<p>Thanks for the references Hippobirdy. I still don’t see that a study hall is required, only that the instituition must submit a written support services evaluation and that “study hall” is included in the list of items that should be evaluated. My son is at a D2 school so the rules may vary slightly, but he has several friends w/ athletic scholarships at D1 schools who do not have any sort of study hall either. His school does provide academic support for athletes if needed, but nothing formal. I don’t think he would be too happy to have to attend a specific study hall- between soccer, work and school (and surfing), he squeezes in studying into every little space he can. He has pulled it off so far . His coach emaphsizes good academics and the team has a high GPA average, so he gets a lot of pressure there to keep his grades up.</p>
<p>Takeitallin, it looks like mandatory study halls are at coach’s discretion.</p>
<p>I asked my DDs coach yesterday, and she said it is up to the institution on how to meet the NCAA academic requirements, that study hall is not NCAA required but that the majority of D1 and D2 programs do require them for at least freshmen. The institution can also set the number of hours and the GPA that ‘releases’ the student from the requirement, what counts as study hall - going to tutoring, office hours with a prof or TA, an extra course study session before a test, or only sitting studying in a library.</p>
<p>My D was on a top Div. 1, non-Ivy team, and never had “study tables” or any required team academic stuff except to meet with their advisor about course scheduling. Even so, she still sometimes took classes that made her late for practice, and while the coach wasn’t happy, she was not prohibited from doing so. Is this a new NCAA rule? </p>
<p>Div. 1 athletics is very time-consuming, but D still had time for a social life and another pretty serious EC involvement. If she had needed to get top grades for grad school, it probably would not have been possible to do more than her sport and her studies since her school was Ivy-level in rigor.</p>
<p>4th year D1 athlete, never heard of study tables, not even the term. But they have all kinds of support, tutors at school and that travel with them if they request it. As freshman there was some designated tutoring time and after that it is at student discretion. They can get anything they need it seems, just not a written requirement.</p>
<p>OP - the one thing about sports at college is they give you an instant group of people and friends. It may be harder than you think to give that up the connection you have with the sport, but I understand wanting to try new things that playing basketball may not allow. So perhaps it is best to strike a balance, play for a D3 school with great academics. There are some awesome D3 teams. I have an athlete at a top top top D1 and it is their entire existence, but he will be going pro after college, so goals are different. It can effect the major you can do and classes you can take because #1 priority is the team. Being late to practice cause of a class would not be acceptable in this world, everything is done around the team first. Don’t go to crappy D1 school just to play. But I will say there are some private D1 basketball schools who do want good students that are strong academically, it shouldn’t be hard to uncover which ones those are. Is your current coach in tune with any of this?</p>
<p>Go to the school you think would give you the best start in life. D3 may be the way to go for you, because even if you are recruited, there is no money associated with playing the sport, and you can stop if you don’t like it without any loss of aid. We had a thread(Fess up, who is still playing) a couple years ago that made it seem like about half of student athletes in D3 continue to play.</p>
<p>My son dove for Midd 4 years. In his NESCAC experience, there weren’t mandatory practices til 2 weeks before the season start, and no such thing as study tables. He spent a semester abroad his Junior year, came back and still competed, attending and going to finals at the conference meet.What he did out of season was totally up to him.
In season, he spent about 5 hours a day with the team, plus long bus rides and competition most weekends.</p>
<p>Another advantage besides the instant friends and cameraderie of a team, D1 or D3, is the post-grad connections.College connections create employment opportunities, and that loyalty extends thru life.</p>
<p>@CADREAMIN My coach says that I shouldn’t turn down any school yet, even though I have told him that I don’t wish to attend a school at an academic caliber lower than what I am capable of just because I can play basketball there. This being said, I have told a few coaches that I am not interested in attending their school solely because of their academic prestige. </p>
<p>^^ I think better wording would be that you don’t feel the school offers the academic courses you wish to take/major in. It is not nice to say that a school isn’t academically up to your level, and it may not be true. My daughter turned down a school because it didn’t offer engineering and another because it didn’t have the atmosphere, but that didn’t mean that the school was for stupid kids or beneath her, just that she wanted something different. Remember that the world of college sports is very small and the coach you insult today may be the coach at the school you really want to go to tomorrow.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone I completely understand what you’re saying and didn’t mean to come off as if I think some schools are beneath me. It ultimately comes down to if the school that’s interested in me offers the major I’m looking at, and if the courses in that major will challenge me academically and help me in the future. The only thing that I told the coaches at the schools I turned down was that I was interested in schools that placed a higher importance on academics than athletics. I apologize if my pervious comment came off as standoffish and thank you for pointing out that in my future contacts with coaches I should be more careful with my choice of words. </p>
<p>Also please know that in any sport (mine is not basketball, but I know this to be true…) that coaches talk to each other more than you think.These guys compete like crazy, but they often have breakfast or “drinks” together whether at competitions or things like coaching conferences. They absolutely talk to each other about recruits. So if you come off with attitude (and you sound like a great kid actually) or anything negative, one coach that you may not be interested in may call a coach that you are interested in to give them a heads up. Any sport is a very small world. Just be polite as you can be to everyone. If it is early in your process, be open as your coach said. You get out of a school what you put into it. I get wanting to be in an environment you feel is at your academic level, but don’t underestimate some schools, or shun offers too early, there are smart kids at most of them, but I get what you are saying.</p>