Collegiate Student-Athlete; Winning or Losing Combination?
Collegiate Student-Athlete;
Winning or losing combination?
Oskar Nordstrand
Nova Southeastern University
Abstract
Student-Athletes have become the stereotype for a failing college student - a new punchball for society. Without any real evidential background, they have been portrayed in public media as lazy students with poor grades. Based upon journals and reports that I have examined (mainly Umbach, Palmer, Kuh, and Hannah’s, Intercollegiate Athletes and Effective Educational Practices: Winning Combination or Losing Effect? (2004)), I am going to discuss the different views on student-athletes and compare them to the regular college student in an attempt to prove that participating in an intercollegiate sport while attending college is not necessarily a bad thing. I will also compare grades and standardized testing scores between student-athletes and non-athlete students, both prior and during college, over a wide spectrum of Division I, II and III institutions. I intend to show that college student-athletes in fact have higher collegiate grades, a higher participation rate in the classroom as well as a higher graduation rate than their peer non-athlete students.
Over the years, there have been many articles and reports written about the subject ‘student athletes and academics’. You might ask yourself why. For starters, student-athletes have over the years been portrayed as “Dumb Jocks” and often associated with games that schools play in order to receive the best players. These games are not just based on special treatment in school such as bribes, money and preferential treatment in the classroom but also in the admissions process. However these are just rumors, but there exist written pieces about it. Examples suggesting this are written materials by Shulman and Bowen (2001) and Bowen and Levin (2003), all criticizing the concept of college athletics. They are also suggesting that student athletes get preferential treatment in the admissions
Winning or losing combination?
Oskar Nordstrand
Nova Southeastern University
Abstract
Student-Athletes have become the stereotype for a failing college student - a new punchball for society. Without any real evidential background, they have been portrayed in public media as lazy students with poor grades. Based upon journals and reports that I have examined (mainly Umbach, Palmer, Kuh, and Hannah’s, Intercollegiate Athletes and Effective Educational Practices: Winning Combination or Losing Effect? (2004)), I am going to discuss the different views on student-athletes and compare them to the regular college student in an attempt to prove that participating in an intercollegiate sport while attending college is not necessarily a bad thing. I will also compare grades and standardized testing scores between student-athletes and non-athlete students, both prior and during college, over a wide spectrum of Division I, II and III institutions. I intend to show that college student-athletes in fact have higher collegiate grades, a higher participation rate in the classroom as well as a higher graduation rate than their peer non-athlete students.
Over the years, there have been many articles and reports written about the subject ‘student athletes and academics’. You might ask yourself why. For starters, student-athletes have over the years been portrayed as “Dumb Jocks” and often associated with games that schools play in order to receive the best players. These games are not just based on special treatment in school such as bribes, money and preferential treatment in the classroom but also in the admissions process. However these are just rumors, but there exist written pieces about it. Examples suggesting this are written materials by Shulman and Bowen (2001) and Bowen and Levin (2003), all criticizing the concept of college athletics. They are also suggesting that student athletes get preferential treatment in the admissions
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