<p><a href=“http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/.../athletics.html[/url]”>http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/.../athletics.html</a></p>
<p>Excellent piece on the pressures on
the elite college student athlete.</p>
<p>A must save & should be sent
to every H.S. guidance counselor.</p>
<p>I can’t access that link. Can you check it again? Thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks- got it. Good article.</p>
<p>Excellent article.</p>
<p>I think an interesting piece of the puzzle for recruits to check out is the list of majors of the athletes on the teams. Very often, successful athletes on the high powered teams have “lighter” majors.</p>
<p>My S’s friend was a recruited D1 athlete at top tier schools. She also wanted to be a chemical engineering major. More than one coach told her that with the level of commitment necessary to be a successful D1 team member, she would very likely not be able to meet the demands of an engineering major and in the end, both sport and academics would suffer. They strongly advised her to pick one or the other and left the impression that if she stuck with engineering, their level of interest would cool. </p>
<p>She chose to pursue chemical engineering and give up the sport. She has a great attitude and says she now has time to explore other ECs that she never had time for when competing. She is very happy with her decision.</p>
<p>I’m sure combining a D1 sport and a demanding major can be done in some circumstances, but it is very difficult. The combination of specific sport and major play a big part in the success of the student/athlete.</p>
<p>cur, there are no captain’s practices allowed in D3; D’s school takes this rule very seriously. HOWEVER the problem is that the kids love to win, and are internally driven to work out, practice, etc, even in off season.</p>
<p>I know Williams has captain’s practices.</p>
<p>tsk, tsk; they are not supposed to! Then again, they win quite a lot. Hmmmm.</p>
<p>SBmom, maybe captain’s practices is a word of art that I shouldn’t have picked. How about “Hey girls. We’re all gonna be at the tennis court to hit some balls. Everyone else will be there. Want to come?”</p>
<p>My3sons…that may be true for some and I’m sure the anecdotes are true. But it is not true for all. I know on my D’s team, someone is pre med. Even in the Stanford article, a football player was pre med. I recall reading about a star on the football team at my D’s school who was an applicant for the Rhodes Scholarship. I do not know what is a light major and what isn’t but clearly my D’s courses at an Ivy school are demanding. As with many of your kids, she is in a ten day period or so right now when she has either or BOTH due every day…papers, exams, projects. She is working round the clock. She also takes a course each semester at RISD and most can tell you that architecture courses are very time consuming. For one of her courses at Brown, she not only has the exam this week for it but also is building an architecture model…loads of hours go into that. Of course there are all the papers she is writing and exams and such too like everyone else. I hardly can think of it as being “light”. </p>
<p>Yes, it is a major juggle but for some kids, they are impassioned about the sport and love this juggle. It just is not for everyone.</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I know at Rice there are “light” majors for the major sport athletes. At Penn, there are a number of varsity athletes at Wharton, which is tough.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone can dispute that for many athletes, they do have to choose between their sport and certain majors. Engineering and architecture are the ones most frequently mentioned that are incompatible with certain sports. For some athletes, it is because they really aren’t up to the intellectual rigors of those majors; for others, it is because of the scheduling of classes and labs conflicting with practices. </p>
<p>There are certainly exceptional athletes who manage to figure out a way to do it, but it often does come down to: “this required course meets all afternoon in lab; it is the only time this course is offered; and it directly conflicts with practice”. </p>
<p>Another life lesson–you can’t do everything.</p>
<p>Many D1 athletes do complete tough majors – but they do not necessarily do it in 4 years. Remember that if you are on scholarship, needing another year to graduate is not as big a deal (even if you’re paying the tuition for that 5th year, it’s just one year) as if you are paying your way through a D3 school.</p>
<p>this is a great thread. thanks to everyone for sharing.</p>
<p>am wondering if any of the student athletes mentioned, also work a job, either on-campus or off-campus? next question then is…when d3 schools calculate merit aid/financial aid for a student athlete…do they take into account that the student athlete would or would not be working a part-time job? i know d3’s do not give athletic scholarships but if they clearly know that the student is a recruited athlete…how does that play into those merit aid decisions?</p>
<p>D works an on campus job, as would be expected, they are extremely flexible.</p>
<p>A well-known eastern LAC recruited D for their team and I am pretty sure they had work-study as part of their offer. This LAC does not offer merit, only need based aid.</p>
<p>I have been told that with Ds, they can be somewhat flexible in determining your need…not outrageous, but they could choose to look at things in more or less favourable ways, depending upon how much admissions wants you. They still have to go with their rules, but may have ranges rather than a hard line to follow.</p>
<p>A former adcom (adrep?adlum? whatever) told me that in a simplistic view, admissions could have three piles, A, B, C students, not grades, but based on how badly the school wants them. The A package would be mostly grants, fewer loans, and the C package would be mostly loans, no grants. So, the finaid dept puts the most money towards the kids admissions wants the most.
Seems like it could happen that way.</p>
<p>thanks somemom. that makes sense. good info.</p>
<p>we’ve always looked at my d’s varsity high school sports (she plays 3 and maybe will do 4 this year) and her ec’s and school work…as her part-time job. she’s had friends in high school who took part-time jobs, got a taste of the money, increased their hours, and then dropped their varsity sports.</p>
<p>Condor:</p>
<p>My D has worked cvariable hours as her commitments increased & decreased (mid-terms, etc) and she also said she may not work or not work much when it is time to have a game every week (yep, only one game a week for the season) and then will not work when the end of season tournaments begin…several weeks…hopefully!</p>
<p>We do our budget assuming she will NOT work, so the work $ are entirely extra to her, but our budget for her is definitely starving student level, not lush.</p>
<p>My D, in HS, also was in three sports, plus ran some cross country, plus played on a type of travel team for her #1 sport, so, nope, she has never worked during the school year. No time. She really wanted to try working and does like the $, but academics are #1 and her sports are #2, work is only when it is convenient, and she went into it with that understanding. In her interview, she mentioned not knowing the sport team commitment and was very up front with them. The dept has several work study students, so they share the work well and it seems to be no problem.</p>
<p>My concern with the balance is that my son’s sport is three seasons. The good thing is that it doesn’t involve “plays” and lots of blackboard time. It can only be done so many hours a day. I hope he can manage it all. I don’t think I could, although I managed a demanding job, raising kids and training for the same sport (albeit not on a team). I was younger, though. Now I can barely do one thing at a time!</p>
<p>My athlete kid…
In HS…was in three varsity sports, so huge time commitments in every season, but was also in several other long term commitments including band, jazz band, piano lessons, clarinet lessons, tap dance troupe, jazz or hip hop dance, student government (in a pretty active capacity),etc. Working a job would be difficult as she also was in the most demanding courses and a straight A student. However, in junior year, she did work one weekend night per month in the fall (could not do easily in winter as she had to be up at 6 or 6:30 AM to travel to races on weekends.) However, in senior year, she did work again one night per weekend, same country inn dining room, again throughout winter break, but also in winter (did not do Sunday races but trained early on Sundays, so a bit different) and then worked two jobs the summer after graduation to save money for extra spending money in college. </p>
<p>However, IN college, there is no time to work. She is on financial aid at a school that is all need based aid but her aid includes grants and loans. Her school’s work/study is covered as a grant for freshmen as the college President did not want freshmen to have to work. Now, as a soph, we just decline work study as she’d have no time being a varsity sport athlete (and club athlete in another sport) which is for most of the school year. However, last summer, after funding an academic immersion program at Harvard herself, she came home for the month of August and earned money at her old summer job teaching in a tennis program for children at a local resort. So, she has earned money and has saved up a real lot but is not working for pay during the school year in college. She also has to volunteer at an elem school one morning per week as a requirement for varsity athletes. </p>
<p>Susan</p>