<p>I'm going to college next year, and there are a few things that I'm concerned about. I wanted to know if it would be possible to play college football, keep up with my grades, have a social life, AND have a job to keep a little cash in my pocket, and not completely wear myself out?? I know I have the will power to do it, but I just want to be realistic with myself. The school I'm looking at is UTSA if that matters..</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>AFAIK, college athletes generally don’t have enough time for a job because the amount of time it takes to train and play games = a full-time job. But that depends on your school’s division and some other factors, I suppose, since less competitive schools may function differently. I just know about D1.</p>
<p>We are D1 school and I know very few football players who do not go to away games (not sure why or how it works). Because of training, the only time they have to work are on the weekends of away games. I think if being active all the time is your thing, this may be good since the football players I know like to take the away games as a weekend off – finally – to relax/recharge.</p>
<p>Also, how your grades keep up in the balance of all of this may also depend on your major. Assuming it isn’t homework-heavy or extremely rigorous in terms of coursework, it wouldn’t be too difficult to keep the grades up? I knew a few Greek football players in engineering and they switched majors so they could keep their GPA up.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! So I wouldn’t have time for a job at all, to be successful in football? And do you think criminal justice is an easy enough major to maintain while playing football? I wasn’t trying to work ALL the time, I just wanted to have money for extra stuff I may want. And what about a social life? How does the life of a college football player go?</p>
<p>Whether or not you have time for a job may depend on what job that is. You could try to find a job where you only work a couple of hours a week, just for some extra cash but without a huge time commitment. Something like tutoring or babysitting might be good, if you only have time for a little extra time to work. You could always try to find a job that fits into your schedule well. For example, you’re school might have a notetaking service where you get paid to take notes in class, which might be good for you since it doesn’t take that much time outside of class. My school had a student-run notetaking service that paid it’s notetakers, but I’ve heard of other schools where the disability services office hired notetakers to provide notes for their students. You could also find a job that is flexible when you can schedule shifts, so you might be able to do shifts between classes or whenever you have time. I’ve heard of random library and lab jobs that were a little like that. Any job where you can be pretty independent and do your own thing would be a good option for something like that, so that you don’t have to come in other other people’s schedules. You could also try to find a job where you’re able to do homework or study during it (like manning a front desk or phone or something–usually night shifts tend to be less busy, if you can swing it with football practice). That way you could at least get paid for the time you’d spend studying. Maybe you could get a job when it’s not football season and you’re not as busy with games and such.</p>
<p>In general, anything’s possible. It depends on a million different factors that no one can really predict, and what works for one person might not work for you. You make time for things that are important to you, so just try it out. If you find yourself sacrificing something that you’re not willing to sacrifice (grades, social life, whatever), then cut back on something.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. That’s given me a little more insight on this whole football thing.</p>
<p>I know a guy who is in one of the hardest engineering majors at my school, a fraternity and on the football team. I think he makes pretty good grades, but I heard he had to move out of his fraternity’s house because he needed some space since he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. So it’s tough but possible depending on how much you weigh your social life on the list of priorities. This kid placed a high value on socializing while he lived in, so he had to move out so that would decrease stress.</p>