"CeCeDot;c-16808273" wrote:
not everyone in Australia has your type of college @Movotti is from the same country and he doesn't like the sports idea or cheerleading his post-secondary school didn't have them
I completely agree. I live in Belgium, we do have student associations which are like clubs but they are not rivals. They are like your drinking buddies and they do some fun activities like sports, but not always competitive. Some schools have their own dorm, but not mascots. Most people commute or rent a place in the city. Cheerleading is such an American thing, we only know of it because of American movies. And sport events only happen in middle/high school and not in uni.
I think I've confused things by putting my real life experience (which happened more than 30 years ago) and my imagination in the one sentence. Sorry for jumbling things up. Thought it might be helpful to clarify.
The residential colleges at my Uni were all together on the fringe of a country town, and rentals in town were a bit like hen's teeth, though students did use them (me too, in my final year). The colleges didn't have mascots or cheer-leading, we didn't decorate our colleges, weren't overly mean to each other, and pranking wasn't that big etc. or any of the other ideas I suggested (all of that was just brainstorming for the game). Sports was extra-curricular but very popular. The colleges did have competitive events where we represented our college (like the cross country event), but they were all voluntary and fun, and each only happened once a year. The 'rivalry' came more from reputation than an actual 'theme'. One college, for example, had the reputation for putting on the best plays and musicals (also just extra-curricular). So it tended to draw new residents who were interested in that sort of thing, thus cementing it's reputation further. Besides from sport, our colleges also hosted their own Balls (we'd dress up in formal wear), Cabarets (fancy dress), Debates, Barn Dances, Garden Parties and other themed and non-themed social activities. Live bands were sometimes hired for our dances the colleges hosted. Of course, we all went off to the University to attend the lectures and tutes and exams etc, which is why we were actually there.
