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<blockquote> <p>But when you look at other schools with 1500-2000 students that have 20-25 varsity teams plus intramurals and club sports, the total number of students involved in athletics is probably fairly consistent across coed LACs. </p> </blockquote>
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<p>Maybe, if you include intramurals and club sports. But, in terms of varsity sports, Williams is at the extreme top end of the LAC scale. Here are the percentages of varsity participation of a few select LACs from the current USNEWS common data set info.</p>
<p>Williams - Male 39% - Female 27%
Amherst - Male 32% - Female 24%
Swarthmore- Male 22% - Female 21%
Pomona - Male 24% - Female 17%
Carleton - Male 25% - Female 17%
Bowdoin - Male 38% - Female 28%
Grinnell - Male 30% - Female 23%
Davidson (Div 1a) - Male 26% - Female 17%</p>
<p>Generally, the larger the school, the lower the percentage and vice versa. However, Williams (2000 undergrads) is the largest of this group of schools. Carelton is the only one that is about the same size. The rest are in the 1500 to 1600 range. For example, Haverford has very high percentages (even without football) because they only have 1100 students. Conversely, Stanford is an atheletic powerhouse compared to any of t hese schools, however has only 4% men and 4% women because the student body is so much larger.</p>
<p>To provide some context for the range represented above. Williams has 403 male and 272 female varsity athletes. Swarthmore has 153 male and 160 female varsity athletes.</p>
<p>In general, the New England schools will be the highest because they support large helmet sport teams in football AND ice hockey. Most schools outside New England don't play ice hockey. Swarthmore is the only one of this group that doesn't have a football team.</p>