Student Athletes 's Academic Self Concept And Academic Identity

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

In the article, Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success, Horton first examines the statistics of evidence showing college athletes and their underachievement. There are many instances of concern about college athletes and their poor grades having an affect of their athletic responsibilities, though this belief is usually denied due to a student always being a student before anything else. This study researches the idea of the way that college students and college athletes view success. Many college athletes tend to state that success is passing all courses and being more successful in their sport, rather than academics coming first (Horton, 2009).

College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism.

Literature surrounding athletic participation and its impact on the college experience is well documented (LaForge & Hodge, 2011). Many scholars purport that athletic participation enhances the academic experience, while others argue that it creates a divide between colleges’ missions and student-athletes lived campus experiences. To support this claim, Lawrence, Henedricks & Ott (2007) found in their study that nearly one-third of faculty who responded to their survey indicated that they believed that academic standards are lowered to achieve success in the sports of football and basketball. One question that is often posed by

The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”

Credibility material: According to an NCAA study on the experiences of college athletes have revealed that 60% of student athletes reported viewing themselves “more as athletes than students.”

Jolley, D. (2009). Academic Achievement Is Improving for College Athletes. In C. Watkins, Sports and Athletes (pp. 71-78). Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

The NCAA has relied heavily on the age-old characterization of college athletes as “amateurs” who are first and foremost “student-athletes” (Sanderson and Siegfried). Because they are considered students and

Across the nation, these sponsors uniformly regarded sport as an educational and developmental undertaking (Hearn, Thomas K.). The main premier sports for men are football, basketball, and baseball. These sports help teach teamwork and let people interact with others. This change in the culture of sport is destructive of the aims of athletics as part of the mission of the university (Hearn, Thomas K.). Sports weren’t this advanced when they first started the game.

As a student, I have intimate knowledge of the subject as I engage with education frequently. I experience how athletics affect students’ lives and what the alternative to athletic participation results

Enrollment for the college grew to 57 percent because of the increase of sports on the campus (Sander 3). The sudden growth in student enrollment was viewed as a great benefit, however; because of the rising number of students, Adrian College had to higher their standards which lowered the schools acceptance rate from 93 percent to 76 percent (Sander 3). Because of the new addition of sports for the school, student athletes became one of the biggest groups attending the college (Sander 5). Ever since Adrian College’s change, the school has become more susceptible to positive recognition. Athletics raising a college from the ground up is a suitable summary for the situation that Adrian College went through because it fully captures the essence of the capabilities that a college sport has (Sander 1). Another instance that shows the affect that college sports have is with community colleges. In places like the Midwest, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, sports programs have become strong for community colleges as seen by facilitators (Ashburn 2). At Guilford Tech, college officials saw starting up varsity sports to widen student activity as a good choice (Ashburn 3). If sports are being used at community colleges for overall benefits, people must be noticing the profound affects that college sports can do. Many future college students, as well as current, feel that if a college does not have an athletics program

The “dumb jock” stereotype we’ve all heard it used before and for some of us have even been called it. However in recent surveys across the United States has found that student-athletes grades are generally higher than

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a

The results indicate that 66% of the respondents were female, with an average of 7 years of athletic academic advisement experience. 72.6% of the survey respondents indicated that they feel academic clustering exists mainly at the Division I level, especially at the FBS or football bowl series level, and 58.1% responded that it occurs more among male student-athletes, but did not feel it was a more common feature among minority student-athletes (p. 52). In determining if Academic Progress Rates (APR) implementation factored into clustering, 40.4% of the respondents felt clustering was more prevalent, 45.7% held that it remained the same, while 1.1% felt clustering was less prevalent since it was implemented, and 51.6% of the academic advisors view clustering as a phenomenon more likely to transpire among athletes on an athletic scholarship and 63.2% felt it exist in sports such as football and basketball, that are considered to be revenue generating sports (p. 53).

It was decided that the goal would best be reached through a questionnaire given to people to fill out that would evaluate their self esteem. After going through many the Baarksdale self esteem evaluation no.69 , it was decided on as being the most thorough and the one most pertaining to he research. Some questions at the end were added asking for age, sex, and whether or not they play competitive sports. These questions were added so we could separate them onto the respective categories: athlete/non athlete. Our control group would be the group that does not play on a sports team. The athletes would be compared to them. The questionaries were handed out randomly.