Majors In College

Having a degree myself in a social science, I would hazard a guess that a psych major is not a problem for a player. The sciences (with lots of labs), engineering, architecture, pre-med ... those are tough tough majors for athletes because they require more class and lab time than the social sciences (even tho the student may be receiving the same number of units ...)

ShapsMa

Thank you for your responce H Mom

I took up space in college

cong

"In baseball, you don't know nothing." - Yogi

Was trying to dig up some info and just want to know your opinions after 6 years. My son would like to major in Exercise Science/Kinesiology and was wondering if any of you/your sons majored in this category.

Also does anyone know the percentage/rundown of what courses college baseball players take?

Thanks!

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Originally posted by Ryanrod23:
Also does anyone know the percentage/rundown of what courses college baseball players take?
Thanks!

Tough question. Because every school has it's own "programs available" and "degree of difficulty" it may be an apple-n-oranges answer. IMHO every player entering college should have an MLB dream followed closely by a reality check that his profession after college baseball will probably be closely related to his college training. With that said, players should enter college "eyes wide open" with the realities of life and baseball futures, the numbers don't lie. It would be a shame to earn a degree not because of your interest in that profession, but, because that was program that allowed you to make baseball the priority.

Maybe the better question should be...What majors are not advised for college players?

fwiw- Players work hard for years to take that next step in baseball, that same passion should be applied to school and their future profession. JMO

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Originally posted by rz1:Maybe the better question should be...What majors are not advised for college players?

I would also be interested with the answers to these question.

Every answer, depending on the student/athlete, is unique.

I would echo everything that rz1 said. Beyond that, it all depends on your kid and how smart he is AND how academically oriented he is. Any major is doable if the kid is smart enough AND willing to do the work. You're the only one that knows that.

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My son would like to major in Exercise Science/Kinesiology and was wondering if any of you/your sons majored in this category.

Just got back from a camp at a very nice D3 school. The head coach gave us a tour of the campus including the athletic facilities. He pointed out that they have a very strong program in sports medicine so the strength coach always has several students from the program to work with the players.

Ironically, the requirements of the program (internships, etc) made playing baseball and being in the major very difficult.

IOW, you are either the athletic trainer or the athlete. You can't be both...

Hawk...any mention of the viability of Physical Therapy and baseball at the same time in that discussion?

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Hawk...any mention of the viability of Physical Therapy and baseball at the same time in that discussion?

Not specifically....

Thanks for the replies..RR23JR is still some ways back but looking into some science related major. It seems like a science related major especially the ones with labs etc will be a harder route but I agree that it depends on the individual. He has a 3.7 GPA from the last 2 years and just started to get serious in studying the start of Junior year which is a plus. ( I guess something clicked in his mind and got a pleasant surprise when an Ivy inquired recently probably based on his 1st quarter performance this year )

Guess only time will tell.... I just want to get an idea of what major will be the most optimum to excel both in and out of the diamond with the requirements of college baseball.

It was mentioned to me that Multidisciplinary studies may be a good start at least for the first 1- 2 years of college and transition to the major you eventually decide to. Still, you would need to choose a college based on the possible majors you might want to take.

Molecular biology

B.S. Mgmt / Marketing

Youngest Krak (senior this year) looks to be heading towards Organizational Psych.

Major in Baseball

Minor in "Rich Girls who can afford to fly in for all of your Summer League games, has a cute little accent, is drop-dead gorgeous, and whose Dad will give you and YOUR Dad a VP position in his company if you don't make it in Pro Ball"

On second thought, let's reverse those!

I majored in economics. The coaches drove me nuts the first year about having a difficult major. I only choose it because math was easy for me. I've spent my career in marketing. The quantative analysis in economics helped in maketing strategies. I did get an MBA in marketing.

My daughter majored in forensic science and minored in criminology while playing softball. Once she had to drop a course and take it in the summer from missing too many labs. She's going to law school next year.

My son is thinking of getting a BSBA majoring in marketing or finance. Marketing is an easy major and one of the best for entering the business world.

My favorite major when I was in college was health, recreation and leisure. It came under the school of education. I loved razzing teammates for majoring in recreation and leisure.

When I went off to college my father told me not to let college get in the way of my education. He was the BMOC, frat, party boy. I didn't let him down.

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Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
Hawk...any mention of the viability of Physical Therapy and baseball at the same time in that discussion?

We asked generally about Sports Medicine and/or Physical Therapy and we were told that was a tough one due to required work outside of class (labs, I guess they call them)

But, I like to remind myself that the word student comes before athlete.

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I majored in economics...I only choose it because math was easy for me....

My degree is in Electrical Engineering. I also chose it because math was easy. That was my first mistake....

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My son is thinking of getting a BSBA majoring in marketing or finance. Marketing is an easy major and one of the best for entering the business world.

I've suggested to my son that marketing/finance is the way to go. Thanks for the validation.

Howver, I can't push too hard. He needs to think it's his idea....

Physical therapy now requires a masters degree so it may be very tough to play a sport and major in this.

On my son's team there are several players that majored/graduated with engineering degrees. It really depends upon the coaching staff and the student. Really bright,motivated students can play baseball and do a difficult major if the coaches are flexible about missing practice for classes/labs.

I guess engineering majors don't require many labs? Don't know...I was a business major myself.

I've also heard Architecture is pretty much impossible to pair up with baseball. Anyone hear differently?

Engineering does require lots of labs. It's just a question of having the flexibility to miss practice sometimes. Some coaches are not flexible and will steer the recruit away from engineering.Read rosters to check common majors on the team your son is interested in.

Over 4-years; I knew of one of my son's teammates that was pre-Med and went on to Med School. Two of the boys were Engineering (one took 5-year to graduate). Most were Business, Communications and a smaller group that had general Liberal Arts degrees (English, History, etc.).

About 90% graduated in 4-years with a few taking either summer school or an extra semester to make up for abreviated schedules in the spring.

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My son is thinking of getting a BSBA majoring in marketing or finance. Marketing is an easy major and one of the best for entering the business world.

I'll vouch for that ! My son had several job offers both in the US and Canada. He accepted a job with a large International company that has offices all over the world. Marketing has many opportunities and in a wide variety of fields.

At the time that my son was being recruited by Georgia Tech, they had 39 players on the roster. It spoke volumes to us that, in Georgia Tech's relatively limited curriculum, 35 were business majors and only 4 were majoring in engineering

Prepster,

Please explain what the GT breakdown told you.

Thanks

Interactive Multimedia (aka Web Developer). It's beneficial to me cause i've loved computers ever since i was young, trust me i know its weird being a computer geek and athlete. Best part is once I started playing pro ball, i was able to keep my job during the season because all i needed was my laptop and an internet connection. It has to be the best job if you want to play ball at the same time just because of the flexibility, obviously its not every everyone though.

Sorry that I wasn't clear, BaseballDad.

Not that the business curriculum isn't challenging because I'm certain that it is; but, it doesn't carry the same level of rigor that the engineering courses do. Also, the engineering courses tend to have a higher proportion of late afternoon classes than does business; creating a direct conflict with baseball's afternoon practices.

If you were to poll the general student body at Georgia Tech, you'd find many more engineering majors than you would those in business. Baseball's demand for time tended to cause the players to gravitate more heavily toward business.

quote:

Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
I guess engineering majors don't require many labs? Don't know...I was a business major myself.

I've also heard Architecture is pretty much impossible to pair up with baseball. Anyone hear differently?

My oldest attends a school that just added Architecture as a major and he told me how those kids have to work late every night with no time to do anything else.

My son is a freshman at a DIII majoring in physics. Because the school is small, there are a limited number of physics majors, making it possible for the school to make arrangements around his schedule (Don't expect that at a D1!).

My daughter is a junior at a D1 school. She does not play a sport, but until this year she was a pre-pharmacy major, which might give you an idea of what the schedule for a science major at a D1 would be like:

Her chemistry I class has 3 hrs/week of class time, (lecture), 1 hr/week recitation (small group study, her chemistry class has almost 200 students), plus one 4 hr lab/week. The labs were scheduled from either 12 pm - 4 pm, or 1 pm to 5 pm, so that there was a minimal amount of interference with other classes. In addition to the class work, several hours are required each week for homework, writing up lab reports, etc. for each science class. Her math classes (calculus, statistics) each had a lab requirement as well, but these were not as intense as the science classes. They just required an additional 1 hr/week in a computer lab working independently on math problems. This was in addition to whatever homework was assigned. Add in the general requirements of english, history, etc., and any science major requires a heavy class load and tremendous discipline regardless of extracurricular activities.

This isn't to say that it is impossible. Rose-Hulman, a DIII near Chicago, is an engineering school that consistently produces a quality baseball program, and is very competitive in other sports as well.

S is a freshman and, therefore, any prospective major is just a wish, dream, aspiration at this point.

That having been said, he is easily spending 35 hrs per week in studying; 30 hrs per week in baseball; 18 hrs per week in class (he has a chemistry lab class). He is in the weight room at 7:00 three days a week; practice in one form or another take up 6 days on top of that. He stops studying at 10:00pm (9:00 on Friday night) and begins a social life immediately thereafter. He takes lots of naps!

He doesn't know what his major field will be -- but a major which requires labs (e.g., engineering, sciences) will require incredible discipline and dedication.

His junior and senior teammates major mostly in the social sciences -- with economics predominating. That fact says alot (it says that majoring in science and engineering is really difficult).

He primarily wants to play professional baseball -- but the words "med school" have recently crept into conversations.

Baseball will interfer with academics even more come spring -- although the school plays four of its five games per week as DHs on Saturday and Sunday (while this cuts down on the number of classes missed, it diminishes the number of hours available to study).

The life of a student athlete is very very tough.

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The life of a student athlete is very very tough

Goosegg,

This is how it is with many.Any major is an accomplishment and we should be proud.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be an athlete at a military academy. From reading Civil Wars (the Army-Navy rivalry) it appeared very difficult.

I was curious as to the breakdown of majors for my son's team last year. This is a group that is pretty bright and motivated to succeed with their education. As a team they loose 1-2 players a year to transfers and most graduate in less than 4.5 years. The mix of majors last season was:

Business - 18
Undecided - 12
Liberal Arts (Hist, Econ & English) - 5
Engineering - 3
Communications - 2
Sciences - 2

I suspect that every school will have distributions that will find more players migrating to programs with flexibility and where success can be found with a demanding time schedule required by the sport.

That never entered into our choice of major.
In fact the 1st 2 years where similar to pre med and required 2-3 science courses, history , math,lauguage etc and the business school had to accept you after successful completion of the required courses.
Business course electives only in the 3rd and 4th year. Could have taken med school requirements at the end of 2nd year if he wanted.He loved marketing .
Lots of labs and there were several time slots for most courses including evening classes. You registered early to get the best time slots.

HPER Degree??? Think twice if considering this major. Why? (See Below)

Labs with Anatomy, Biology(I&II), Sports Medicine, Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics, Kinesiology, and Chemistry are classes you will be required to pass. You will be sitting with many other science related majors(including pre-medical students) in order to receive even a gym/coaching job. I know this from my own personal experience

Nursing majors will also be there with you future coaches in the lecture halls and labs. An H.P.E.R. degree involves a great deal of time, and effort. Some H.P.E.R. curriculum will vary slightly depending on the college institution. I would check the requirements for each college/university/institution of interest. I would then lay all the options on the table to select the best fit for the Student/Athlete. After a few semesters in a (HPER)Health, Physical Education, and Recreation program, you can always transfer your semester credits to an Education under-graduate program. An R.N. program, or mabe even, pre-medical school, could also be an option.

There is a lot of off-campus practicum work for psychology/sociology majors which will conflict with baseball all year, from fall to spring. Choose wisely within your comfort zone, and good luck finding the right school with the most options that could fit if the declared major becomes overwhelming.

To answer your original question, I have a B.A. Education degree. My two other majors include a degree in biology and chemistry. Attaining these degrees almost did me in. Keep in mind, playing baseball will demand every waking hour of your time that you are not on the field. This combined with a college work-study will keep you busy as a It takes the average student/athlete about 5 years to complete the necessary required courses to obtain a degree in education to teach science and math. If you choose the route I chose, be prepared to make huge sacrifices.

If you are determined enough, you can bear down, and declare any major you so choose. The rest will be up to the student/athlete. Hope some of this late-night mumble-jumble helps at least one out there somewhere.

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Every answer, depending on the student/athlete, is unique.

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it all depends on your kid and how smart he is AND how academically oriented he is. Any major is doable if the kid is smart enough AND willing to do the work. You're the only one that knows that.

These quotes sum it up for me academically. I would also add that it depends on the baseball progams competitive level and expectations. Elite D1 baseball schools (perennial CWS type schools) are going to require so much more time commitment for its baseball players than most other schools. The stakes are very high. For that reason, I think it is really, really hard to be a pre-med, pre-law, engineering major at these elite baseball D1 schools. There are only 24 hours in a day the last time I checked.

My son is a freshmen engineering major and seems to be doing very well. He is either studying or doing something related to baseball. The few social parties he goes to are tied into his baseball team and other sports teams on campus. He doesn't have any time to burn, and does much homework and assignments on the weekend. His courses are rigorous, and all tests are on a curve. His two passions of engineering and baseball are consuming his time, but that is what he wants to do. He does have labs, however baseball can't interfere with classroom per conference rules. Team practices and games are scheduled around the classroom. There are other engineers on the team as well as business, sciences, and other majors.

My son's path is not for everyone. I know I would have never picked it. I was a business major and played tennis in college 100 years ago. I had plenty of social time....wink....wink.

Fathertime that is a good observation. I was looking at a survey of college grads here and it found that 40% of the grads said they felt they took the wrong major in college.

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Please explain what the GT breakdown told you.

I don't think he meant anything untoward. It's just that's it's darned near impossible to complete an engineering major, given the burdens of being a baseball player.

It's especially difficult when labs conflict with afternoon practice and game commitments.

And hey, it's tough enough getting the business major done!

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Originally posted by Midlo Dad:

quote:

Please explain what the GT breakdown told you.

I don't think he meant anything untoward. It's just that's it's darned near impossible to complete an engineering major, given the burdens of being a baseball player.

It's especially difficult when labs conflict with afternoon practice and game commitments.

And hey, it's tough enough getting the business major done!

I interpreted the comment as engineering being tough given GT is an engineering school and the players are mostly staying away from the major. A college teammate's father credited me with flunking his son out of college. My friend was majoring in engineering and tried to keep up with my social life. I once suggested we could go out drinking until 11pm, get up early and study for a final. It worked for me, not for him.