Is your choice influenced by the NCAA sports at the school? Forum

[awesomepossum]

Because of March Madness I was just thinking about this. How many people are influenced by the sports at the universities of the law schools you're choosing?

So if you're a football fan, would you be more likely to want to go to USC or Alabama?
If you're a basketball fan would you be more likely to go to Duke?

I kind of admit that having a good football program played a part in my decision to go to Michigan...not that it worked out that great (or even mediocre)... but hey...there's always next year.

I actually don't think it's totally irrelevant. I think that schools with prominent programs tend to have more 'school spirit' which plays a part in how much alumni care about their schools.

[onetimeonly95]

I'm not so sure if I was influenced by my favorite sport basketball, but I did ironically apply to mainly schools with very good basketball programs.

[MyGrlsLooksMyBrains]

Because of March Madness I was just thinking about this. How many people are influenced by the sports at the universities of the law schools you're choosing?

So if you're a football fan, would you be more likely to want to go to USC or Alabama?
If you're a basketball fan would you be more likely to go to Duke?

I kind of admit that having a good football was played a part in my decision to go to Michigan...not that it worked out that great (or even mediocre)... but hey...there's always next year.

I actually don't think it's totally irrelevant. I think that schools with prominent programs tend to have more 'school spirit' which plays a part in how much alumni care about their schools.

Great topic. The answer for me is yes. Having a strong athletic team would make me more likely to think it is easy to create a sense of pride for attending a given school. That said, I'd rather go to a great mid-major cinderella school than a school like Duke or North Carolina, academics being equal.

Imagine how exciting the students at Northern Iowa are right now. That win probably inspires the campus for the next week+

[Kilpatrick]

.

[soullesswonder]

It's something like a sixth or seventh tie breaker for me, somewhere between the attractiveness of the female students and the number of late night food options within a mile of the school.

[sumus romani]

I put no, but really, it depends on how one interprets the question. I have a strong preference for not attending a school with a national-powerhouse sports team. I did my undergrad. at KU (no comments on this today please), and my grad. at UF (I was at UF during the football and basketball national domination). Also, I worked at Auburn during two very good football years. But such a strong emphasis on sports distorts the values within the institutions, and I am just tired of it. So I would love to commit to a school with only DII sports, or really terrible DI sports.

[awesomepossum]

I put no, but really, it depends on how one interprets the question. I have a strong preference for not attending a school with a national-powerhouse sports team. I did my undergrad. at KU (no comments on this today please), and my grad. at UF (I was at UF during the football and basketball national domination). Also, I worked at Auburn during two very good football years. But such a strong emphasis on sports distorts the values within the institutions, and I am just tired of it. So I would love to commit to a school with only DII sports, or really terrible DI sports.

welcome to Michigan!

[sumus romani]

Pretty much all of the T14 fit the bill! But Michigan waitlisted me. I would love to go to Michigan though: it is a great school and Ann Arbor is my favorite city in the country besides Athens, GA. Their football team will take a while to rise to national prominence again, which makes it all the more attractive for me.

[big_blue79]

It plays in a small amount for me. I didn't do a traditional undergrad (UG stretched 6 schools and 10 years), so having that means something to me. I even used it in my Virginia LOCI (just a small line, but still).

[OneKnight]

Yes, in that I eschew schools with big NCAA football teams (definitely not my thing) and find myself drawn towards those with good basketball teams (March Madness ftw!).

[beesknees]

I put "no" because the rational part of me says that it doesn't matter. But I'd like to go to a school with a good atheletics program (or at least one that has a legacy and is rebuilding... ). I'm currently choosing between Mich and Vandy. The intensity of 100,000 wolverines in Michigan stadium is such a draw!

I went to the U for undergrad and had so much fun even though our team is rebuilding (we had an awesome start, but really blew it at the end of our season) and they torn down our beloved Orange Bowl. We may be a mid-sized private school and not have all of the recruiting resources like some of our public juggernauts, but we are all about the U. So it'd be hard to go to a school like Vandy where, well, you just don't expect that much from them in terms of football!

I don't care too much about basketball, though March Madness is fun.

[philosoraptor]

I voted yes. I'm a sports editor, so I'm pretty sure I was subconsciously influenced by my work environment when I was filling out applications (to Texas, USC, ND, UF, Bama, Michigan, Ohio State and others). Now that I actually have to make a choice, it does make a difference that Texas is sports-crazy and Emory isn't. Now I face the daunting task of translating the utility gained from becoming a Longhorn into a dollar amount so I can decide how much scholarship money I'm willing to forgo for that privilege. (My undergrad has decent sports, but the school spirit kind of dries up after graduation.)

[dutchstriker]

Yes.

I am now going to Michigan State instead of Harvard.

[prezidentv8]

I put no, but really, it depends on how one interprets the question. I have a strong preference for not attending a school with a national-powerhouse sports team. I did my undergrad. at KU (no comments on this today please), and my grad. at UF (I was at UF during the football and basketball national domination). Also, I worked at Auburn during two very good football years. But such a strong emphasis on sports distorts the values within the institutions, and I am just tired of it. So I would love to commit to a school with only DII sports, or really terrible DI sports.

I think academic institutional values are pretty TTT generally, and sports are pretty awesome generally, so I would lean towards yes for the exact opposite reason.

[OneKnight]

Well, I guess I'm not going to Maryland! Poor bracket...