At Big Ten colleges, a strong sense of community is created through sports cultures filled with tailgating, Greek life, and a strong sense of school spirit. Though 87.5% of BSM students do not plan on playing a sport in college, 75% say that sports culture is a deciding factor in their college applications. Many communities are built through sports, resulting in Big Ten schools having an overwhelming amount of school spirit and college applicants.
Big Ten colleges, originally all located in the Midwest, have recently expanded to include colleges on the West Coast; the new additions include USC, UCLA, University of Oregon, and University of Washington. Along with being among the most competitive college football leagues, Big Ten colleges boasting an enrollment of over 30,000 students of various backgrounds are known for their rigorous academics, diverse majors, extensive research programs, and school spirit. Senior Luke Guggenberger is applying to the University of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa, and wants to experience all that Big Ten college life has to offer. “I just think about the environment along with the school, because a lot of the Big Ten teams obviously have football, so the fall football atmosphere and then the strong academics in all different areas, so pursuing that too. There’s a lot of flexibility,” Guggenberger said.
Leni DePauw is a junior at BSM planning to apply to Big Ten colleges Purdue and Penn State in hopes of continuing her gymnastics career. “[I am] mainly [applying] for student life, sports, college football games, and sororities. I’ll hopefully [do] gymnastics; it’s like a community. It’s like a family, you see each other every day, and you’re just spending so much time together,” DePauw said.
Conversely, senior Lyra Carter, an applicant to NYU and Fordham, bases her college applications on art and creativity above school spirit and sports culture. “I want to major in something more creatively based, film studies and production. I feel the Big Ten schools don’t always offer the best education in those departments. I want to go to a school that’s big on sports, but if I want the art school experience, you can’t have that and go to a Big Ten school,” Carter said.
Whether playing a sport or watching from the stands, high school and college sports enable the student body to spend time with others, make new friends, and cheer for a common goal, thus school pride. “Especially in college and high school, so many people spend time at football games and hockey games. [Everyone is] watching because you’re with your friends, and you’re all spending time together,” DePauw said.
Carter, captain of the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team, agrees with DePauw, in that sports create a supportive community and school spirit. “I think having a team to cheer for makes people want to go to [the] schools. Because I know some of my friends are applying to schools just because of their sports, and sometimes I want to go to schools just for their sports, but again, that’s just not my path,” Carter said.
Though sports do foster school spirit and community, Carter will find that anything you have in common with other people can create community. “Going to school with people who want to do similar things as me, I think that’s going to be a big unifier especially because I’ve been to art school in the past and just the fact that everyone’s all creatively minded, that was a big unifier because we’re all interested in a lot of the similar things,” Carter said.
Though some people want a big, sports-centered college, and others, a smaller arts school, sports culture is no doubt a huge factor in school spirit. “I think [these] schools have a better school spirit, just more like game days and tailgating is definitely a big factor. If you have better sports teams, the more school spirit,” Guggenberger said.