Being A Student Athlete Essay

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

In the article, Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success, Horton first examines the statistics of evidence showing college athletes and their underachievement. There are many instances of concern about college athletes and their poor grades having an affect of their athletic responsibilities, though this belief is usually denied due to a student always being a student before anything else. This study researches the idea of the way that college students and college athletes view success. Many college athletes tend to state that success is passing all courses and being more successful in their sport, rather than academics coming first (Horton, 2009).

College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism.

They will also realize that student-athletes are responsible for taking care of their business on and off the field. There was a study that found that almost half of the male athletes and slightly more than half of the female athletes, who were involved in the study, implied that stresses like pressure to win, excessive anxiety, frustration conflict, irritation, and fear affected their mental and emotional health (Humphrey et al., 2000). This is important to know because this can later or even immediately affect a person’s confidence and self worth. Freshmen are not the only class that deals with stress, which will affect their performance. Although these stress factors are brought to their attention early in their careers, most do not seek help nor do they find a solution to their problem. It is important that coaches have sport counselors that sit in and talk with these often to insure they are doing ok. These athletes are psychologically and physiologically hurting and need

Although most student athletes never become professionals, they spend excessive amounts of time playing sports neglecting their education. There are many possible solutions to balance academics with athletics. One possible solution may be to screen perspective student athletes before accepting them into

For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances

Over the years, we have seen colleges and universities benefit extremely from their sports programs. Every year a great team brings tremendous amounts of revenue for their university. However, as these universities increase their finances, their athletes are falling behind financially, academically, socially and personally creating a huge burden upon them. College/university athletes practically work overtime for their academic institutions. While many perceive student athletes as living ‘the life’ because of sports, the reality remains that they suffer from social, personal, academic and psychological stress. They constantly live their lives by strict schedules to avoid falling behind in their multiple responsibilities .Student athletes face various pressures, yet they are not frequently rewarded; therefore their academic institutions should reward them financially, beyond scholarships for their participation in collegiate sports.

Sports in conjunction with academics are capable of creating a balance that makes for a well rounded citizen and healthy, happy employee. Issues in the mix often come from the balance itself. Many students find themselves overcommitted to sport while others find they are not able to compete. I will examine issues in interscholastic and collegiate sport.

Student athletes have two jobs to do when they are in college, one is to be an overall great student in the classroom, by maintaining a good grade point average, studying hard for any upcoming exams and pay close attention during class. Their other job is being a phenomenal player in the sport that they play. To do this you need to, work hard and attend every practice, study your playbook or any type of strategy, and to compete at the highest level. This is a lot to handle for a college student. There are over 460,000 student athletes in all of the divisions in the NCAA today. With this large number of student athletes it seems

Lindenwood alumna Nicole Hensley earned one of the most prestigious awards given out by the NCAA this winter when she named the winner of the organization’s Top 10 Award. The award is given out each year to just ten of its approximately 460,000 student-athletes across every division and sport. It honors the very best student-athletes academically, athletically, and in the community.

“Big time college sports... selects athletes mainly for their athletics, not academics, interests, and abilities” this shows that in reality colleges view athletes more as “athletes-students” than “student-athletes” (Eckard 211). This only goes to show why the graduation rate for college athletes is so low. However higher education make their graduation rate seem more favorable so that they can continue to get and recruit more skilled amateur players to generate millions of dollars for their facilities. Although some may say colleges do a effective job of taking care of and graduating their student-athletes, conversely colleges’ student athletes graduation rate is low and the student athletes don't get what they desire. If colleges start putting the students first in the term “student-athletes” then there would be more college student-athletes making the grade.

Everyone grows up wanting to be a college athlete, and have stories to tell when they are older and at the dinner table with their children about what most would call their “glory” days. While this is ultimately true, many young teens don’t know the struggles and hardships that college athletes go through each and every day. There are both benefits and disadvantages of being a student-athlete. It really depends on the person and if they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to live the “glory and busy life” of a student-athlete. Every morning as a student athlete you wake up to the same sound at the same time, knowing that your day of a student athlete has just begun.

A high school athlete waiting to become a college athlete should be prepared for the best thing about participating in college sport to happen, new college athletes should be prepared to gain a second family. Playing on a team in college brings that group of teammates closer than any incoming freshman can imagine. An athlete’s team contains a number of boys/girls that are going through the same thing as them. Teammates are truly the only ones that are being put through the same trials as all of the other teammates. Teammates are the only ones who understand what it is like to be a student athlete in college.

With all this running around, student athletes often feel overwhelming amounts of stress. “We are concerned that students in these selective, high pressure high schools can get burned out even before they reach college,” noted Leonard, PhD, a senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN) (“NYU Study Examines Top High School Students' Stress and Coping Mechanisms”). It is still important for athletes to build good time-management skills, however, they should not be burned out before they get to college. There needs to be a balance of a busy schedule and a more flexible schedule so that students can decompress. “We have kids who do three sports — that’s several hours of practice after school,” said Cresskill

Being in an American school begins a student’s search to find who they are considered in the system. From a nerd to a punk, many academic ties are also involved with this identity. The one group of students who get the most academic ties with his or her extra-curricular activity is the “jock”. As having the title as a jock, a child learns that many people look at someone who plays football or basketball doesn’t have the ability to learn as fast or as well as someone who just studies and doesn’t have extra-curricular activities. Studying this topic is not as stressed as it should be, even when many programs claim to get more physical activity in students. The articles that have been reviewed were testing whether the athlete gets good grades