<p>At a D3 school - the student/athlete participates essentially for the love of their sport - and yes many coaches will work practice around academics as best they can - and many times it is up to the student to make sure they get to practice and to avoid the excuse syndrome - cuz that practice may be at 6am - and there are no athletic scholarships allowed for D3's</p>
<p>D1's yes there usually is $$ - and some D2's tho not all - and some D1's may have scholarship $$'s for one gender only - and the other gender participates again for the love of the sport - this is true especially in swimming as it is not a $$ producing event - such as football can be.</p>
<p>There are many D3 programs that have athletes/programs that could possibly whoop some D1's. Many times the student will carry a lower course load in order to manage - tho still stay in the full-time status situation. There are those scholar/athletes who are able to manage a full load and a varsity level sport at any school - and still come out with close to a 4.0. The students learn good time management if they are an athlete - as they should have in some way prior to going off to college. Being a student/athlete has it's own particular challanges - yet it is managable - it all depends on each individual student.</p>