quote:One of my friend's criteria in selecting a school for his athletic daughter was the presence of athletic study halls or the like. Tennessee has Thornton Center for its student athletes- is this common in D1?
Yes, and the atheltic study centers are very impressive. Not only do they have computers for the athletes, tutoring is available upon request. Most large schools we visited had from 35-50 computers. The center is for all sports.
Study table are mandatory for freshmen. My son logs 6 hours each week between Sun and Thurs. The center closes at 10:00pm, so he can't procrastinate. The Baseball Academic Coach keeps track of the hours and assigns a mentor to each player. My son's mentor is a grad student who meets with him one hour each week. She has been very helpful, proof-reading compositions and making sure my son stays on top of everything. He also has an hour with an engineering mentor each week.
My son requests a tutor the night before each Calculus test. The athletic dept pays for the tutor and son has someone (smarter than him or his Calc I peers) to study with. Believe me, the baseball dept is doing everything they can to help their players succeed.