User:Smt46/sandbox

Helloooo Akdash09 (talk) 15:17, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Definition

Student Athlete in the United States:

A student athlete is described as a person who is enrolled in a school as a full-time student while being fully committed to that school’s varsity sports team. The definition is used to describe the direct balance of a full-time student and a full-time athlete. Many student athletes are compensated with scholarships to attend these institutions but these scholarships are not mandatory to be considered a student athlete.

Student athletes in High School

College athlete Eligibility Requirements for U.S Colleges The NCAA gives a guided list of prerequisites for potential collegiate athletes divided by school divisions:

Division I Academic Eligibility

To participate in Division I athletics or receive an athletic scholarship during the first year of college, a student-athlete in high school must: Complete the 16 core-course requirements in eight semesters: 4 years of English, 3 years of math (Algebra 1 or higher), 2 years of natural or physical science (including one year of lab science if offered by the high school), 1 extra year of English, math or natural or physical science, 2 years of social science, 4 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy); Earn a minimum required grade-point average in core courses and earn a combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches the core course grade-point average and test-score sliding scale. (For example, a 3.000 core-course grade-point average needs at least a 620 SAT).

Division II Academic Eligibility (2009- July 31, 2013)

To enroll in a Division II college between now and July 31, 2013, and to participate in athletics or receive an athletic scholarship during your first year, it is necessary to: Graduate from high school; Complete these 14 core courses: 3 years of English, 2 years of math (Algebra 1 or higher), 2 years of natural or physical science (including one year of lab science if offered by your high school), 2 additional years of English, math, or natural or physical science, 2 years of social science, 3 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, nondoctrinal religion or philosophy); Earn a 2.000 grade-point average or better in your core courses; and earn a combined SAT score of 820 or an ACT sum score of 68.

NCAA Eligibility Center

Every year, 180,000 prospective student-athletes register to have their academic credentials and amateurism status certified. The NCAA Eligibility Center’s staff must explain what’s expected, when and why. The staff works to deliver reliable, consistent, timely and accurate decisions on the academic eligibility and amateur status of every prospective student-athlete for which an institution has requested certification.

The vast majority of prospective student-athletes placed on a Division I or II institution’s request list (IRL) are certified, most within days of submitting all of the required information and requesting final certification. About seven percent every year are deemed academic non-qualifiers. They don’t meet academic standards set forth by the membership in the division in which they desire to compete. About 600 prospective student-athletes are not certified because of amateurism issues (mostly international recruits).

Throughout the process, the NCAA Eligibility Center must rely on the accuracy of the information provided by the prospective student-athlete, the member institution interested in that prospective student-athlete, the collegiate testing agencies, the 30,000 high schools in the U.S. and the educational ministries in 180 different countries.

Graduation Rates for Student Athletes

Student athletes are busy with rigorous schedules as they try to make accommodations for both their academic and athletic lives. Many students fall behind in their academics because of the intense sports schedule. Academic advisers and tutors are provided for the student athletes but it does not always help with the intense course work from the institution. Compared to non-athlete students, student athletes more frequently fall behind the curve and fail to graduate. Recently the, federal law mandated that universities reveal their graduation rates purportedly to inform policy makers and constituencies about efforts to support educational attainment for students and athletes. Revealing the graduation rates of student athletes allows perspective student athletes to estimate the course load and amount of practice and game time that will consume their schedules by looking at student athletes that have already attended the institution. Universities with more selective admission policies graduate both students and athletes at higher rates, although their athletes graduate at lower rates, relative to their student cohorts.

Rates Between Scholarship Athletes, Partial Scholarship and non-athletes

Not only are there significant differences between student athletes and non-athletes, but there is also a noticeable difference in graduation rates between scholarship and non-scholarship athletes. The athletes who attend universities on scholarship have typically fared worse than non-scholarship or partial-scholarship athletes in academic achievement. Many scholarship athletes feel obligated to put the varsity sport before academics because their tuition is essentially being paid by the coaches. Student athletes are at times disadvantaged by their full time involvement in a varsity sports. According to the table of Demographic and Academic Information for Athletes and the General Student Population, it is evident that non-athlete students on average have higher GPA’s than student athletes. The national average high school GPA for athletes was 2.99 and 3.31 for non-athletes. The national average college GPA for student athletes is 2.56 with a national graduation rate of 34.2% where as non-athletes average GPA is slightly higher at 2.74 with a national graduation rate of 46.8%. The GPA averages are not too far off but the education received by non-athletes is far greater than a student athlete because of the lack of time the student athlete has to study. The highly popular athletes, like basketball players, are normally focused on the next game or the pressures to win instead of the school work but they get the work done. Although this is only an average and other factors such as the institution, sport, resources and division should be factored in, on average student athlete’s do graduate at a lower rate particularly because of their rigorous sports schedule.

References

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