Originally Posted by
VickiSoCal
I'm loving all the insight. She goes to a very large diverse public high school which draws from one of the wealthiest cities in SoCal but also has a large percentage of students below the poverty line.
That sounds like the EXACT mix you will find in most UK universities!
Plus plenty of international students.
[Although with the risk of being pedantic, just to avoid any confusion, by "public" I assume you mean a normal school paid for by the government and open to all of the public? - In the UK, the term 'public school' refers to one in public (i.e. private) ownership (and invariably fee paying, etc), rather than a 'state school' - one owned by the government and free. Just in case you get confused about people referencing number people with a 'public school' background - they mean 'private', not 'state'.]
In many ways she's a stereotype of a SoCal girl, varsity swim, volleyball and lifeguard. She'd likely participate in club swim or volleyball if available wherever she goes. So her social life may revolve around that.
This is hard to explain but I'm mentioning it just in case it helps with cultural understanding.... sport in UK universities clearly seems to be very different to (at least some) USA universities (to the limited extent that I understand USA universities - and I admit only SOME of the limited understanding I have of them comes from first hand accounts from people who have experienced both, some elements do come from popular culture plot devices - which I take with a large pinch of salt.).
I'm not just talking about which sports are played (or played actively) but just culturally the way it all seems to work.
What is certainly true is that virtually every decent/normal UK university has LOADS of different sports - competitive and non-competitive - plus even more other non-sporting activities. And I'd encourage people to try things out, anything that takes their fancy even for a second, even if non traditional and way out of their comfort zone, and you will never have another opportunity like it to have so much on your doorstep.
While some inter-university competition does occur (especially for certain types of sports that suit it, and where this is geographically practical), lots of sports are also just undertaken for personal enjoyment within the university and environs.
Back to cultural differences, there is generally no prestige association with being on a 'picked team'. Indeed most teams seem to change from fixture to fixture in many cases.
That doesn't really help much, but... I'd hate for someone not to try out something utterly random. Also don't associate each sport with only what the activity itself is. In some universities X will be very popular, in others Y. Some are great just for their social side, not just undertaking the activity.
With regard to volleyball - less popular, due to weather. How popular swimming is at certain universities is often directly linked to how practical it is (swimming pools availability, etc).