Let’s talk about student athletes.

With March madness at its peak right now this topic probably doesn’t seem like all that much of a stretch to you, but you might be surprised by the direction this topic is going in…

Should student athletes be paid?

Jalen Rose, ESPN/ABC studio analyst, member of University of Michigan’s Fab Five, and  the writer of this piece seems to think so. And while my first response to that question was an undignified snort, I have to say that after reading his points, I might be reconsidering my stance.

My immediate reaction was absolutely not. Sports are an extracurricular activity that students choose to take part in. Just like the school paper or honors societies or student government. They do is because they enjoy it. Or if they don’t have a love of the game, they’re often very good at the game, and they do it because they get a scholarship for playing that game. Full tuition paid? A free education? That was their payment. What more could they possibly need?

But Rose offers some good points.  He argues that being a student athlete is a full time job. (CollegeCandy reader and student athlete, Chelsea, agrees.) Rigorous training schedules, practices, and games take up the majority of these students’ time, far more time than most other extracurricular activities take up.  And the free time they do have is often spent in class or studying for classes. They do have to maintain a respectable GPA, after all. Rose points out something we all know but never seem to truly grasp: student athletes don’t have much free time.  And as the sister of someone who played high school football for four years, I have to agree. If high school football left my brother without much time to do anything but eat, sleep, and breathe football, then I can’t even imagine the demands that come along with being on a college team. Read More »

If you overhear someone talking about NCAA athletics, you probably automatically think of the football and basketball games you see on TV during March Madness and hear about on the news. You may think of swanky warm-ups, the Big 10 teams who win every year, and spoiled brats who don’t work very hard at anything.  But that is not a very accurate representation of the NCAA.  There is more to the NCAA then those two big name sports. There are over 20 different sports, spread over 5 divisions. There are more then 380,000 student-athletes that participate in an NCAA sport each year, including almost 100,000 females.

And I happen to be one.

Many people only see us on TV, or goofing around together in the cafeteria, or maybe see us playing a pick-up game when driving by our field, but we work extremely hard almost every day during the year: pre-season, fall season, off-season, and spring season. We miss class, and have to teach ourselves full lessons. We ride buses for hours and hours, missing out on typical college activities. We go through more laundry soap in a week than most people do in a month and our rooms smells like sweat, feet and Febreeze. But I love it. I love my team. I love my sport, and I love what my college experience has been like because of it.

For the past two years, I’ve played soccer at my university. I started playing when I was 6, and had always dreamed of playing in college. By time I was 16, I had picked out my university, and started my training. Yes, that’s right. While you were picking out your junior prom dresses and worrying about graduation and the cute senior boys, I was already focused on my life as a college student-athlete. It has to be done that early, or you’ll miss so much, and won’t get through all the requirements that make you eligible to play. (The one thing the NCAA loves more then massive championship rings is paperwork.)

Because of where soccer falls in the school year (August-October), I have to arrive at my university about a month before classes start. While you’re on the beach sun tanning on August 1st, I’ll be moving back, unpacking my stuff, and already into the school mode. By August 2nd, I’ll be up at 6 AM to start my training. Every university sport has a two-week “pre-season” and it is the hardest part of the season. We run, lift, pass, kick, run more, press, run a little more, and basically kill ourselves at 6 AM, 11 AM, and 4:30 PM every day, for two weeks. It is not a fun two weeks. It is hard, grueling work. We do have a little fun as a team after workouts, as it’s usually only us and the football team there that early, but there is no partying in pre-season. By the time 7 PM rolls around, we’re all so tired that we just crash in our beds and sleep until the alarm goes off again. Then repeat.

And it only gets harder once school starts. We have practice at 6, classes from 8 until 2, practice at 4 and then a mandatory study hall at 7 from Monday to Saturday. If it weren’t for the Internet, we’d never even get to watch TV!

Part of being a college athlete is, of course, being a student. If you ask any administrator about the athletes at your school, he/she will call them “Student-Athletes,” because that’s what we are. Not only do we have to play our sport twice a day, we also have to stay on top of all of our school work. This gets hard during season, when, thanks to away games, we frequently miss class. You’ve probably seen the athletes going up to professors, telling them that they’ll be away, and been jealous of the amount of excused absences we get. But honestly, missing class is the worst part of being an athlete. First, our GPAs have to remain high or we could lose our spot on the team. Second, there is a maximum number of hours we can take, and usually it is not much higher than the university minimum. That means we really can’t afford to drop too many classes. I basically taught myself Business Calculus my freshmen year, because I missed so many classes due to away games and had to be able to understand what was going on when I got back. You can trust me on this: trying to read, write, calculate, or draw on a moving bus with 30 other girls and all their stinky equipment at 10:30 at night is not the best way to get an A. And because of all those absences, when I get sick (which is easy when you’re on the road so much) I still have to go to class. By time November comes, I can’t afford to take an off day, or not get up for my 8 AM lab.

Having said all that though, I love it. It’s hard work to try and balance school, soccer and attempt to have a social life. I love playing soccer, and I love my team. It is 30 girls who all want the same thing: To win it all. We work together both off and on the field; we run together, we cheer and push each other, we help each other with History, we complain about the cafeteria food, we go out dancing together, we creep cute boys on Facebook, and redecorate our rooms. My team is my lifeline, my best friends. My defense partners will probably be the bridesmaids at my wedding. I chose this life, and I don’t regret it. It has put me on the path to being the best I can – academically, athletically and personally. I strive to be the best I can in everything, because I’m used to having 30 others counting on me. I look to have friends who I can trust to work hard, who have good time management skills and can be friendly and persuasive without being bossy, and I’ve found them all as a student athlete.

[This post is a favorite of CollegeCandy fan, Chelsea....perhaps because she wrote it? Either way, thanks for reading, girl!]

Just a typical Tuesday in class.

While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (selling books, sexiled, one shot too many), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to be an engineer? To get married?! To play an NCAA sport? Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.

It’s late on a Friday and I’m enjoying a night out with my friends at the local Steak ‘n Shake. I’m just about to dig in to a nice, juicy burger when a sudden realization hits me. I have a paper due in exactly one hour, and if I miss the deadline I will fail my web design class. I rush home and spend the next hour furiously banging out the rest of my paper about famous designers. With ten minutes to go, I hit the submit button. Crisis averted—for now.

This is a typical day in my life as an online college student.

I started as an online student with just one class. With a history of barely passing my on-campus classes, I needed a change. I knew it would still take a lot of work, but taking a class in my pajamas sounded like too good an idea to pass up. The result? I squeaked by with an “A” and scored higher online than in any of my real classes. The next semester I took two more. After that, I was hooked. Last semester I started my life as a full-time online college student working toward a degree in web design.

Don’t let me mislead you into thinking online classes are easy. Sometimes they’re down right infuriating. You can only talk to your classmates and professors by email, and working on a group project is like trying to herd cats. You’ll put in just as much time and hard work into your assignments as you would in any other class, and you’ll still find yourself chugging energy drinks in the library and cramming for finals. Read More »

[A few weeks ago, one CollegeCandy writer wrote a rather scathing post on why girls should never, under any circumstances, not even if he was the last guy on earth, date a bro. Today, I write my rebuttal. This one goes out to you, Middle School Debate Coach.]

Yes, I know.  This already seems like I’m going to be writing an article pleading with chicks to “give bros a chance, YOU DON’T KNOW THEM LIKE I DO!” etc and so forth.  Or that I am a bro in disguise, infiltrating a website for the ladies to spread my bro-paganda.  But I’m not either of those things.  It’s true, bros are some of the most infuriating people on the planet.  It would appear that they have no depth, and that their perceptions of institutions like “relationships” and “hygiene” seem sometimes skewed in a very unappealing direction.  BUT!  I am here to tell you, this is not the case.

The past article about why girls should never dates bros brings up some compelling points, but I don’t think my fellow CollegeCandy writer knows the same “bros” that I do.  Look, bros are human beings, too.  I’m not saying they don’t get carried away sometimes most of the time, but I am saying that if dealing with a TRUE bro (not the CollegeHumor caricature of a popped-collar, beer-swilling, hoodie-wearing buffoon), the “issues” she outlined don’t apply.  I grew up around self-proclaimed bros in one of the preppiest towns in America.  (We’re so preppy we were featured in the “tea-partay” video.) The boys that were my best friends and guys that I dated were total bros in every sense of the word, and I would even go so far as to call my dad a former “bro.”  Even now, years later, they are still my boys and always have my back, no matter what.

Are they immature?  Of course they are.
Do we disagree on almost everything?  Pretty much.
But, to be fair, almost every guy I know is immature and is going to think what he wants, be he a “bro,” “hipster,” or any other male variety.

The truth is, there’s a lot going for a bro and here are just five of their finest qualities: Read More »

While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (selling books, sexiled, one shot too many), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to go to an all-girls school? To go to fashion school? To double major? To be an engineer? To get married?! Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.

Are you doing something spectacular/different/interesting that you want to share? Send your ideas over and perhaps you could be telling your story right here.

If you over hear someone talking about NCAA athletics, you probably automatically think of the football and basketball games you see on TV during March Madness and hear about on the news. You may think of swanky warm-ups, the Big 10 teams who win every year, and spoiled brats who don’t work very hard at anything.  But that is not a very accurate representation of the NCAA.  There is more to the NCAA then those two big name sports. There are over 20 different sports, spread over 5 divisions. There are more then 380,000 student-athletes that participate in an NCAA sport each year, including almost 100,000 females.

And I happen to be one.

Many people only see us on TV, or goofing around together in the cafeteria, or maybe see us playing a pick-up game when driving by our field, but we work extremely hard almost every day during the year: pre-season, fall season, off-season, and spring season. We miss class, and have to teach ourselves full lessons. We ride buses for hours and hours, missing out on typical college activities. We go through more laundry soap in a week than most people do in a month and our rooms smells like sweat, feet and Febreeze. But I love it. I love my team. I love my sport, and I love what my college experience has been like because of it. Read More »