<p>I'm a graduate student journalist at Berkeley, and I'm working on a group multimedia project that has the potential to be published by a national media outlet. We're trying to gauge the effects that the recent success of Cal's football team has had on admissions, applications, alumni giving, and academic revenue. Research has shown that when teams are on national television a lot, or win a national championship, their admissions applications ALWAYS go up. </p>
<p>So, is there anyone out there (particularly out of state) who saw Cal on tv last season and thought, "Hey, that wouldn't be a bad place to go to school"? Or maybe you were on the fence about where to go, and just happened to decide upon a school that had the better football program?</p>
<p>If any of this applies to you, please feel free to email me, or else post your responses here. You don't have to be going to Berkeley to respond (in fact I'm interested in the general trend), however Berkeley is the focus of this particular article. </p>
<p>A strong sports program is affecting my choice, but not in the selection process, and not in an advertising kind of way. It's affecting my choice in a very specific "school A has a team for a sport I want to and can play and school B doesn't" kind of way.</p>
<p>Bump...Even if you're not going to Berkeley, or if you can only tell me that your friend is going to a school with a great football team, TELL ME! I'm really interested to see if this is a genuine phenomenon with anecdotal evidence to back it up, or just a sort of collegiate urban legend. Thanks!</p>
<p>I did include sports in my decision making. Growing up in Iowa I love three sports--football, wrestling, and baseball (yes, even us girls), and going to school where I could watch a successful program was a factor. Not a huge factor, but a factor. My school doesn't have Varsity baseball (b/c of Title IX) but the club team is decent. </p>
<p>And as childish as it sounds in retrospect, I didn't even consider applying to my school's instate rival. I was born and bred a Cyclone and couldn't imagine EVER calling myself a Hawkeye. Plus I'd have to change a significant portion of my wardrobe! </p>
<p>Sports was a factor in my decision but not a huge thing. On a similar note, I first became a fan of UNC basketball before I was in kindergarden when my brother told me Jordan went there, but their academics made them one of my top choices.</p>
<p>Actually, for me, a strong sports team had the opposite effect on my college decisions. I am a non-competitive person by nature, and really did not want to be surrounded by people who were fanatically into sports, when I don't really understand competition in general. One of the schools in my top three was Wake Forest, a school known for its division 1 basketball team. While this may seem alluring to some, it was definitely a reason (though perhaps not a major one) why I chose to apply to slightly nerdier U of R instead as my ED choice.</p>
<p>Sports were definitely a big part of my decision. I never would have imagined going to a school where I wouldn't have been a strong supporter as an alumnus. As it turned out, I went to the school where my parents were alumni and they had raised me from day one to be a fan of that school. While I was a fan in junior high and HS, going to the school (a D1 football power) really increased my intensity for all the schools programs, and was a huge part of my collegiate experience. We've had family trips to bowl games and I've made friends in other places through my "connection" to the team. I pay to be a member of the Rivals.com team site and keeping tabs on the success of the school's athletics programs is a significant hobby of mine.</p>
<p>I'm a junior in high school so I haven't applied to schools yet, but athletics will be a huge factor in my college decision.</p>
<p>I won't consider anything less than D1.</p>
<p>As for seeing a school's sport team on tv, and then deciding to apply there, that has also influenced my college list.</p>
<p>I discovered my dream school (UMiami), by watching their football team. Their school spirit and athletic dominance makes the school that much more appealing. </p>
<p>Also I found Indiana University, by watching their basketball team play. I never even heard of IU until I saw them play on tv, but when I did I became interested in the school. The number of students and spirit in their bball arena was amazing. So I started checking the school out.</p>
<p>So basically sports/athletics are nearly on par with academics in terms of decision factors for me.</p>
<p>I would say that a strong sports program definitely affects my decision....to turn right around and look for other options. I don't really give a damn about sports of any kind and I would never want to be surrounded (again) by people who are obsessed with them and think I'm a freak for not being obsessed. My current school doesn't even have a football team, so no worries about that here.</p>
<p>That said, I think some of the schools I applied to probably were at least fairly big sports schools, but I really wasn't thinking about it at all...if you'd have asked me if I wanted to go to a big sports school I would have said no, but I didn't ever check any of the schools I was looking at to see if they were big sports schools (and I don't pay enough attention to the subject to know if they are or not without checking first). I was more focused on their program in my major and their location.</p>
<p>I'm also only a junior, so I haven't applied yet.</p>
<p>Sports are an important part in the college selection process for me. I love football, basketball, baseball, softball, basically ANY sport, so I need a school that has a strong athletic program. I'm not considering any school that isn't D1, or a school that doesn't have a football team. It's also important to me that people actually participate in intramurals and club sports on campus. I'm used to a lot of school spirit and usually schools that have good sports teams have a lot of school spirit.</p>
<p>having division 1 athletics was part of my college selection criteria. i just felt that was part of the "college experience" and that it helps with school/alumni spirit. anyway, when i was growing up in the LA area, UCLA football and UCLA basketball reigned supreme over USC, so as a kid, it was cool to root for UCLA, and that translates to wanting to go to UCLA. i think psychologically, it was still in my mind when i visited colleges... there was the "i always wanted to go to UCLA as a kid" thought that was a x-factor.... which also meant, despite USC's recent football success, that i didn't really want to go to USC. as a college student, UCLA athletics are important to me and probably will continue to be important after i graduate. </p>
<p>if you want a good case study, you should look at USC football. USC football is on a different level than cal football cuz it has "street cred" and "hollywood coolness" so the effects are more easily felt. </p>
<p>just keep in mind a couple things. 1) athletic success needs to be sustained (i.e. have tradition) in order to attract applicants/admits who werent big sports fans in the first place (which means cal isn't the best case study as of this point), 2) it takes time to reveal many effects (e.g. UCLA's football success in the 90s carried over to my application process in the 2000s).</p>