.

And how is it that you’re an expert on the social life of so many liberal arts colleges? And how old are you by the way? Are you a current or recent student or a middle aged parent who graduated college decades ago?

Please tell us your expertise so we know why anything you have to say on this matter is entitled to any weight.

Did your kid get beat up by a Middie?

Does anyone have a story about a kid who wasn’t an athlete and went to a LAC and felt marginalized (perhaps because they also weren’t a theatre kid or maybe an LGBTQ kid such that they had alternative communities)? This would be my concern for DS who is not an athlete but also not artsy

Anonymous wrote:Republican trolls have destroyed this message board as a place to find reliable information.

You are troll yourself.

It would be nice if you left us alone - but you won't.

Been a while since I was in college but in my day at an elite Northeastern institution, most athletes were white. Race was never something that came up when talking about the athlete - non athlete divide, except for that being an athlete did help transcend the racial divide on campus.

Perhaps it's different at a flagship state university or places like Duke and Stanford with national sports teams recruiting many black athletes relative to the rest of the student body.

I did room with an athlete my first year. Nice kid and a wrestler. But he was always with the team. Away for games, away for training, hanging out with his teammates. Playing a college sport is intense and that's on top of the regular academic workload. It's inevitable that a strong team environment is going to create a strong community comparable to a fraternity or a theater group. The athletes gravitate to it for obvious reasons, it is their college experience. Nothing can be done about it. And I'm not sure why anything should be done about it. I respect the stamina and dedication required of playing a college sport while most students are lazy and sleeping late. And it clearly delivers rewards as athletes are more likely to go on to successful lives.