<p>Student Welfare and Development:
There are three components to Student Welfare and Development. </p>
<ol>
<li>Requisite Services
As the cornerstone component of the program, student-athletes participate in required skill building and development workshops in five key areas. </li>
</ol>
<p>Academic excellence</p>
<p>Athletic success</p>
<p>Personal development</p>
<p>Community service</p>
<p>Career preparation and development </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Elective Services
Student-athletes may choose to participate in various community service, leadership and academic activities. </p></li>
<li><p>Complementary Services
These services allow for the enhancement and supplementation of the efforts of coaches and administrators. Services include, but are not limited to, access to a sports psychologist or sports nutritionist.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Pennsylvania State University's program is available to all Intercollegiate athletes at the Morgan Academic Advising Center for Student-Athletes. The center provides academic advising, career development, learning support, mentor program, study enhancement, tutor program, etc. The center also provides graduate and professional school advice and preparation.</p>
<p>Study hall is mandatory for freshmen and any student-athlete whose GPA falls below a certain level. Student-Athletes with acceptable GPAs are excused from mandatory study hall as long as they maintain it. However, if they so choose, they can continue to utilize the study hall facilities. The 'study halls' consist of quiet study rooms, computer labs, and tutoring areas.</p>
<p>It varies tremendously from college to college and sport to sport. At a lot of top ranked NCAA football and basketball colleges(not all), like say USC any of the Florida schools, their student-athletes are nothing but glorified minor leaguers in my opinion. At one of those places, in a sport where money is huge, an athlete will have tremendous difficulty studying.</p>
<p>In sports that are not watched on TV as much, the athletes will be in a more academic friendly environment, although at the DI level, they will still have to devote a lot of time and effort so they better really like their sport because there are lots of ways to get a scholarship.</p>
<p>I'm new to the discussion of athletics because D1 is not athletic at all and just got accepted to college so now I'm thinking about our son. He's only 12 and is very athletic and also a very good student. He's very good at baseball, tennis, track (all the same season unfortunately) and basketball. We also would probably be able to pay for him to go to the school of his choice if he doesn't get a scholarship. So if he gets into lets say a top 20 school partly because he is well-rounded because of the sports, does he have to play the sport there even if he doesn't accept a scholarship? Can he just play intramural sports? Sorry - but I'm not educated in this. What are good schools for someone who wants to concentrate on academics but also play sports?</p>
<p>Unless your son gets a scholarship predicated on his playing that sport, he can do whatever he wants when he starts college, even if the admissions office considered his sports as an important EC. </p>
<p>I do think that too many parents believe that their children's sports performance will get them Div. I scholarships. Being a top athlete at a particular high school does not mean that the athlete can compete at the national level. I have a friend who always believed that her very talented athlete-son would have it made when it came to scholarships. (He consistently made all-county honors in two sports, and, in senior fall, all-state honors.) When it came down to it, however, he got nothing, and didn't even make the teams at his eventual Div. III school, which happened to be very competitive in those sports. It's wonderful if your child is offered such a scholarship, especially if s/he intends to continue with that sport, but it's a mistake to count on such a windfall. Just a cautionary note.</p>
<p>Getting into a division 1 school and sport does not necessarily mean money either. I know many kids who are playing D-1 and not getting a dime. Also many schools cut their scholarships into pieces, sometimes many pieces. I would not be necessarily rubbing my hands in anticipation of money just because you are looking at D-1 schools and sports. </p>
<p>I have a son who is probably not skilled enough to play even D-3 unless we really focus on a school that has teams where anyone who has some knowledge and experience of the sport can play. That will be a very minor consideration, that may distinguish one college from his list from another. However, when we visit, we will check out the club sports and intramural programs and grab a few athletes involved in those to get their comments on the quality of resources in that area. If the consensus is that these resources "suck", we will have to have substantial other benefits to keep such a school on our list. If there are glowing reports and it looks like the school puts money, time and thought in this area, it will move up notches in his choices. He wants to do sports in college, though not on a NCAA basis, so the quality of what is provided in the sports he is eyeing will be an issue for us, more than the quality of the schools' NCAA programs.</p>
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I know many kids who are playing D-1 and not getting a dime
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<p>So true. I know one well ;). And just wrote another very large tuition check :(. I do think his athletic accomplishments helped with admission, even though he was not a recruited athlete. He was ultimately invited to walk on to the team and lettered last year in his sport and was named to the First Team Pac-10 All-Academic team in his sport. </p>
<p>But he chose to pursue the sport and no one would ever have noticed if he had never set foot in the locker room. wustled--the nice thing is that any strong passion, whether it be a sport or anything else, does help in admission; and if you do it very well, it helps even more (I think). If you don't need the scholarship money, it may be easier not to go that route because although it is great to have, it does add a lot of extra pressure. I'm aware of at least one athlete who was offered a D1 athletic scholarship but his parents were well-to-do and they declined it, suggesting instead that it be used for a more needy student who would also help the team. That kid has played a lot and is an outstanding athlete, so even turning down a scholarship had no bearing on his playing time, etc.</p>