Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts is probably most well known for being the birthplace of basketball. James Naismith invented the game here when trying to figure out a way to keep his football players in shape off-season. Dribbling wasn't allowed, and it took them some time after inventing the game to realize that if they cut the bottoms out of the peach baskets, the game would go much faster! Today, 33% of students at Springfield are varsity athletes and fan support is big at this Division 3 school. In fact, all varsity teams are paired with another which requires them to come out and support each other, which I think is great! And I'm told that 100% of the fields are turf. Academically, athletic training is very popular here and a 3 + 2 direct entry program is available. Year one, the student is assigned a Springfield University varsity team, at first shadowing, but has hands on those athletes by senior year. The 5-year direct-entry OT program and 6-year direct-entry PA and PT programs are excellent. And the college is building a brand new health science center, which is set to open fall of 2023. There's also a new library that was built in 2017. There are liberal arts majors here as well, but we were told that the sociology major has become a social work major, which seems to be in keeping with the pre-professional programs they've historically done so well. The cost of attendance is $58K, but nobody pays that. The minimum scholarship is $17K for students with a GPA of up to 2.49, and the maximum is $25K for students with a GPA of at least 3.8. I have to say that Springfield seems to be full of a lot of happy, nice, young people. The admissions officer defined it as inter-generational friendliness. I can only tell you that our tour guide knew the name of the staff member at the entrance to the dining hall. And the staff member knew the student's name. And with all the colleges I visit, I just don't see that very often!