<p>Hi! i am going to be a freshman in college this fall and i was just wondering if doing a sport your freshman year is a good idea. I am trying out for the rowing team at my college (division 1) and i know it will be a big time commitment. I really want to enjoy my freshman year and i dont want to be so busy that i dont have time for having a good time. Is playing a sport in college time consuming and is it worth the time commitment?</p>
<p>It detracts from your academics and helps your social life, as long as your teammates are good looking and get you invited to parties. Only football and basketball have groupies, really. Other than that you are regarded as a good catch and are exalted by most females on campus. You also are beyond reproach by engineers who would otherwise accuse you of having an easy schedule.</p>
<p>I knew a girl on the soccer team who had a social life… exclusively with other soccer players. She went out with them every weekend, but she always seemed like she wanted to be friends with people who did something else. If you become best buds with the fellow guys on your crew team, then you’ll be fine. But if you want to have a broader mix of friends, it could become restricting. I’d still suggest you go for it, but, if you’re not happy with your life after the fall, then you should quit. (That shouldn’t be a huge problem because you weren’t recruited and don’t have a scholarship.)</p>
<p>Also remember that, at a D1 school, you probably won’t be drinking during the season. If your teammates are serious about the sport, they won’t go out as much and probably won’t drink. But, then again, the team might not care. It really depends.</p>
<p>It hurts your social life in sone ways because you can’t go out everynight you want to. It takes about 3 hours out of your day, so instead of going out Wednesday or thursday night, you have to do work. Also, a lot o events are on weekends, meaning youre not supposed to go out the night before an event. Sports teams at my school are really cliquey. They pretty much only party with teammates and the guy team of that same sport. Sports make it harder to meet non athletes. I play a sport and the sports teams really only go to their parties. The football team has their parties, the soccer team has one, cross country another, etc;.which is great if your teammates are your close friends. However, I like having my own group of friends who aren’t on sports teams. I mean, I already spend a ton of time with them on the field, so it’s nice to be around other people. Luckily I met people freshmen year during welcome week when I strayed from my teammates, and they offered an alternative scene.</p>
<p>If you love rowing, do it. You’ll meet a Lot of people, and if you find it cutting into your social life, you can quit.</p>
<p>Here’s a serious answer:</p>
<p>Playing a sport will affect your social life. During the season you will be training with your teammates and won’t have much time to go out to parties (even if you did go out to parties you have to hide it so you don’t get kicked off the team even if you’re of age). But off season you can relax a little and depending on how good looking you are you might attract some “jersey chasers.” You can choose to socialize with your teammates which will probably consists of a party with the other sport athletes (girls and boys basketball team “mate” with each other) or go out to the frat/house parties. These parties may be hard to get into as you pretty much only hang around your teammates and unless you’re a football player they’re pretty much not going to know you unless you have classes together with some of the people there (this is coming from attending a BIG TEN school). </p>
<p>You will have you’re first choice of registration for classes and depending on your major balancing academics and sports will be challenging. I personally know athletes who are engineering majors also.</p>
<p>As a current student athlete i think it helps your social life. Being part of a team gives you a pretty much guaranteed group of friends which is great, especially coming in as a freshman. It gives you a group of people that are all going through the same things, trying to maintain their school work while having 6am practice and still wanting to have fun.</p>
<p>Most teams do stick together, but I am friends with people not on my team, kids i met on my hall and in intramural sports. </p>
<p>In season i can usually go out only 1 night a week because of practice, but only going out one night a week makes it seem for fun, and you wont get as tired of it.</p>