Athelete-Student and academic pressure

Parent Cafe
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<p>I wonder how well athelete/students handle academic pressure in college. Especially if the athelete/student uses his atheletic skills to get into a reach school. </p>

<p>Specifically, my S has a 3.5 GPA from an OK school. 1810 SAT, math a little bit better than English. He has a nice personality, but needs to work a little bit harder and more independently and definitely needs to organize his work and time better. If he can get into a good LAC with the help of his sport, what's the chance that he'll fare well? He doesn't know what he wants to major in. He has a bad AP Chemistry class, so he's not too confident in science subjects. He's OK with Biology and struggle a little with AP Maths. His writing skill, IMHO, needs quite a bit of improvement. He's on the shy side and so far is not very aggressive with getting help.</p>

<p>I think he has some catching up to do academically. So if he can get into a good LAC (e.g. Hamilton, Vassar, Skidmore, Lafayette), how difficult a time will he have? How can we find out if he'll be comfortable academically, socially and atheletically in this environment?</p>

<p>Any suggestion will be appreciated.</p>

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<p>I know that Vassar, Skidmore and Hamilton are Div III sports schools, so I think the pressure on the "athlete" part is a bit less than the pressure on the "student" part. (Lafayette is Division I.) For a kid who may struggle academically, Div III may be a good thing, though - there will be more time to do academics while still playing his sport. The other factor is that if he finds he can't handle both, he can drop his sport without penalty, since there are no sports scholarships. Or he can drop it down to the club level.</p>

<p>Just one note - Vassar is highly competitive, up there with the top tier schools. From the stats you've posted, it's probably out of his league. The mid 50% SAT scores (without writing) for the class of 2010 are 1350-1480; mean writing is 705. Skidmore and Hamilton may be better options.</p>

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<p>tennisdad, My D is playing tennis at a strong D3 LAC. Her SATs were in the 1350 range (no writing), her GPA was better than your son's but not perfect, and she is attending a reach thanks to tennis.</p>

<p>I would say you have to know your son. Does he "rise to the occasion" when facing a challenge? Are his work habits good? Is he responsible? I would have said yes to all these questions for my D, but it sounds like your S may be iffy. However, that can also change over the next year-- there can be amazing growth.</p>

<p>Remember there will be infinite distractions available to him. No supervision, 4 nights a week of parties, booze, drugs, etc. In my D's case her social life in HS had been subdued, so having tons of attention from boys was a huge change (a happy one, but it ate up lots of time.) </p>

<p>If anything, the tennis schedule, though time consuming, was a good 'discipline' influence: needing to stay on top of the work, because if you are spending all weekend at a tournament, you <em>can't</em> make it up on the weekend; needing to keep up a minimum GPA in order to play.</p>

<p>The outcome for my D was that first semester was a wake-up call. She had to make some big adjustments in terms of setting aside more outside-of-class, non-homework "study" time. She was used to the HS model, where you do your homework and only 'study' for tests. This does not cut it at a hard school-- and a few poor grades early in the semester woke her up. </p>

<p>Furthermore, there is little grade inflation at her school. A VERY good paper gets a B (I am a former Eng major, and I read one of hers that got a B). You have to do superlative work for an A. This is fine by me, as she is learning and her skills are really improving. </p>

<p>Because she enjoys tennis so much and likes her team, she knew she'd better pull it together (she did not want to have to drop tennis.) She dropped one class 1st semester, but took 5 this semester to end the year with the right number of classes and a good GPA. </p>

<p>As for your son, I would look for a school that would provide good support-- writing lab, tutors if necessary-- and be a challenge for him academically but not feel like scaling a sheer cliff. If he has ADD or similar issues, a coach or program designed for that sort of help would also be a big plus.</p>

<p>Would he be open to a writing-intensive "camp" this summer, perhaps on a college campus? It might help him with essays, prepare him for the output demanded in college, and give him a little taste of the freedom so you can see how he handles that.</p>

<p>We have been very happy with my D's experience. She has LOVED the school has found her peer group inspiring, not intimidating. The school culture is a great fit for her so I think the academic anxieties are more than counterbalanced by social joys. </p>

<p>Skidmore and Hamilton would seem to be reasonable reaches for your son. If you are looking for other schools you might want to check out Hobart, Wheaton, Clark, Allegheny, St Lawrence, Beloit.</p>

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<p>[OT : Hamilton is a very fine school that drinks from the same cup as Vassar. (USNWR #13 to #15). Skidmore is also a fine school but it's stats place it a partial rung down from the top twenty LAC's (#41). (I don't necessarily agree with any ranking system but since this is not the point the OP is interested in , it's a shorthand way of discussing the issue raised by Chedva).]</p>

<p>I would caution you, OP, to spend a great deal of time researching the differing expectation levels of the D3 coaches. Some D3 programs are quite serious about winning and have practice schedules and expectations that run contra to the ideals of the "student athlete". This can differ between programs at the same school. Some have a wonderful sense of balance. Choose wisely. </p>

<p>It appears from what you are saying that you are more concerned with academic maturity than brain power . D3 sports could be seen as an enforced structure that could greatly benefit a student like that. Many programs are quite pro-active about making team members take advantage of all the helpful modalities the campus has in place-writing centers, tutors, office hours, academic advising specifically geared to athletes etc. And those early morning practices tend to keep the late night carousing to an acceptable level. ;)</p>

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<p>He's a male tennis player wanting to go to Vassar, where there is a dearth of males, and likely a dearth of really good tennis players. The mean school for male athletes at Vassar is likely 200 points lower (on the 2400 scale) than everyone else. Anyhow, this won't be a new situation for an admissions office to deal with.</p>

<p>Schools don't accept students who they don't expect to be able to hack it. The graduation rate for athletes at even the very top LACs is virtually the same as for the rest of the student body. LACs have lots of academic advising, writing centers, etc. as noted.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
what's the chance that he'll fare well? .... He's on the shy side and so far is not very aggressive with getting help.... So if he can get into a good LAC... how difficult a time will he have? How can we find out if he'll be comfortable academically, socially and atheletically in this environment?

[/quote]
tennisDad, I migrated to this thread from your other, also interesting, thread re identifying schools for an average student.</p>

<p>I don't have an athlete student, so no personal experience on how that might help or hinder things.</p>

<p>What I want to say here is that the questions you pose are pretty much universal among us parents. How will they do? In an environment where they create their own structure, or lack of it, will they sink or swim? Will it be a plus or a minus to be in an environment where others may be higher achievers academically? What about the opposite - when they are a big fish in a small pond? Will they find their social niche?</p>

<p>I think the answers are unknowable for most of us (leaving aside the Vals of a top school with uber success on APs, SATs... those parents pretty much know how academic success will work out; they may or may not have other worries re socialization, balance etc.)</p>

<p>I can tell you that your son's personality profile is not at all unusual for a 17-18 year old male. I think you have just as much chance of being pleasantly surprised as of being disappointed. And I believe, as others have said on this and your other thread, that you can take heart in knowing that top LAC schools do not admit students who they feel cannot handle the work.</p>

<p>I think the answer to your question is visits to schools which interest him/are recruiting him. He will have a feel of whether he is going to fit in socially and athletically from these visits. He will also get a feel for academic pressure by talking with the other athletes and/or by taking a class.</p>

<p>I also worried whether my somewhat shy S would seek help, even it were available almost on a silver platter (office hrs, study groups, academic support centers). Of course, I didn't even know if he would need it - he's a good student and turned out not to need a lot. But he "went for it" when he needed it, in his case mostly study groups. You can do a little on-site research re academic support options when you are on the visits. We urged our S, before he took off for Freshman year, to heed the first signs of academic trouble, should they crop up and to avail himself of the help. </p>

<p>We also told him we wanted to see his grades. You may know that colleges consider this private info and only the student can decide to share it with the parents. We told our son that it was certainly optional, but he might want to opt "Yes" if he wanted us to keep paying the tuition bills ;). No argument from him at all. Our son's school posts mid-term grades for Freshmen only, giving a chance for a heads up if needed. So you might ask at schools he's considering whether there are any such early warning systems in place.</p>

<p>A little talk during the visit and selection process about how you want him to be able to attend the school which most excites him, and you also want him to succeed there on all fronts (academic, athletic and social). Let him know your expectations for academic performance - don't flunk out? keep any scholarship he earns? get a C/B/A average? Talk over his commitment to these expectations and let him know you will be there in the background rooting for him and happy to help him find needed support if he desires.</p>

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<p>tennisDad: As usual. Curmudgeon has great advice. Definitely find out what the expectations are for team membership. My D is in a year-round sport at a very good D1 school and for the first time in her life cannot perform academically to her own satisfaction due to lack of study time. While changing cultures has brought its own problems, one of the things we overlooked was that the time commitment to her team included entertaining recruits, meeting alums for fund-raising, team bonding activities, individual conferences with the coach, team meetings, etc., as well as actual training and competition time. She loves her team, but this extra time demand has made a huge difference in her academic performance and she was always an academic star before. Do find out from each school/coach the total actual time required to be on the team.</p>