<p>There is obviously great variation from school to school on this matter. My daughter is not a recruited athlete but she IS an athlete and in fact, is on a Division I Varsity sports team. Believe me, she is a student first, athlete second. Athletics is an extracurricular for her. She cares more about her academics but has a passion for her sports. She is in a demanding college, Brown, and is getting top grades there. There are no perks or special anythings about being an athlete there. She has to juggle stuff but she always has juggled her academics and heavy EC commitments. There are alot of hours devoted to just this one sport she does there from Sept. through March. Right now she also is going away every weekend for her sport. There is no special treatment or situations. I don't think her sport is treated any differently than some other EC endeavor on campus though there are clearly more hours involved than some activities (not all, because theater productions also are heavy time commitments). She even arranged her class schedule to make it possible to travel two mornings a week to practices out of state where they leave at 6:30 AM. I feel certain if something academic arises and she cannot make something, it would be fine.<br>
Susan</p>