Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Watch out for the schools where the athletes have their own dining facilities, gym and/or mostly take up their own dorms. At small schools, if the athletes are so sequestered together, it makes the school seem so much smaller to non-athletes.

We toured two SLACS where they specifically highlighted how they are trying to fight this problem.

This is true. I do not understand why some schools do this. The student athletes already spend too much time together for practice, games, and travel. They should be encouraged to get to know a wider world through dorm living and dining.

I didn’t understand the dining hall thing until I had an athlete in college. Particularly for male freshmen and sophomore athletes, one major risk is that they cannot keep weight on during the season. They train so much and so hard that it is hard for their bodies to get enough calories in. So what the athlete dining halls do is focus on very high-calorie foods so that athletes can be efficient. I had never realized just how hard this is for the kids, but it was a major issue for the boys on my kid’s team.

Meanwhile, dining halls for the non-athletes are geared towards the exact opposite. They do not want kids gaining weight, another serious health issue. So, their food is often less calorie-dense. High-calorie foods that the athletes could consume quickly were considered problematic at the non-athlete dining hall.

My son would go to the non-athlete dining halls, but it meant taking longer for dinner because he had to go back for multiple plates, and the food wasn’t as protein-focused. He had to actively decide if he wanted to take the time and energy to put together a high-calorie dinner at the non-athlete hall.

I agree there is a social implication but I didn’t understand just how big of an issue the weight loss (and subsequent lethargy, fainting, injury, etc.) was for the athletes until my kid was in it himself.

Anonymous wrote:I would not trust DCUM on this subject. There are a group of posters who hate both SLACs generally and athletes specifically. They post incessantly, and a few have been disclosed by Jeff over time as the insane trolls (for instance, it turns out that the crazy Ivy Mom poster is also an anti-SLAC hater). I’d never trust DCUM on anything like this.

So true...

Anonymous wrote:Watch out for the schools where the athletes have their own dining facilities, gym and/or mostly take up their own dorms. At small schools, if the athletes are so sequestered together, it makes the school seem so much smaller to non-athletes.

We toured two SLACS where they specifically highlighted how they are trying to fight this problem.

This is true. I do not understand why some schools do this. The student athletes already spend too much time together for practice, games, and travel. They should be encouraged to get to know a wider world through dorm living and dining.

I think that people are underestimating what having good sports teams at a college does. School spirit is also a part of going to college. Supporting friends, competing, having fun, another kind of activity outside of academics and clubs, it all adds up. If school X wins the Nescac then all the students get to feel good about that not just the 12 people on the field. If school X wins then more people want to go to that school because it raises the school's profile. Not everyone cares, but a lot of people do. Getting a participation award doesn't have to continue into college. It's done enough damage to the kids in the lower grades. It's ok to compete. It's ok to support your friends who are doing something they love and working hard at. The same way that it's great to have a school performance. Not everyone gets to be first violin or the lead in the play. There are tryouts everywhere in college. Not everyone gets to be a campus tour guide. People's reactions to athletics on this thread is really off. Teach your kids to respect what everyone does and support your friends for their achievements. There's enough to go around.