I, myself didn’t go to high school in the U.S. and have no clue how to compare this for my daughter. Which one below is more rigorous? Of course with age appropriate students.
A top LAC with 3 classes in 10 weeks or 5 APs and IBs classes and a art class in one semester in HS with a zero period everyday?
Thanks for any opinions!
I am not sure that I understand your question so I might be giving what sounds like a stupid answer.
My S graduated with an IB diploma and graduated a year ago with honors from a top 50 LAC. I think that he found the IB classes to be more stressful and possibly more rigorous but maybe the LAC seemed easier because the earlier program taught me how to organize and study. Or maybe the LAC was just as or even more rigorous and he didn’t feel the need to tell me because he was an adult.
I don’t think that I am grasping your question but since no one else was answering, I thought I would try.
Sorry @lotsofquests my question wasn’t clear but you just told me what I needed to know! My daughter is taking the IBs and APs and is always tired and gets sick quite easily because of the lack of sleep. It seems like her club coach never understands why. She was concerned with her ability to handle school work and play the collegiate league since my daughter got recruited recently.
She made me wonder and I just needed some experienced parent’s opinion on this. Thank you so much!
Your daughter should be aware, however, just how intense college sports are. Practice/work-outs can be 2-3 hour per day. Weekend travel to games, which means missed classes, which means rescheduled exams, which means you have to hand in your work earlier than other students to meet the deadlines for those professors who don’t find sports an excuse for extended deadlines, etc. I have a few recruited athletes in my family, all but one commented about the extent that sports ruled their college lives. In theory, the athletes were there to be in college and do a sport. But in reality, coaches treated it the other way around: the students were there to perform, period. And fit college around the game schedule. (The only athlete who didn’t have that experience was at Princeton, where academics actually came before athletics. Imagine!)
@katliamom ,so even a D3 school? She has practices 3 times a week and 3 1/2 hours each (including travel time) and tournament the whole day every other week. Will that be similar to a D3 school? The college coach told her that school first and it is going to be manageable though.
My daughter is an athlete and I think the benefits have outweighed the sacrifices. She does have requirements she has to complete like conditioning, study tables (until the student makes the correct gpa to be released), practices, and little time for work. However, the benefits were plentiful too- scholarship, organization, help getting the classes she needs at the times she needs, teammates, medical care, strength and conditioning. She’s met a lot of athletes, not just those on her team, and enjoys the social part of playing very much.
She did very well her first semester and pretty good her second (when she was ‘in season’). I don’t think she would have done better if she was not playing the sport (she’d have to work). The organizational skills required are a plus for her, setting her study schedule, following it, going to bed early to be at conditioning at 6 am. Following the NCAA rules limiting drinking and no drugs is a good thing (IMHO!).
Practice is almost always about 4 hours a day if you include taping, conditioning, actual practice, and often post practice icing and seeing the trainers. Games are not just on weekends but during the week too. My daughter’s school is supportive, and all the professors allow the students to make up work around games. If they were traveling on a Friday, the coach usually delayed the departure so that students could take quizzes at 8 am before they left, so while they had to be ready a few hours before their regular test times, it wasn’t a big deal. They did have 3 weeks in a row with 10 hour bus trips out of town, then 10 hours back and it was tiring. For my daughter, playing division 2, the order of importance is academics, her sport, her sorority, other friends. She has a boyfriend now and he probably squeezes in after ‘sport’ and before ‘sorority.’ Did she miss some social events because of her team? Yes, absolutely, but basically she got to do most of what any other freshman at her school did. She doesn’t get to go away for spring break, but again, I think that’s a good thing!
kchendds, besides the Princeton athlete, the other 2 in my family are in Div 2 and Div 3; another played Div 1 but quit. But I do agree with twoinanddone, that playing a college sport can be a very, very rewarding experience. However, if a student tends to get overwhelmed by the combination of school and sport in high school, it might be even worse in college, especially if we’re talking about a top LAC. I would advise the student takes as light a schedule as possible in the first year to fully adjust.
Everything posted here about IB programs indicates that IB courses are rather huge amounts of work, although in the end IB scores do not result in significantly more advanced placement than AP scores.
With respect to AP courses, be aware that many AP courses cover material in a year what a college course covers in a semester.
Though with DivIII, an athlete could just quit a sport and nothing terrible happens (it’s not like they can yank a non-existent scholarship or kick her out of school).
In any division the student can just quit. Nothing happens for that year and the student keeps the scholarship for that year. Many students use the recruiting to get into the school and never play; whether he/she intended to play is usually not known, but I know kids who did it at Georgetown, Williams, Rollins, Salisbury. Obviously, it’s a bigger advantage at some schools than others. A girl from my daughter’s team is returning to the school but not the team, so she didn’t renew her scholarship. I thought that was rather stupid as she could have signed, then quit, and kept her money for next year. It is done all the time and I guess she’s just more honorable than I am because I would have taken the money and then made the decision on whether to return to the team next fall.
Starting this year, the Power 5 conferences (big Div I) are going to give 4 year scholarships instead of a series of 1 year ones. Once a student has completed 2 years, he gets to keep the scholarship even if he quits the team.
I don’t want to hijack, but I’ve always wondered: outside of aiming to be a pro athlete, what is the benefit of being a college athlete?
For one, it can be great fun. Athletes who love their sport love competing in it without the least intention of wanting to go pro. For many of them, sports is as much a part of their identity as being good in, say, math or singing. It’s what many of them DO (and would probably find a way to do it competitively even on an intramural level if college teams weren’t available.) And you do it while meeting fascinating people and making contacts/friendships that can last a lifetime. You get to travel. On someone else’s dime.
Two, it can be a huge resume booster. Many employers respect the kind of commitment and discipline (and competitive spirit) it takes to be a college athlete – they see these as good qualities in prospective employees.
Three, it can actually give you skills employers want. My daughter was a team captain of her Div 3 team which entailed a lot of organizing and even van-driving. Because of this experience, being accountable for people, schedules and equipment, she was offered a highly selective position of a team leader on several summer Outward Bound expeditions.
Today, her job has nothing to do with Outward Bound or her sport: it has everything to do with her education. But she’ll be the first to recommend college sports as a part of students’ education, if at all possible.
I think the benefits of being an athlete also include knowing people before the first day at school, having a sense of belonging already, being forced to manage time wisely and having your free time occupied in a good way. I see the benefits and that’s why I am willing to pay for her to play in a D3 school instead of sending her to any UC’s with a chance of having some decent merit scholarship.
Personally I think 3 liberal arts courses at a top LAC would be a cakewalk compared to taking 5 AP courses with the intent to get a 4 or 5 on the AP tests, assuming some of the AP classes are STEM related.
10 weeks is a quarter. Definitely not a cakewalk, especially during the sport season. Athletes try to schedule lighter courses during game season and take the tougher ones off-season.
3 classes is the absolute bare minimum required to be enrolled at UCLA and UCB, and presumably most decent schools (the OP did specify a top LAC). I’m not speaking in regards to whatever else an athlete may have going on, just the straight academic requirements since that’s what the OP specified in his post.
If the actual question is, “How many classes should a dedicated athlete take?”, then disregard my response.
UCLA quarters are 12 weeks, not 10. They more resemble a trimester to me. As for the OP’s question, it probably depends mostly on the LAC and the specific courses. As an example, not exactly a LAC, Dartmouth has quarters and the usual course load is 3 with 2 and 4 allowed.
Those schools where 3 courses per term is usual tend to have “larger” courses equivalent to 5 credit courses instead of 4 credit courses.
I went to a quarter-system school, and while some quarter classes covered 2/3rds as much as a semester course, others tried to squeeze in material that would be covered in 15 weeks elsewhere in to 10 weeks.
The top LAC she will be going has a trimester system and @anomander yeah my daughter has all fives on the AP exams she has taken so far and has all As in her class including IB classes. She is a hardworking kid and I really hope the effort she is having now will be more than enough for 3 classes in 10 weeks next year in college.