Is playing a sport in college "worth it"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That said, my brother wasted years of his life trying to make the Olympics in his sport. He spent all of college exclusively focused on that goal. He missed making an alternate for the team by one slot. He did graduate from college after 5 years, but with a crap major and a crap GPA. It's haunted home for years and now in his mid 30s he's still playing catch up. The dream of an Olympic medal was a huge bust for his life, as I'm sure it is for many.

Is it his attitude that he "wasted his life" on a "bust" or is it yours? I don't think he should regret what he did at all. You have to be a tremendous athlete to be "almost" Olympic quality. That is an achievement in and of itself and the effort is by no means wasted. If he hadn't tried to make the team, he'd have spent the rest of his life regretting it.

Plenty of people graduate with crap GPAs in crap majors without doing any sports at all. Then they go on to lead productive and happy lives, because once you have graduated nobody gives a shit what your undergrad major or GPA were.

Some people spend six years getting a PhD and then never become professors. Did they waste years of their life on a huge bust?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a blog not the New England Journal of Medicine so research reports are not required.

Players in every sport suffer from concussions except swimmers who suffer from water in their ears and wrinkly finger syndrome.

Gotcha. The earth is flat. No need for me to support it because, you know, it’s a blog.

P.S. this isn’t a blog.

[Anonymous]

I know an athletic director at a big university.
She said, get into the school with the aim of playing the sport, and get the "bump". DO NOT TAKE THE SCHOLARSHIP. Pay your own way, or get an academic scholarship. This way, student can walk away from the team whenever. Student cans kip practices and games when important classwork comes up.
She said that no child should ever take a sports scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anyone in law or engineering that played college sports. Also, if one has goals set for mba/law/medicine/phd at a top school, how can one achieve those grades for entrance when time is spent playing sports? Are these college sports players pursuing business?

That takes too narrow a view of sports (and other non-academic activities in college) and of the sort of well-rounded, time-managing, life-balancing person who will succeed in those fields. Lots of people in those fields played sports, but they won't often be talking about their days in collegiate sports, so there is no reason you would know. Nonetheless, about half my friends who are lawyers played sports in college, including my spouse and I. It doesn't matter what level or even if they were great at it, but is does matter that they had the focus and time management skills to do it and still succeed academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know anyone in law or engineering that played college sports. Also, if one has goals set for mba/law/medicine/phd at a top school, how can one achieve those grades for entrance when time is spent playing sports? Are these college sports players pursuing business?

That takes too narrow a view of sports (and other non-academic activities in college) and of the sort of well-rounded, time-managing, life-balancing person who will succeed in those fields. Lots of people in those fields played sports, but they won't often be talking about their days in collegiate sports, so there is no reason you would know. Nonetheless, about half my friends who are lawyers played sports in college, including my spouse and I. It doesn't matter what level or even if they were great at it, but is does matter that they had the focus and time management skills to do it and still succeed academically.

For medicine it is tricky. The schools care little about extra curriculars like sports. If sports hurt your grades, it better be because you went to the Olympics.

[Anonymous]

It's a blog to me and if you truly believe the world is flat that's okay too.

Playing college sports are fine for some, but for most they are not. They are a drain on a student's precious time in college. It's not just practice and the games, it's also the 12 months they have to spend in the weight room. College is for the purpose of expanding ones mind not their biceps and unfortunately there is an inverse relationship between the two.

If you can play college sports and avoid breaking your cranium, and graduate not thinking the world is flat, then be my guest play college sports to your hearts content.

[Anonymous]

DS played baseball for an Ivy League college. He played because he loved it and college was (he thought) the last time he could play competitively (is playing for the Minors now). Playing baseball did exclude him from the typical semester abroad and he was cautioned against majoring in a lab science. Playing a top sport is like having a job - it is a huge time commitment.

Another thing to consider us the networking with the sport. DS has basically been promised starting positions in various companies owned by baseball alums.

But love of the game is the driving force.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS played baseball for an Ivy League college. He played because he loved it and college was (he thought) the last time he could play competitively (is playing for the Minors now). Playing baseball did exclude him from the typical semester abroad and he was cautioned against majoring in a lab science. Playing a top sport is like having a job - it is a huge time commitment.

Another thing to consider us the networking with the sport. DS has basically been promised starting positions in various companies owned by baseball alums.

But love of the game is the driving force.

Hope he makes it into the majors some day! You only live once, carpe diem!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are a drain on a student's precious time in college. It's not just practice and the games, it's also the 12 months they have to spend in the weight room. College is for the purpose of expanding ones mind not their biceps and unfortunately there is an inverse relationship between the two.

Nope. In fact, a strong body strengthens the mind, too. But that aside, if the student is forced to exercise, what that drives out is "time wasters" like socializing, drinking, and partying, not studying. If they're in the weight room, they're not in a bar - and as a parent I'm perfectly happy with that trade-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are a drain on a student's precious time in college. It's not just practice and the games, it's also the 12 months they have to spend in the weight room. College is for the purpose of expanding ones mind not their biceps and unfortunately there is an inverse relationship between the two.

Nope. In fact, a strong body strengthens the mind, too. But that aside, if the student is forced to exercise, what that drives out is "time wasters" like socializing, drinking, and partying, not studying. If they're in the weight room, they're not in a bar - and as a parent I'm perfectly happy with that trade-off.

I think some parents are clueless as to how much time their college students spend partying and drinking and smoking pot. That is what my son's "friends" who aren't playing sports are doing non stop. And if some people think their kids aren't doing it, they are delusional or have that 1% kid....Lots of time to spend remember they have 5 classes per week, not 7, and not all classes are that hard. Quite frankly, for me college here was a piece of cake compared to my HS in Europe. I did go to music school as well, in addition to grammar school, but still. Lots of time left to play a sport which is much better than getting drunk. Which (almost) all are. Athletes too.

[Anonymous]

"I think some parents are clueless as to how much time their college students spend partying and drinking and smoking pot. That is what my son's "friends" who aren't playing sports are doing non stop. And if some people think their kids aren't doing it, they are delusional or have that 1% kid....Lots of time to spend remember they have 5 classes per week, not 7, and not all classes are that hard. Quite frankly, for me college here was a piece of cake compared to my HS in Europe. I did go to music school as well, in addition to grammar school, but still. Lots of time left to play a sport which is much better than getting drunk. Which (almost) all are. Athletes too."

You don't have to be getting drunk/high to be wasting your time. I knew a guy who spent at least five hours a day talking to different women.

He constantly juggled between two and three dozen women.

He usually dated one at a time but he had two or three dozen others who he had volumes of notes on to keep them straight.

He was obsessed.

[Anonymous]

College is very challenging and athletics are very time consuming.

Consume every bit of knowledge you can while you are there.

Most people cannot afford to take that much time away from the primary reason they are in college - to get a great education.

If you are deeply truly passionate about a sport no one will be able to stop you from playing it, but if your dedication to the sport is anything less than enormous but prudent with your time and concentrate entirely on your academics.

College is very difficult - 50% of those who enter fail to graduate with a Bachelors Degree or higher. Don't risk your GPA or not graduating from college because you spent too many hours in the weight room during your freshman and sophomore years. Imagine the loss and waste one would feel if they played sports in college and that it caused them to never graduate. To have played college sports but to have failed to graduate with a BA would be very humbling. To have played college ball but being unable to put on your resume that you have BA would be very humbling. To have played sports in college but being uncomfortable talking about it because you never graduated would be very humbling.

Go to college, get a great education, get a great job and live a wonderful life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College is very challenging and athletics are very time consuming.

Consume every bit of knowledge you can while you are there.

Most people cannot afford to take that much time away from the primary reason they are in college - to get a great education.

If you are deeply truly passionate about a sport no one will be able to stop you from playing it, but if your dedication to the sport is anything less than enormous but prudent with your time and concentrate entirely on your academics.

College is very difficult - 50% of those who enter fail to graduate with a Bachelors Degree or higher. Don't risk your GPA or not graduating from college because you spent too many hours in the weight room during your freshman and sophomore years. Imagine the loss and waste one would feel if they played sports in college and that it caused them to never graduate. To have played college sports but to have failed to graduate with a BA would be very humbling. To have played college ball but being unable to put on your resume that you have BA would be very humbling. To have played sports in college but being uncomfortable talking about it because you never graduated would be very humbling.

Go to college, get a great education, get a great job and live a wonderful life.

You might be a lunatic. Seek help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a blog to me and if you truly believe the world is flat that's okay too.

Playing college sports are fine for some, but for most they are not. They are a drain on a student's precious time in college. It's not just practice and the games, it's also the 12 months they have to spend in the weight room. College is for the purpose of expanding ones mind not their biceps and unfortunately there is an inverse relationship between the two.

If you can play college sports and avoid breaking your cranium, and graduate not thinking the world is flat, then be my guest play college sports to your hearts content.

Nope, not a blog. You can think an elephant is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but it doesn’t make it one. It does however make you a complete weirdo. Next time you don’t know a word just look it up. Then you can start using words correctly.

[Anonymous]

It's worth looking at what students on the team are majoring in, at least for D3 colleges. If there is a sizable STEM population, you know that there is a culture of academics within the team. At my LAC, there were some teams that seemed to have a lot of dim jocks and there were others with plenty going on to Med school. Though to be honest, a lot of the not as smart jocks still had successful careers because of their superior social skills and above average intelligence compared to the general population.