@Ynotgo well…yes and no! Most of the tickets were on the alumni side so we sat for those. But there were a few games where we got mixed into the student section so yes! Maybe that did it? She has zero school spirit for high school so it doesn’t surprise me a bit.
“Why should I sit for 3-4 hrs to watch people I don’t even know and who wouldn’t even say hi to me at school when I could read a book or hang out with my friends (who also don’t really care about sports)?” – her typical response when asked to attend a football game. We have gone to a few just to watch her friend who is in band.
Indifference to annoyance. I’ve pointed out to her, though, that it can be useful for the local team to have a big-time football following if, say, you want to go grocery shopping of a Saturday afternoon.
S17 is indifferent to college sports, although he is considering continuing with marching band, so that would require football at least. Lol. But I think he’d be just as happy at a school with no school teams
My kids are huge sports fans. However, my S15 is not attending a big-time football school. In fact, when he was moving into his dorm this fall, one of the seniors he met told him that he didn’t realize until his junior year that the school even had a football team. My boys love the movie Major League and that comment reminded me of one of the scenes in the movie when the woman said that she didn’t even realize Cleveland still had a baseball team.
My kids, both athletes, hardly watch any sports. Once in a while. We live in the Boston area, where pro sports are huge, but they don’t have much interest. They will play anything, but would rather use their electronic time for computers/gaming. I don’t think they will seek out schools with big time sports.
D is a marching band geek, and has actually gotten into football as a sport…not just for band. It’s definitely not a deal-killer, but I know she would prefer to have football. She would probably learn to like basketball if that was all that was played. I definitely think it contributes to school spirit, and that is something that contributes to the overall ‘vibe’ I think she’s looking for. And, she’d rather have Div I. She has already lamented that Case Western ‘only’ has Div III football. But, it’s still on the list.
@BusyNapping – I have not read all the way through yet, but will tell you that there is a strong (documented) correlation between gate receipts and alumni giving. So…lots of fans at games equals more donations. Does that same correlation hold true for school spirit? I would think so.
I say this as a complete non-sports person who only attended HS and college games for the social aspect, although I do love watching Lax. Much to my dismay, my boys have yet to attend a HS or college football game whereas I ran the concession stand in HS and the tailgates in college.
@BusyNapping - Sounds like an SEC school would fit the bill. I lived in Knoxville for many years and Tennessee’s stadium held 109,000 and it always sold out. It was crazy to me. A way of life for them. My S is indifferent to sports at college. He and his dad sometimes go to the AAA baseball and the feeder league basketball games. But he isn’t the one asking to go.
@dfbdfb – I will confess that I am quoting something taught in a class at Cornell nearly 30 years ago. I suppose it may not hold true today, but I think it does, especially at schools with a strong sporting tradition (as in, not the Ivies). I think Ehrenberg was the prof and I believe he is still teaching there today, so I should probably search to find one of his papers to see if he is still writing about this.
There is definitely a correlation between sports success and applications. Think of Wake Forest in 1981 coming off being a Baptist institution to then being a basketball success or Villanova, a school that heavily relied on wait list will probably not take anyone from the WL this year.
I am such a non-sports person that I shouldn’t even wade in these waters.
@busynapping, DD15 had zippo school spirit in HS, and would not attend games of any sort. After swearing she didn’t want to attend a “big, sporty school” her dream school turned out to be (wait for it…) a big sporty school. Football crazy with a big marching band and tons of school spirit. She missed the first game, but I think was a little lonely all by herself in the dorm while everyone else was at the game having a blast. She never missed another home game. Already ordered student season tickets next year. Never would have predicted that turn of events, but it has definitely added to her college experience. My theory is that the change of heart is a reflection of her feeling connected in a way she didn’t in HS, with it’s strict social rules and popular cliques.
DS17 has a fair amount of school spirit and will go to some games with friends (mostly football and soccer, or anything that’s a playoff game). He already knows that he wants football games and school spirit to be a part of his college experience, and has ruled out schools that are very urban. He plays lacrosse, but probably a better fit at club or intramural level, so that’s a consideration too.
Oh, this I’m not going to say anything against—it’s demonstrably true. The interesting question is whether that results in an improved (in a stats sense) incoming class, or an improved yield—that’s murkier, but from what I’ve read it seems that it does, though not hugely.
Not having been a very good student, I don’t recall more than the discussion of the correlation between gate receipts and alum giving. I don’t believe Ehrenberg was trying to argue that a winning football team brought up the stats of the incoming class, but I truly do not recall. Yield…eh, maybe. Would have to study schools with winning revenue sport/helmet sport teams and then isolate for any other variable you could think of. Well beyond my pay grade.
D17 wants a school with lots of spirit. Sports is the most likely way to demonstrate spirit, so yay sports! But really, it could be something else fun that brings the campus together, and she’d be up for it.
D17 just started looking at a few schools. She is interested in BS in Nursing and going on to become a Nurse Practioner. We are from NY and she is only interested in NY schools. Looked at Utica and SUNY Brockport so far. Is there a thread yet for the Class of 2021?
I have heard from my friends and relatives in the NE that it’s just beyond dreary there. I live in Atlanta, and it’s been a lot cooler than normal, but sunny. Yesterday was super hot on the courts, I was slathered in sunscreen.
About summer programs:
The girls both have done Duke TiP Center-older D did it all 4 years, younger D missed the first year because she decided she could take the SAT cold with no prep and bombed it. Then she got mad and she studied the math section of the ACT for 8 weeks, and she got a high enough score (I think it was 23) on that section to get into TiP Center.
Older D did Laboratory Science (at Davidson), loved it loved the food, then Uh, a mathy one and didn’t like it (at Duke East, where she stayed after that), Philosophy, and then Game Theory (which she said was taught by a guy who made it not good at all and was very irked at the math ability of his students). She loved her experiences despite not loving some of the classes.
Younger D did Green Technology at GA Tech, then Criminal Minds at Tech, this year she’s going to be at a different TiP campus because her dorm room was robbed-they hit the entire floor.
She has also loved TiP and like others have said, I think it’s a really good experience for them socially, and to give them an idea of what college might be like. Until Older D went, she was convinced that college would be just like high school. We are under NO illusion that this camp helps them get into college, though-it’s just a way to socialize with other extroverted nerds :), and they like taking classes where it’s just for fun, no pressure and no competition.
I feel ya, we share a boat :). Finding a college where younger D can feel both challenged and be successful, and that we can afford, is going to be interesting.
My closest friend’s daughter (class of 2018-peer to my younger D) will almost certainly be a recruited athlete in soccer. The kid is phenomenal. She’s an only, and they are very protective of her in the right areas, and give her a lot of independence in the right areas, so I think they’ll make some very smart decisions about how big of a factor the athletic aspect is in her college choices. They turned down ivies and pre-med programs to go practical, so they’re not swayed by prestige. I’ll have to ask her if she knows about CC. She tends to be drama-averse, so she may not, lol.
Ok I’m going to post this and keep reading to catch up…
Completely indifferent, although older D has been running the new giant jumbotron at some of the football games, and younger D has a boyfriend who’s a good lacrosse player so she’ll go watch a game occasionally, but my husband is the only one who likes to watch sports. To his chagrin, lol. Maybe that will change when the girls go to college if they pick a school where it’s part of the culture.
Speaking of sports, we got CRUSHED yesterday in the second round of tennis playoffs. It was very interesting from an armchair cultural anthropology standpoint. On Saturday the first round was in a lower middle class/working class neighborhood with two courts. I felt somewhat rich and classy there. On Sunday the second round was at a stupid-rich country club. Like, houses start at 5 million dollars and the guy guarding the gatehouse is caucasian. I felt poor and trashy, lol. What a difference a day makes.
Some interesting differences-the working class neighborhood had good food and a lot of beer. The country club had set out an obviously obligatory spread that was inedible cafeteria grade catered (they all ate at the country club later). The husbands watching at the working class neighborhood were loudly crass and disgusting-belching when we were trying to serve, laughing loudly when we messed up, making line calls from the sidelines (a huge no no). The husbands at the country club were very well manicured and better behaved, but occasionally douchey about cheering when you messed up rather than cheering when their team made a good shot.
So, it was an interesting two days. I found myself very glad to get back to my quirky, multi-culti upper-ish middle class neighborhood. I will admit I felt a lot more secure about myself at the working class neighborhood (I have working class roots), even though on the outside I looked like I fit in more at the country club (I’m a tall gwyneth-paltrow looking blonde). I felt so out of my league around the rich folks-it was not a feeling I enjoyed at all. And they were great people-gracious, didn’t lie about line calls, etc. It was just such a different world when the girl you’re playing has a $30k Hermes bag holding her $1k tennis rackets.
When I got home (starving because there was no good food) I asked my husband if we could go out to dinner at Moe’s so I could eat a Joey Bag of Donuts burrito and re calibrate my social meter, lol.
On a larger scale, and to apply it to schools and colleges, H and I had a serious talk about whether it was a good idea to have older D apply to the ivies. She would not be comfortable around that level of wealth, and I’m not sure I’d be comfortable having her around it. I lived around it before when I lived in Italy, and it brought back uncomfortable memories of feeling like a social imposter. I want her to find her tribe, and rich people are not our tribe. They’re a nice tribe-they support the arts in ways the middle class can’t, and I don’t begrudge them their status at all, but I’m not sure I want her around it.
I will admit I felt a lot more secure about myself at the working class neighborhood (I have working class roots), even though on the outside I looked like I fit in more at the country club (I’m a tall gwyneth-paltrow looking blonde). I felt so out of my league around the rich folks-it was not a feeling I enjoyed at all. And they were great people-gracious, didn’t lie about line calls, etc. It was just such a different world when the girl you’re playing has a $30k Hermes bag holding her $1k tennis rackets.
I didn’t go to high school in US.