<p>S will be going away to school this fall. He will be playing football at a division 3 school. He has been a 4 sport athlete in HS but will only be playing football in college. He has been working this summer and is thinking about getting a job when he gets to college.</p>
<p>In HS there was just no time to play sports and have a job. He didn't get home until 6:30 every night and he took a fairly heavy academic load. He thinks he will have more time in college but I think that he should wait until football season is over to try to get a job. </p>
<p>He will have saved enough money from his job this summer so that he should be able to cover his personal expenses from his savings. He will not have many expenses other than his own entertainment as we will pay for his cell phone and transportation home over school breaks. He will not have a car at school and will have access to mass transit at no additional charge.</p>
<p>What is your student athlete's experience working during the season?</p>
<p>Mine worked on campus a few hours a week and got an off campus job after the season. With spring training, this probably isn’t an option for a football player, or any athlete that has a fall and spring season (like softball). Lots of my students who play football work in admissions or athletics because the jobs are flexible. I don’t think any work very much, though. They’re just too tired most of the time. College sports, even d3, can be grueling.</p>
<p>College is an adjustment under the best circumstances. Football (and other sports) take up more time and energy and focus than most incoming freshman realize. I would strongly suggest, if at all financially possible, that your son wait a semester before adding a job on top of that. </p>
<p>His most important focus should be his classes and grades, but probably he’ll be most focused on his sport. Add a job, and classes/grades will fall even farther in priority.</p>
<p>Ditto the grueling part. D does XC and track at a DIII school so they’re pretty much training and competing year round. She got work study as part of her fin aid but there was no time left after sports and school.</p>
<p>Don’t have him work, football takes up a ton of time and college is hard enough as it is.</p>
<p>My student athlete worked. ANd that was where he got the bulk of his studying done since he worked as tutor/help at the college help center. He would sit there for a number of hours each week and do his work when no one would show up which was most of the time.</p>
<p>A lot of athletes are given first dibs at jobs at the athletic center where they can study as they check IDs, check out equipment or do other things that don’t require active, constant doings. My DH worked such work study jobs and said that was what would force him to study. SO it does depend on the job. My other college kid took a life guarding job and he had to give it up because it conflicted with help sessions he needed and the pool could not give him the schedule he wanted. In his case, school work could be done while he worked, so it was pure job. I did not want him taking the job, but it paid well and was convenient to him and he wanted the money. He did get a nice hunk of change saved before having to throw in the towel.</p>
<p>He should see if he can get one of the more cushy jobs on campus. Desk attending at my school pretty much amounts to sitting at a desk with a signout sheet and doing your homework for $10 an hour.</p>
<p>S was a DIII athlete and he did not work - for money. He spent a lot of his own time helping to train new team members, handling logistics for away games, helping team-mates with homework while on the road, providing transportation to/from games. There is no possible way he could have held a job in addition to this and still have some time left to socialize and get his own work done.</p>
<p>My D did worked. Her sport had a short Fall season as well as a Spring season. In addition to her 10/hr week job (which gave her lots of time to do hw/study), she got paid to be a ball girl for soccer matches for her school.</p>
<p>She lined up the one job before arriving on campus, and the other was a perk of being an athlete. As time went on, she also did outside tutoring and worked in the writing center.</p>
<p>S1 was not in a sport but was in NROTC which is pretty close to being an athlete,requiring an extra class per sem (19-20 hours),hardcore physical training and lots of other “after class” requirements.
S1 did not work his freshman year but did work soph.-senior year at a grocery store near his university. Football is really tough (my bro. played D1). It’s your life in college. I would say do not try to work freshman year until he can see how it goes and how much free time he’s going to have.Then consider it for soph. year if he thinks there’s time.</p>
<p>Usually jobs crop up for athletes. And if they are convenient and they can do homework while manning a seat, it’s great. Jobs tend to pop up for a lot of kids and several that I know took them because they were just so convenient. My SIL’s niece got a very small work study award that she wasn’t even bothering to claim because she had a nice job that she found herself, when she found a little position that fit exactly what her allotment was and fit a “dead” spot in her schedule right en route to where she needed to go. It was just perfect, and so she took it, and has parlayed it into a major job and possibly a paid internsip for the future.</p>
<p>Thank you! I don’t think my son should work his freshman year. I am a long time football parent and I know that football is very time consuming. </p>
<p>Although he is a very organized and self motivated student this will be the first time he will be managing everything by himself. I think he should take it easy. My husband can always use some help in the office over winter break if he is short of cash.</p>