<p>I have posted many times before about athletics in college and the benefits of obtaining an athletic scholarship. My experience was in Division 1 - and my comments are directed at the Division 1 level - frankly, I have nothing but good to say about athletics at the Division III level - I am a big sports fan and think that Division III does a good job of balancing academics and the passion of athletics. </p>
<p>Division 1 athletic scholarships for serious students are not, I repeat, not, a good deal. Unless one wants a career centered around sports, I would avoid them. </p>
<p>I was fortunate enough to receive a full scholarship (a minor sport), but that was only after winning a high school national championship - and the work that this achievement required was significant - almost maniacal because in retrospect my athletic talent was more limited than I thought it was. And I needed the scholarship - my mother was single and unemployed - no way was I able to attend the kind of wealthy school (a USNWR report top 10 school) without extraordinary financial aid. Travel to the school and back home twice a year alone broke my budget. In retrospect, given the financial pressures, I likely should have taken an academic scholarship to one of the “lesser” ranked schools to which I was admitted. But what did I know? I had zero guidance or parental oversight. I was literally entirely on my own from age 18. </p>
<p>Athletic scholarships are not four year scholarships. They are one year renewable scholarships - and the coach has tremendous discretion to suspend, reduce or eliminate scholarship aid. Some schools are fairer than others, but the fact is that coaches can and do cut scholarships. This leverage has perverse results. No matter what lip service the school pays to school first or studies first - forget it - no 18-21 year old whose self-esteem in large part depends on how well they are doing in their sport (they wouldn’t have reached such heights without a healthy ego and sense of confidence) is going to feel at ease doing anything other following the coach’s express or implicit instructions as to training and competition - and in most sports - that means 20-35 hours a week - mostly all year round. This may sound reasonable, but throw in the fatigue factor (in my sport training twice a day was imperative because it was dominated then by foreign, older Olympic level athletes recruited into the system and intense world class level training was a must), and academics quickly becomes a haphazard process. I think such scholarships work for the types that want to coach and teach and have athletically based careers - particularly at big state universities where they can gravitate to majors that generally accomodate them - but really - they are much more challenging for the serious student, and from the perspective of educational development, really shortchange most serious students. </p>
<p>I applied to a very select honors program - and a wonderful professor - who was initially very skeptical as to whether a full time athlete could handle the work - thought it wrong to let athletic stereotypes govern his thinking - and let me in the program and challenged me to a fare thee well - making me work like I never had. Of course, this did make my athletics suffer (not a lot, but some), but fortunately most of the work was in my last year and my scholarship was “safe.” The pressure was tremendous - easily the hardest thing I have done - bar none - nothing has come close - and I ended up later being the editor of a law review at a very well known “Tier 1” law school - law school - where I did very well, was a cakewalk - really, a walk in the park compared to my undergraduate experience - I was bewildered that I had all of this time on my hands - and I even worked a part time job while in law school. There is no way I could do what I did in undergrad again - it drained every ounce of energy I had. And the thought of a social life was a joke. And I regret not having a great last year in athletics. And all in all being able to do what I did was a fluke - yes, I put in the effort, but there are very few professors around like the one that sponsored me - simply put, he taught me to be a man. I owe him every measure of my achievements. </p>
<p>But the “worst” thing about big time college sports is that unless one makes extraordinary efforts - and remember - Division 1 athletes are always redlining - is that it vastly narrows one’s circle of friends and acquaintances. No, it doesn’t have to be that way - but my life routine and cycle was so different than the average college student that it became that way. Take training twice a day - well, 10 am and 4 pm - even if class schedule permitted, did not work. There was simply not enough rest period with a 10 am session - you would be blasted for the afternoon session - and it was an awful feeling. So 7 am and 4 pm was the answer. Which is great - but that means staying up until 1 chatting with friends or playing a board game or whatever silly social fabric makes up college life was out of the picture. So life becomes somewhat narrow, and I discerned in my 20’s and 30’s that I lacked the social and group skills of many of my peers. People ping on frats and sororities here - often rightly so - but many Greek types do develop a good sense of dealing with people - particularly difficult ones - skills I sure as heck didn’t develop. I find myself being a loner today - which one could ascribe to my personality but when I go to competitions today and from time to time meet up with my old rivals (some of our kids are replicating our own athletic careers), they relate the same experience - indeed, often marrying someone on the team who was their first “real” relationship. </p>
<p>And let’s not forget career preparation. Internships during the summer? Maybe. But it is much harder for serious athletes. In my own sport, the NCAA championships were in the middle of June. So one would have to explain to employers why a late start was necessary - and further - why lots of time off in the end of July and the whole month of August was needed - the most important training months of the year that could make or break an athletic year. It could be done - but frankly, it was just much easier for me to leverage my modest local fame and take the standing union job offer - working 6 weeks for my spending money at the union shop with its high pay - than focus on a career building experience. Career experiences came, but they started later than most - another cost. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong - I have no regrets about the whole deal. I traveled the country (admittedly lots of nervous time in hotels), and became mentally much tougher and independent than I otherwise would have been - a great feeling. I didn’t feel “poor” or like a “victim” - I absolutely loved the freedom and being accountable solely to the guy in the mirror. How many kids can be completely independent at age 18 and actually pull it off? But unlike many other students (and their parents) on this board, I did not have many choices - and if there are choices, it makes sense for parents to really, really examine the “costs” of a scholarship, even it it is, as is obvious, a bit more painful financially. My wife met me during the end of my college days, and she, more than anyone, makes great arguments against the athletic scholarship routine for students that are academically serious. A complete non-athlete herself, she is able to comment in a balanced way about the costs of Division 1 athletics, and lets parents of kids in our ridiculously sports crazed high school know just what their kids are in for. </p>
<p>And because hypocrisy is never charming, my own kids - much better students than I could ever imagine - did not or are not putting athletics into the college equation, although my oldest was a very good high school athlete. She followed the lead of other posters here, and accepted an academic scholarship at one of these high ranked name schools - a scholarship that gets talked about frequently on one of these boards. And what is rare about her is not her achievements - which are great - but rather that she really listened when I told her - “don’t do what I did”, even though she was tempted.</p>