<p>My junior d loves everything about WashU - the campus, her chosen program facilities and the students she's met - with one exception: the apparent lack of school spirit for the athletics teams, some of which are very successful. She is both an good student and a varsity athlete in two sports at a high school that is competitive both for academics and athletics (several state championships). She'd like that same atmosphere in a college. While she does not plan to play a sport in college, she'd like to go somewhere where there is at least a modest amount of school spirit for athletics. She is interested in architecture, which takes up a lot of class/studio time, so she is looking for the diversion. Is WashU a "reach" for that?</p>
<p>I have a freshman S at WUSTL, and I'd have to say that there is a definite lack of school spirit based on athletics. There seems to be an enormous amount of school spirit if you define that as enthusiasm for the school, a belief that there is no better place to be and general excitement about being a WUSTL student, but it is definitely NOT based on the athletic teams. There is a group called Red Alert (I think) that tries to engender support for the teams and goes so far as to offer free food and t-shirts to get people to attend games etc. S tells me that such "promises" do in fact get kids out to games, but it is not an athletic rah-rah school in the mold of the big athletic conferences or even the small LAC's that have a lot of built-in rivalries in their geograohic area (think Williams/Amherst etc.). Remember, WUSTL's athletic conference is the UAA which includes UChicago, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Brandeis, URochester amongst others. It's pretty spread out and doesn't make for natural rivalries...except in our house since we have S1 at UChicgo and S2 at WUSTL!</p>
<p>Runnersmom is right; WUSTL is no Duke in terms of students packing the stadiums. Their location and their division makes it difficult to foster true rivalries. The students at Emory have been trying, and utterly failing, to bash WUSTL into a frenzy of rivalry. They even have a "Department of War" in their student congress just for this. It just doesn't exist naturally.</p>
<p>yeah WashU kids don't seem to care about sports...thats one of the reasons I like the school! I hate schools where you're only important if your the captain of the football team</p>
<p>Jeff, my daughter doesn't play football...</p>
<p>During our visit to WashU, we found the students, faculty and administrators to be some of the nicest, most open, and positive people we've met on our campus tours. Please don't ruin that impression.</p>
<p>daaaaad, I think you misinterpreted what I was saying. I simply meant that WashU is a particulary good fit for me because the athletic scene doesn't drive the social scene. I feel this way because its the type of H.S i come from and I don't like that atmosphere, so I'm attracted to WashU. My reference to captain of the football team was just a general one to emphasize the point I was trying to make. I'm sorry if there was a misunderstanding.</p>
<p>Jeff, following is an opinion about athletes as students that I share. I understand why you might feel as you do but that stereotype is not what my daughter is experiencing. Her experience is much like what is posted below.</p>
<p>This was posted by "Soozievt" in another thread about world class athletes as students. (Sorry, I don't know how to link directly to their post, so here's a copy and paste job.)</p>
<p>Soozievt:</p>
<p>"I certainly don't have kids at the level of those figure skating competitors and yes it is amazing the schedules they keep, while also maintaining excellent achievements in academics. </p>
<p>"While my kids are not on that national scale, they are heavily involved in their areas of passion....sports and the arts... and do keep intense schedules, one of whose involves travel as well. They are also still high academic achievers. I don't think they are unusual at all. One is involved in theater and also is in a rigorous professional degree program with many hours, not even including her shows/rehearsals. I find that she is not alone but that her peers who also are in this field often ALSO tend to be excellent students. Other kid is in varsity collegiate sports with an intense schedule, plus travel, while also in a demanding Ivy school where she maintains high grades. She also is not alone as I find many on her team who also excel in academics and she wasn't the only Academic All American on the team either. </p>
<p>"My opinion is that those who are very commited to a sport or an art, tend to be driven, motivated, and passionate about it and set high standards for themselves. That same "approach" is how they also approach academics. While it seems amazing how they can still perform so well in academics with such demaning athletic or arts pursuits, it is that same drive or approach....they use it for everything. </p>
<p>"While there is a tendency on CC to think of athletes as "lesser academic types", and maybe some students like that exist, MANY athletes are terrific students because they are excellent at time management, driven, motivated to excel, set high standards of achievement, and so on. Some of the best students in our high school were also some of our school's best athletes. The kids who had the least free time to do homework due to athletic or arts commitments, were still the ones excelling in the classroom. For instance, I have a kid who was val and played three varsity sports and was also heavily commited to performing arts......and the kids ranked in the top five of the class also were in several varsity sports. It was just that sort of kid who did well in school too. The ones who hung out after school and had more time available, were the ones who were not the best students, in our community. Same with the theater and band kids.....huge outside commitments, but some of the top students in the school. I see this amongst my kids' friends from other places as well. Those who are exceling in their sport and their arts, are also very good students. </p>
<p>"How those kids on a national playing field do it, does seem amazing but I think that same inner motivation, work ethic and drive carries over from their sport to their academics. Just my observation from personal experience, albeit not quite at that level."</p>
<p>Im sorry if I made it seem as if I was trying to imply that athletes were somehow inferior students. I was indirectly comparing WashU to a school like Duke. Duke is a top school with great students, however, in my opinion, it is just too sports driven and too much emphasis is put on the athletes (with respect to the social scene). Again, I didn't mean to imply anything about athletes as students at WashU, but simply to echo that I didn't think students @ WashU really cared who played sports and who didn't because they cared about other types of activities, in no way did I mean to offend you or your daughter and i offer my sincerest apologies if I did.</p>
<p>Relax Jeff, my beef is not with you. but rather with the "dumb jock" stereotype. I am proud of and happy for my daughter that she can put in the hours it takes to be a varsity athlete and accomplished artist while still maintaining a 3.9 uwGPA (and a full social life) at a highly competitive school both in athletics & academics. She is just as excited to get an "ace" on the calculus final as she is to score the winning basket or goal.</p>
<p>PS. For some reason she doesn't like Duke. So that's not a option.</p>
<p>Though the jocks at Duke are MOST DEFINATELY anything but dumb, they definately run the school. That's what Jeff is referring to.</p>
<p>I agree with you though; I have a friend who's valedictorian of his class (out of 800+ students) and he captains two varsity sports. He's the most motivated, dedicated person I know.</p>