What to Expect

Those stats as presented are a bit misleading. Many athletes drop out of sport for a great variety of reasons. Most times, it is not because they are recieving so much playing time it intereferes with their studies.

Congrats on your sons baseball and academic status, he should be very excited. He didn't get there by not knowing how to prioritize and take care of business, so I'd say you already have done a pretty good job preparing him.

Major pitfalls would be...girls, beer, girls, parties, girls, lack of sleep (although at my sons school, that's a requirement), oh and one more thing, did I mention girls?

eklees....

I know CPLZ is being funny and paints an interesting picture that could or could not happen. That all depends on your sons personal work habits and interests. If in fact he does make the team, and also depending on his field of study, this will challenge him even more when prioritizing his schedule.

Since Harvard is a DI school, there will be more games played than a DIII school, like the one my son attends, the University of Rochester. There are specific rules governed by the NCAA that dictate a student athletes particpation in a varsity sport. Captains practices for the players can occur as early as 6:00a.m. on any given morning. Late evening practices can also be scheduled. Working out in the weight room is another area associated with baseball. This is what my son does inorder to play baseball.

As I mentioned earlier, DI teams usually play more games than DIII and have a 50-60 game schedule that doesn't include practice. DIII has about a 35-50 game schedule depending on any post-season activity. Many kids stop playing for a number of reasons besides what CPLZ mentioned, i.e., they need more academic time, study abroad, internships/jobs, they get little or no playing time, lack of rest, etc.

My sons teammate from high school is at Dartmouth and was on their team freshman year. He stopped playing all together and will be attending Oxford next year as a study-abroad student. So you see, attending a highly respected academic insitution has its advantages, but I don't think it will be for baseball. I know as successful as my son has been at Rochester, I'm still waiting for the day to come when he tells me that he just doesn't have enough time for his studies. He is a Biomedical Engineering student and just declared that as his major starting next year. And yes, as CPLZ stated, girls, parties, a girlfriend, lack of rest, whatever, does affect the student athlete. The grades will suffer from all of the activities. It is harder than high school!!

Son is playing D1 and pulling a double major plus getting rehab for an injury (factor in another 6-7 hours/week).

Saw his academic advisor a few weeks ago, who said that he was worried since son always look exhausted. Son responded that he would catch up on his sleep after graduation......

.... It's a grind and it can wear you down. The tougher the academic program of study, the tougher the grind. But there are a lot of guys doing it. It takes time management skills and lots of work.

I would say that the 3.0 average is a bit arbitrary. See if you can find out what the average GPA is for his intended major - or for the Harvard baseball team is.

I like the idea of a goal - but think that it should be based on what other students are accomplishing rather than just a line in the sand. Grade inflation is alive and well at Harvard and most of the ivys...

http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/18226?badlink=1

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=357445

08

HiHardHeat....

Its funny you mention sleep. Because our son usually "lacks" a lot of it and gets exhausted from the grind as well, he is susceptible to colds or cold-like symptoms, post nasal drip, coughing, etc. We noticed that even when in Florida this past month, but when he came home for Chirstmas, when he got more than five to six hours sleep a night, those symptoms disappeared in 3-4 days. And, as far as tough academic programs, the amount of work that he has is more than what he had in high school.

Son is finishing 4th year and graduating at Dartmouth. Harvard and Dartmouth share some 'properties' as it regards baseball.

1. Ivy League restricts fall practice to 12 sessions instead of normal D1 20 sesions.
2. Ivy league restricts number of games played to between 40-45, instead of D1 normal of 56 games.
3. Baseball season is very short. There are 20 Ivy games played in 5 weekends - 10 Sat/Sun doubleheaders. The pre-Ivy games are played starting on Mar 1. (Ivy League rule, the rest of NCAA D1 is matching this start date just recently).
4. Long bus rides to Cornell, Columbia, Princeton, and Penn. (Study hall opportunities )
5. Weather stinks. Games will be lost to weather. Ivy games will be made up. Non-conference game, probably not.

So - baseball will not consume all of your son's time for study. It is much more likely that off-field interests will interfere with academic studies than baseball.

You'll have to come to your own decision about minimum GPA & financial support. But the grade inflation issue brought up 08Dad is pretty well known.

quote:

As I mentioned earlier, DI teams usually play more games than DIII and have a 50-60 game schedule that doesn't include practice.

I attended a couple of Harvard games last weekend. I spoke with parents from Harvard and Penn. DBG posted a lot of what I gained from my conversations. One thing is unlike most D1's, there aren't Friday conference games. So classes aren't missed for travel and play.

Another would be how public school kids fit in at Harvard. When I posed this question both parents asked who I hung out with in college. They knew the answer .... baseball teammates and other athletes. So it's not much of an issue.

The reason I asked is my daughter has a couple of athletic friends at another very preppy Ivy who are considering their lack of comfort there as the cost of the Ivy education. I was told that particular Ivy is the most snooty.

This year for the majority of March… Harvard started the season at Wichita in Kansas to play national power Wichita State. Then they went to Florida for four games. Then off to Southern California for games against San Diego, UC Riverside, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, and San Diego State.

Then back to the NE to start the conference.

This schedule that starts in Kansas, then to Florida, then to Southern Cali. is not something that most any college get the chance to do. Harvard's schedule is very interesting and tough.

Your responses have been very helpful, especially the ones pertaining to sleep (or lack thereof) and grade inflation. I hadn't considered that so I will find out more about GPAs.

Incidentally, the article I cited about college athletes mentioned that a very important accessory to have are earplugs, since many of the athletes have to sleep when dorm mates are up and about. I've heard you can get earplugs made for your ears (since the drugstore variety is usually ill-fitting or uncomfortable).

Has anyone had earplugs made for himself?

eklees.....

Because of the new experience in being away from home for the first time, and having much, much more freedom, dorm life can really be fun, but also a problem.

No, my son didn't get ear plugs for the exact reason you mentioned, loud dorm life. When he received his dorm room assignment freshman year, because of the large entering freshman class he was put into a "triple" where normally you would have only two in a dorm room. Being a student athlete made things difficult. Now my son loves music and his collection of CD's plus his iPod are impressive (plus expensive), but when Friday night rolled around, and they partied in the dorm, well he had to be up by 6 a.m. for practice and maybe the earplugs would have helped. One of his dorm mates was really gregarious, and according to my son an extremely loud person. My son likes to have fun like everyone else but eventually confronted the dorm mate about the noise, with the person ultimately moveing out. The third dorm mate was a local and went home on weekends.

This growing-up and maturing process is not easy when you are a student athlete, especially at a high level academic school. This year he is sharing a five room suite with his baseball teammates, and will do the same next year. These kids do need their own space based upon their individual schedules.

Best of luck to your son!

Just got back from visiting my freshman son who is at an engineering D2 school. First thing I noticed, he's exhausted trying to fit everything in - practices, schoolwork, games, etc. The good thing is that his roommate is a baseball player so they are on the same schedule. All the teammates on the team have similar rigorous academic work so they are all doing homework on the bus and on the road trips.

He is campaigning for some Bose headphones for the IPOD - I do think it would help with the studying but maybe he can make some money this summer to purchase them. Would make a great high school graduation gift for a rich relative to give!

I do think my son is learning a lot of life lessons of trying to balance everything.

Just seeing the stress these freshman are under with studying, competing for playing time, etc. I wouldn't want more stress about worrying about achieving a certain GPA to add to it. Since your son got into Harvard, I am sure he is a high achiever and will put amble pressure on himself to succeed. JMHO - I do not know your situation!