Life of a student-athlete at CMU?

Colleges & Universities Carnegie Mellon University
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Hello there- my daughter is a 2027 HS graduate who is considering CMU as a student-athlete. There has already been material contact between the coaches and my daughter; and she is very interested in the school. Her interests right now are business (Tepper) and pre-law (Dietrich).

She understands that not a lot will happen until after her junior year - where admissions can get a better sense of her application. She attends a good college prep school, takes a lot of advanced classes, and has the kind of GPA where she has a decent chance to be considered for admission. My question to the board, for those who have kids who are student-athletes at CMU, is how are they managing things? Obviously her studies will take up a lot of time, and - in the UAA - there is a lot of travel (Atlanta, Chicago, etc).

Any thoughts about experiences here would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Hopefully she will get some feedback here but fundamentally she has to talk with future teammates at any school she is considering. She can ask the coach to connect her with teammates. If a coach won’t do that, they aren’t serious (at least yet) about her as a recruit.

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My daughter is a freshman engineer playing a spring sport but I do have some feedback. For the teams, they typically play against other schools in the region as opposed to cross crossing half the country. UAA conference championships and beyond would require the substantial travel. That said, the work is no joke. My kid studies all the time

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My daughter also plays a spring sport. We did a visit and met with the coach last month, and she laid out the challenges of balancing schoolwork and the players’ athletic commitments. It sounds like a lot.

however, since my daughter won’t be on a STEM track, I am wondering if it will be less of a grind - no labs to schedule, etc…

Does anybody have an idea of whether a non-STEM CMU student has a little less of a grind?

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Every field of study will have to be balanced with a sport.

I think for my daughter it was easier to be in a STEM major (engineering) at a STEM heavy school as the coach had to adjust to the lab requirements and the school helped by studying all math tests on thurs (and the coaches knew when those were in advance) and had to let the players go to classes that may only have one section. There were a few kids in non-STEM subjects (business, psychology and communications mainly) and they kind of had to make their own way as there were many classes that would meet their requirements. Probably not as many labs, but they may have had more big papers to write or observations for Psych.

It seemed all had their time issues but that the engineers, chemistry and bio majors, etc had similar schedules and the coach understood those.

I have one STEM kid and one artst, history, theater type kid. Each can’t understand what the other sees in her major and each struggles with the required classes in the other’s major (artsy one can barely add and subtract, and the other took forever to write papers or read a lot of novels).

So no, I don’t think it will be easier but it can be done.

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Hey bebopdeluxe! My daughter is a current sophomore at CMU on the track and field team, which is both a winter and spring sport (indoor/outdoor), so practice starts the first week of the year and goes until the last. She is in Dietrich/CFA as an Ethics, History, and Public Policy major/Architecture minor, and is loving her time there.

Even though CMU is in the UAA, they only compete head to head at league finals. Last year she flew to Illinois to compete at UChicago for the indoors, and then took an 8-hour bus to compete at NYU for the outdoors, but those were the only times she was up against UAA athletes.

From week to week they are competing in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Of course, those are pretty big states, so there are still long bus rides and overnights. Last weekend she was at Bucknell, about 3.5 hours each way, so the team spent the night there.

CMU is a lot of work whatever your major, and college athletics takes a lot of time even at the DIII level, but it is definitely doable, depending on what else your daughter wants to do.

My daughter has been able to overload courses, be a TA, and do daily practices and weekly travel competitions – but has missed out on a lot of the fun club meetings and other interesting stuff that happens at CMU because she’s either practicing or at a meet, so athletes do miss out.

And as twoinanddone mentioned, STEM people think non-STEM is easier, but the Humanities kids have an awful lot of papers. The CMU team is known as those kids who are working on their laptops in the bleachers between events.

If your daughter has a chance to do an overnight with someone from her sport, that would be the best way for her to see what she thinks. My kid has hosted two recruits this year, one from her high school track team, who at the end said “You guys work too hard. I’m going to Duke.” :laughing: The other one committed and is texting my daughter about which freshman dorm she should choose – she’s all in.

CMU is an awful lot of work, but it can be great if that’s what makes your student thrive. And my daughter has found a great culture with her team that has enhanced her CMU experience, for sure. But like anywhere, it doesn’t work for everyone.

Hope this long essay helps, happy to answer questions if you have them! And if your daughter does track and field, she is welcome to talk with mine.

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It does help! I am not as worried about the in-season commitment (which will be huge), but the off-season commitment in the fall. I assume she will have to take her heavier courseload in the fall, as well as hopefully have some time for other things like clubs or music or other social activities. In her discussions with other schools (NESCAC, Liberty League, etc) there does not seem to be quite as much demand outside of sports - for example, she can do a semester abroad in the fall of her junior year. I wonder if that would be possible at CMU.

I understand that playing sports at a place like CMU is challenging. But I don’t want her entire life to be studying and sports responsibilities!

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Athletes definitely do semesters abroad with no problem. I’m not sure about how much time commitment there is in the off-season, that may depend on the sport. Last year my daughter overloaded classes in the spring (T&F’s main season) and it was fine. Also there’s technically enough time to do clubs, they just all seem to meet at the same time as practice. But she has teammates who are musicians, act in school productions, do volunteer work. And people definitely miss practice and meets when other commitments come up. The best thing to do would be talk to some athletes from the specific sport to find out how the balance is.

For my daughter the approach is that being on the team is great, until it starts to impinge on the other things she values (academics, mental health, etc.). So far it has been a big net positive.