What is the point of being a college athlete?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL functions better the more he has to do. He hates being idle.


His lovely bright mom figured this out in like 2nd grade. She never pushed him, he just had ants in his pants as a younger kid. Sports and part-time jobs got him though. Really bright guy. Studying while some school & testing came easily to him.

Anyway played division 1 in college and it worked graduated 4 years 4.Ogpa IVY.

A SIL is a SISTER in law. Not a boy. Not a HE.

I just assumed this was son in law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:D3 athletic participation builds close relationships among teammates.

Helps students to establish and maintain a schedule based on a healthy activity.

Physical development is as important as mental development during one's teens and early twenties.

While I was not a college athlete myself, I went to a D3 school and had several friends who were. It seemed like a great balance to me. I would probably steer my kids in that direction if they keep up with sports through high school and have interest in playing in college.

[Anonymous]

DD is an athletic recruit at an Ivy. She smart and good grades, but would never in a million years get admitted without her sport. So that's why she's doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL functions better the more he has to do. He hates being idle.


His lovely bright mom figured this out in like 2nd grade. She never pushed him, he just had ants in his pants as a younger kid. Sports and part-time jobs got him though. Really bright guy. Studying while some school & testing came easily to him.

Anyway played division 1 in college and it worked graduated 4 years 4.Ogpa IVY.

A SIL is a SISTER in law. Not a boy. Not a HE.

It’s also a son-in-law, dummy. A HE not a SHE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew is a recruited athlete and he got accepted into a couple of Ivies because of it. One week after arriving on the college campus, he informed the coach that he would quit because he is going into pre med. No scholarship involved so there wasn't much the coach could do.

Something is off with this story as you are only going to be admitted to one school as a recruited athlete. Regardless, it’s really unethical to accept a coach’s offer and quit the sport immediately. Does not say good things about your nephew’s character.

Yeah sounds like an unethical loser

It happens more than you think.  Once you're on campus, you can quit and nothing the coach or the school can do about it.  Young adults can change their minds, right?

No one is arguing that the coach or school can do anything about it, but no one “changes their mind” without ever practicing and playing for the team at all their freshman year. You are talking about a kid who lied to the coach about his intentions so he could lock in his automatic admission with no intention of playing. Doing so screws over the coach, the team, and the honest, talented kid who ought to have gotten the admissions boost over him.

Most kids that are on college teams major in either business or basket weaving degree.  Very few of them major in some useful degrees like STEM or pre-med.  For some, they didn't realize how competitive STEM and/or pre-med is until they get on campus.  Therefore, it is normal for some of them to quit because of the college course load.  Perfectly normal.

Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL functions better the more he has to do. He hates being idle.


His lovely bright mom figured this out in like 2nd grade. She never pushed him, he just had ants in his pants as a younger kid. Sports and part-time jobs got him though. Really bright guy. Studying while some school & testing came easily to him.

Anyway played division 1 in college and it worked graduated 4 years 4.Ogpa IVY.

A SIL is a SISTER in law. Not a boy. Not a HE.

You dumb oh lord

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

My DS athlete attends UNC Chapel Hill and the number of athletes majoring in STEM can be counted on one hand. I am LOL at "loads of athletes". Do you have any numbers to back up that claim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew is a recruited athlete and he got accepted into a couple of Ivies because of it. One week after arriving on the college campus, he informed the coach that he would quit because he is going into pre med. No scholarship involved so there wasn't much the coach could do.

Something is off with this story as you are only going to be admitted to one school as a recruited athlete. Regardless, it’s really unethical to accept a coach’s offer and quit the sport immediately. Does not say good things about your nephew’s character.

Yeah sounds like an unethical loser

It happens more than you think.  Once you're on campus, you can quit and nothing the coach or the school can do about it.  Young adults can change their minds, right?

No one is arguing that the coach or school can do anything about it, but no one “changes their mind” without ever practicing and playing for the team at all their freshman year. You are talking about a kid who lied to the coach about his intentions so he could lock in his automatic admission with no intention of playing. Doing so screws over the coach, the team, and the honest, talented kid who ought to have gotten the admissions boost over him.

Most kids that are on college teams major in either business or basket weaving degree.  Very few of them major in some useful degrees like STEM or pre-med.  For some, they didn't realize how competitive STEM and/or pre-med is until they get on campus.  Therefore, it is normal for some of them to quit because of the college course load.  Perfectly normal.

Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

It really depends on the sport and the school. Very few of the D1 athletes I knew in college were STEM majors; my club rowing team, however, was chock full of them. It would be very hard to play, for example D1 football and be an engineering major at a top school. Not impossible, but very difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

My DS athlete attends UNC Chapel Hill and the number of athletes majoring in STEM can be counted on one hand. I am LOL at "loads of athletes". Do you have any numbers to back up that claim?

IF there are stats on this subject, I don’t know where you’d find them. I’m just going by the roster percentages at the schools where my kids and their friends play, and where their club acquaintances play. And all the rosters I’ve looked at when considering what schools might be a good fit for my youngest. And knowing the backgrounds of my doctor, lawyer, and finance friends. You can do this exercise too—start by looking at the schools the snobby aunt might want for her family members, keeping in mind the sports snobby people like her are likely to have kids recruited for, which are all non-revenue sports.

All that being said, if anyone knows a kid who was recruited to an academically elite school for sports and quit the sport as soon as they set foot on campus, I’d sincerely be interested in the story of their decision.

[Anonymous]

No one mentioned the greatest advantage: look at many heads of Fortune 500 sales teams and you will find many D1 athlete. They make bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

My DS athlete attends UNC Chapel Hill and the number of athletes majoring in STEM can be counted on one hand. I am LOL at "loads of athletes". Do you have any numbers to back up that claim?

Do you really think you and your DS know the majors of ALL the student-athletes on campus? Or that UNC Chapel Hill is representative of all D1 schools? Give me a break. It's very dependent on the sport. Probably more than half of the men on my D1 swim team were engineering or computer science majors, at a school known for those programs. Quite a few of the women ended up going to vet school, PA school, PT school, and the like. People in non-revenue generating sports are not stupid. They know they need to get a useful degree that will lead to a grad program or job afterward. Of course it was different for football where they all thought they had a shot at making the pros. Enough of them did make it that it seemed like a real possibility.

[Anonymous]

A lot of bozos attend UNC chapel thrill though as athletes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

My DS athlete attends UNC Chapel Hill and the number of athletes majoring in STEM can be counted on one hand. I am LOL at "loads of athletes". Do you have any numbers to back up that claim?

Non-revenue dear particularly golf tennis squash rowing fencing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loads of college athletes major in STEM subjects, Econ, or other majors that even a snob like you would consider “useful” and go on to become doctors, lawyers, professors or finance executives. Sure, there are kids who drop there sport after freshman or sophomore year because balancing it with their academic courseload is too difficult or they no longer enjoy the sport. But the only cases where a recruited athlete quits their sport before they ever start playing it in college are those where the student has a serious injury, a mental health break, or is an unethical loser who lied to the coach.

My DS athlete attends UNC Chapel Hill and the number of athletes majoring in STEM can be counted on one hand. I am LOL at "loads of athletes". Do you have any numbers to back up that claim?

I was a recruited female soccer player that declined playing in college. I was a biochem major with med school plans.

In my major, our chem, organic chem, microbiol, cell bio, etc all had required labs ON TOP OF THE regular class instruction. I would go to classes all morning and then the labs (some 2hours long or more) for these courses was in the afternoon. It would have been really difficult to be a D1 athlete with my schedule.

[Anonymous]

Played professionally. It was worth it. 2 kids play in college now.

I don't know if either will be good enough to play professionally, but the time management and communication skills, along with the discipline you get from going though college w an athletics commitment is life shaping.