<p>HI!
I am planning to play a varsity sport at CMU.
But at the same time, I want to get really good grades and get most out of academics.
Does anyone know how committed CMU Varsity athletes are?
Like how many hours of practice and such...?</p>
<p>What sport are you planning on playing? Football is pretty time consuming during the season. Games are usually on Saturday, and between warm-up and game time, it can take up a good part of the day. Sunday is film and a light workout, maybe 2 hours or so altogether. Monday is usually off. Tuesday-Thursday is practice, which all-in can take around 2-3 hours per day. Friday is game prep day, which doesn’t take as long. If you’re on the traveling team, you sometimes have to miss class on Friday to travel.</p>
<p>The schedule is much lighter in the off-season.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Do you know anything about basketball?</p>
<p>Also, if I commit to a vars sport, are there classes that I can not take?
for example, can I still major in SCS if I play a vars sport?
Whats the real difference in academic opportunities between regular students and vars athletes?
do atheletes get less workload?</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>Athletes don’t get any special treatment at CMU. Coaches know that classes come first, and professors know that classes come first. There’s no difference in academic opportunities between regular students and athletes. It’s a Division III school, so sports are for those who have the interest and make the time to participate.</p>
<p>As for the ability to play varsity sports and take classes. One of my friends was on the football team, president of his fraternity, double majored in two engineering fields, and maintained over a 3.8 GPA.</p>
<p>I’m not so sure about basketball, but soccer is about as time-consuming as football, I’ve heard. There are no classes you cannot take or majors that are unavailable if you’re an athlete. There are guys on the football team in SCS, CIT and pretty much every program.</p>
<p>It’s true that you don’t get any special treatment as an athlete, but there are some “intangible” benefits. Some fraternities are unofficially pretty much just for athletes, for example.</p>
<p>What sport would you guys say is the most popular?</p>
<p>No sport is most popular or even popular at all, at least not college sports. If you’re interested in seeing some athletic school spirit, you will be sorely disappointed. CMU students by and large don’t care about sports here, and a really high number of them are not even aware we have sports teams at all. There are often more spectators at our sports games who are from the away team than there are from CMU. </p>
<p>(However, because CMU is in Pittsburgh, you will always find plenty of people who follow the Steelers, Penguins, and/or Pirates. Mostly the Steelers.)</p>
<p>Not to mention there’s also Pitt basketball and football right down the street.</p>
<p>Can people walk on to varsity teams??
or is everyone recruited? Are there tryouts? If so, when is it for fall, winter, and spring sports?</p>
<p>Football is pretty much all recruited.</p>
<p>Do you know anything about soccer and basketball???</p>
<p>I play soccer here at CM, and it’s a pretty big time commitment in the Fall. Very manageable though, and I end up not knowing what to do with all my time when the season is over. My advice is: DO NOT try to walk onto a team. I mean, if you’re just looking to give it a shot, then you might as well try, but there’s a 99% chance you won’t make it. Our soccer team was pretty much picked by the time I got here, and with a roster of 25-30, there’s not much room to add any more players (not to mention the coach even cut a few recruits). Tryouts for walkons are held because the university requires them to do this; not because the coaches are actually looking for more players. Even if you’re as good as some of the players on the team, a coach can’t commit to taking you after just seeing you for a day, so you’ve got to be incredible to get in as a walkon. That said, try to contact the coach before committing, and send him some video tapes or try to get him to scout you. If at all possible, try to get on his radar before the season so you can play the entire preseason with the team; walk-on tryouts (at least for soccer) are after the team has already been together for 2 weeks of preseason, so you’ll have a big advantage if you have been playing with the team already for these two weeks and don’t have to go to walk on tryouts. Oh, and basketball seems to be a bigger time commitment than soccer because they have a longer season and only get a week off for Xmas break. They don’t have to get to school as early in the summer though for preseason.
Feel free to PM me with any questions–the post was a bit of a ramble.</p>