If this seems ridiculous I apologize, but for someone who is not an athlete, is considering the sports programs of a school when making decisions a bad idea? I’m not talking about playing, but simply as an avid sports fan. I’m also not talking about weighing it with the same importance of COA or strength of certain academic programs of course, but with the same weight as campus appearance or how nice the dorms are. So, should a schools sports programs be a factor in when comparing institutions?
I knew a kid who went to Auburn because Bo Jackson went there. If you are picking from a group of schools with similar academics, job prospects and cost, athletic prowess is as good a determinant as any other.
The most important thing when deciding on a school (well, second most important after cost) is whether or not you would be happy living there for four years. If a great sports program would make you much happier, then it absolutely can be a factor.
@wlester. I totally agree. It is very important to be comfortable and enjoy your 4 years of school…and if tailgating or going to great fun filled spirit filled games makes you happy…why not. Both my kids took that into consideration.
So, while Duke has always been a very solid school, the advent of their national bball championships in the early 90s,certainly added an extra luster and appeal to the school.
Anything you care about is a valid consideration (coming from someone whose H and S went to Notre Dame). And it sounds like you know there are more important things to take into account as well.
I’m not sure how accurate or relevant this is, but something to maybe take in to consideration/just a fun fact-
I have a good friend who’s mom works in the admissions at Duke, and she says in the year following a national championship win, they always see a very large bump in applications, which can make admissions even more competitive. So even for top tier schools and students, sports seem to have a pretty large pull factor.
I get the feeling that the types of people who only added Duke to their list because of the national title aren’t the cream of the application crop at a school like Duke. Sure, maybe the admission rate went down, but did things like GPA, proportion in top% of class or standardized test scores go up in those years? EDIT: If you tell me the yield went up, I would totally believe that.
I heard about the same boosts in applications at Brown after Seth Cohen (The OC) and Serena Van der Woodsen (Gossip Girl) talked about attending (don’t know if Tina Cohen-Chang of Glee had any impact). It had no impact on admissions other than an increased number of applications.
I have repeatedly posted in threads that many non-academic factors can be critical in deciding where to apply and attend. Big-time sports programs, proximity to beaches or mountains, local music scene, etc., are all absolutely valid considerations. Sometimes, a combination can be the winning formula: Miami or USC for warm weather, football, and fun cities; Michigan for great academics combined with Big Ten athletics; Colorado or Washington for weed and skiing or wilderness.
Well, those things are perceived as critical by some students. From an education perspective not so much. There’s an older thread about the silliest reasons a student decided against a school which kind of ties into what some people consider important in college selection.
