Instigator / Con
0
1500
rating
2
debates
50.0%
won
Topic
#3404
It is more beneficial to be book smart than an athlete for success in college
Status
Finished
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
Winner & statistics
After not so many votes...
It's a tie!
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 3
- Time for argument
- Two weeks
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- Two weeks
- Point system
- Winner selection
- Voting system
- Open
Contender / Pro
0
1500
rating
1
debates
50.0%
won
Description
No information
Round 1
It is better to be an athlete in college rather than be book smart. Athletes can be taught many valuable lessons that students who are book smart might not be taught. First, athletes are taught discipline. They have to manage their practice schedule along with their school schedule. This forces the athletes to recognize what is important as well as commitment. This does not only help athletes while they are at school it continues with them far after they graduate. Discipline helps prepare athletes for future careers, family life, and time management. It is also more beneficial to be a student-athlete because they have a sense of financial security. Student-athletes have an opportunity to pay for most of their college with scholarships they receive for playing for their school. This is something not everyone gets to experience. According to uoregon.edu American college student debt is reaching almost $1 trillion dollars. If student-athletes are able to receive money for what they love to do while attending school is definitely an advantage. With that athletes also get their room and board paid for along with all the other amenities they receive, one possible being free medical care depending on the school and sport. This means that the student can save upwards of $120,000. In a study done by Gallup nearly all aspects of well-being, social, community, and physical well-being, former athletes who competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association were more likely to report they are “thriving” when it comes to health, relationships, community engagement, and job satisfaction, according to the report released today. Also, according to research done by the current U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, college athletes tend to have higher GPA's than the average college student. Being an athlete often requires more focus beyond the classroom. Having a higher GPA can mean better schooling and potentially better career choices. Along with that being an athlete requires a lot of socialization, communication skills, and team building; all traits that work well for a resume and into the real world. Employers recognize the accomplishments that young athletes have and often take that into account when considering one for a job. According to uoregon, in a survey of 100 CEOs, 94% had played sports and 100% said they would hire a student-athlete over a non-student athlete. Overall, these points explain why being a student-athlete is more beneficial for success in college.
It is more beneficial to be book smart than an athlete for success in college. Only 7% of high school athletes play their sport in college and less than 2% of high school students go to play their sport at NCAA Division I schools (“Varsity Odds 2020”). This shows that for the majority of high schoolers attending college, they need something else to help them be successful in college. Not everyone can rely on being an athlete in college for success because not everyone that is athletic and plays a sport can be successful in their sport in college. Let’s further on by defining the terms of our statement. When you think of someone who is ‘book smart,’ you probably think of some nerd or geek, but just because someone is ‘book smart’ does not automatically qualify them as a nerd or geek. A book-smart person is someone who learns well from books and an athlete is someone who is proficient in sports. In college, you spend lots of time in your classes learning about your major, studying for tests, and writing papers to get your degree. Being athletic will not help the majority of people be successful in college because you need to be academically intelligent as well to get your degree. According to Dr. College, being analytically intelligent is important in order to be able to effectively recall, organize, analyze, and evaluate presented information. ‘Book smart’ people are excited to learn and to learn their information well, beyond just memorizing it for a test or a project. It is important to understand the content from your major because it will be your livelihood for awhile, both during college and outside of college. According to Dr. College, people with more analytical intelligence have a bachelor’s degree and an unemployment rate of less than 3%. This unemployment rate is very low and the US should aim for this number to stay this low. According to NCAA.org, 80% of college athletes actually finish their degree and have a job when they graduate. While this is a successful statistic, there are still 20% of people who leave college without a degree that are athletes. This makes them successful in a sense in college, but they are going to experience possible debt and have to go back to college to get a degree for their success after college. This is important because you are going to eventually outgrow your athletic abilities and sport, but you will never outgrow your smarts or at least not until a later age. These athletes are successful, but they were also book smart or tried hard in school because their athletics did not get them to be where they are today or have the job they do. Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. Success in college is to aim to graduate with a college degree. Solely being an athlete will not help you achieve this goal because you are focusing more on your athletics than your academics. You must be book smart in order to achieve success in college and your life.
Round 2
Though being book smart is super important, no one said you can’t be an athlete and book smart. With athletics comes many valuable lessons and amazing resources in college you are set up for success . When breaking down an athlete's schedule in college it can look many different ways. For me personally, when talking to my coach about what the average schedule looks like for a D1 track athlete, he said it is normal for the athlete to have an early morning lift, morning classes, afternoon practice and then mandatory study hall. For the SIUE track team it is mandatory as a freshman to get 6 hours of study hall or tutoring a week. If you don’t scan in that 6 hours you aren’t allowed to compete. You mention that “being an athlete will not help you achieve this goal because you are focusing more on your athletics than your academics.” If that were true, why is there mandatory attendance at the study table and free tutors available? Or a standard grade you have to have to compete? Not only will athletics help you learn time management but it also teaches you hard work and dedication skills. You define Success as the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. So let's look at it this way, if its an accomplishment… then wouldn’t graduating college while being an athlete just as successful if not better than graduating without a sport? Success can be seen in so many different ways depending on who you are. For me personally is completing a goal while accomplishing all the different steps along the way to the best of your ability. You mention how 20% of athletes don't graduate college with a degree or a job. Angela Lumpkin, professor of health, sport and exercise sciences, and Rebecca Achen, doctoral candidate and graduate teaching assistant at KU, show that athletes had higher percentages of days of school attended, graduation rates, Kansas assessment scores, and lower dropout rates than non athletes. Not only do the athletes have to stay on top of their game but also their academics, with all their resources provided to them they are able to do that successfully. A Gallup study also showed that, Former athletes are also more likely than non athletes to have earned their bachelor’s degree in less than five years, which could be the result of the “external” motivation that academic eligibility requirements from the NCAA provide for athletes, Harlan said. Graduates who were athletes also reported a lower transfer rate than non-athletes, a metric that’s “interconnected” with on-time graduation (Gallup). So sure not everyone can play a sport in college but how does that make you any less successful? If you believe graduating college makes you successful, wouldn’t playing a sport while graduating be even more Successful all while giving you more connections with your peers, teachers, and community?
While there are many valuable lessons athletes learn that might not be taught to people who are book smart, there are many other lessons that people who are book smart learn. Some of these skills include learning self respect, the value of sharing and collaboration, and to focus on positivity while also receiving self-criticism (“Top Life Lessons that Children Learn at School”). These skills allow people to be academically successful and while some athletes are very successful, they must also go to school, practicing these skills, to actually be successful.
Discipline is a skill people who are book smart learn as well. They typically take harder classes, challenge themselves more academically, aim for valedictorian and various high awards. This requires a lot of time management and organization to balance your school coursework.
You mentioned that athletes have a better sense of financial security but people who are book smart can argue the same exact thing. There are far more academic scholarships than there are athletic scholarships. Also, some people are born with athletic abilities and others are born without. People who are book smart have to depend on that for getting scholarships going into college. This can give them a good sense of financial security because those scholarships can’t be taken away. If athletes get injured, your scholarship isn’t secured and could easily be taken away. Overall, your financial security is a lot better being book smart because your scholarships can only grow and could never be taken away.
For example, going into college with just an athletic scholarship is very risky. You are risking getting hurt and having all of that taken away. When your athletic scholarship gets taken away, what are you left with? Going into college with BOTH athletic scholarships and academic, or even just an academic scholarship, secures a lot of different things. If you are an athlete that gets hurt, you still have academic money and success behind you to keep you going through school. If you just depend on being an athlete, one wrong move and it's all taken away from you. Academics and being book smart will overall give you more success through college because you are never at risk of losing it.
Like some kids are born with athletic abilities and some are not, this is the same for some of the kids born with learning disabilities. They can not necessarily change this about themselves and these kids only have sports and athletics going for them. In order to get better at a sport, you practice to improve and your brain needs the same attention. If you are born with a learning disability, your brain can get stronger and better in the classroom, but with some extra practice to help you academically.
In college, not all students have to be athletes, but all athletes must be students. You can be book smart and not athletic to have success, but you can not be just athletic without also being book smart. For example, there are many students at our high school that are not school smart and rely on sports to give them a chance at succeeding in college. However, you will not be accepted into the college for sports if you do not meet the academic requirements. You are still required to submit your transcript, test scores, letters of recommendation, etc. In conclusion, in order to play a sport in college, students still need to get admitted into the school to even qualify for an athletic scholarship.
Discipline is a skill people who are book smart learn as well. They typically take harder classes, challenge themselves more academically, aim for valedictorian and various high awards. This requires a lot of time management and organization to balance your school coursework.
You mentioned that athletes have a better sense of financial security but people who are book smart can argue the same exact thing. There are far more academic scholarships than there are athletic scholarships. Also, some people are born with athletic abilities and others are born without. People who are book smart have to depend on that for getting scholarships going into college. This can give them a good sense of financial security because those scholarships can’t be taken away. If athletes get injured, your scholarship isn’t secured and could easily be taken away. Overall, your financial security is a lot better being book smart because your scholarships can only grow and could never be taken away.
For example, going into college with just an athletic scholarship is very risky. You are risking getting hurt and having all of that taken away. When your athletic scholarship gets taken away, what are you left with? Going into college with BOTH athletic scholarships and academic, or even just an academic scholarship, secures a lot of different things. If you are an athlete that gets hurt, you still have academic money and success behind you to keep you going through school. If you just depend on being an athlete, one wrong move and it's all taken away from you. Academics and being book smart will overall give you more success through college because you are never at risk of losing it.
Like some kids are born with athletic abilities and some are not, this is the same for some of the kids born with learning disabilities. They can not necessarily change this about themselves and these kids only have sports and athletics going for them. In order to get better at a sport, you practice to improve and your brain needs the same attention. If you are born with a learning disability, your brain can get stronger and better in the classroom, but with some extra practice to help you academically.
In college, not all students have to be athletes, but all athletes must be students. You can be book smart and not athletic to have success, but you can not be just athletic without also being book smart. For example, there are many students at our high school that are not school smart and rely on sports to give them a chance at succeeding in college. However, you will not be accepted into the college for sports if you do not meet the academic requirements. You are still required to submit your transcript, test scores, letters of recommendation, etc. In conclusion, in order to play a sport in college, students still need to get admitted into the school to even qualify for an athletic scholarship.
Round 3
Overall, being an athlete is more beneficial than being book smart for success in college. Athletes are taught many different valuable lessons in college that they will carry with them even after college is over. Two very important examples are discipline and commitment. As the affirmative side stated, an athlete needs to be excepted into the school before they can move forward in their athlete career. That is where discipline and commitment come into play. An athlete is committed to the sport therefore they have committed their time and effort to make sure they can continue to play the sport they love. This forces the athlete to not only focus on their sport but also their academics so they do not become ineligible.
With that being said the question we are trying to answer is “is it better to be an athlete in college rather than be book smart” and when it comes down to it yes. Being an athlete provides you with many opportunities and resources to use throughout your college experience that people who are just book smart don't have. Athletes are disciplined and motivated to do their work and studies, without that people who are just book smart will fall behind and lead to procrastination. You mention that only 7% of high school athletes play their sport in college and less than 2% of high school students go to play their sport at NCAA Division I schools (“Varsity Odds 2020”). So in the reality getting into a college sport is successful and have all of the tools to succeed laid out for you gives you an upper hand in being successful. In college, everyone has to be a student but not all are successful enough to be a student-athlete. You don't have to be a 4.0 valedictorian to be successful, in fact, the average GPA of a millionaire is 2.9. Success is determined by someone reaching their goals, and athletes are just 1 step ahead with the next step already there.
With that being said the question we are trying to answer is “is it better to be an athlete in college rather than be book smart” and when it comes down to it yes. Being an athlete provides you with many opportunities and resources to use throughout your college experience that people who are just book smart don't have. Athletes are disciplined and motivated to do their work and studies, without that people who are just book smart will fall behind and lead to procrastination. You mention that only 7% of high school athletes play their sport in college and less than 2% of high school students go to play their sport at NCAA Division I schools (“Varsity Odds 2020”). So in the reality getting into a college sport is successful and have all of the tools to succeed laid out for you gives you an upper hand in being successful. In college, everyone has to be a student but not all are successful enough to be a student-athlete. You don't have to be a 4.0 valedictorian to be successful, in fact, the average GPA of a millionaire is 2.9. Success is determined by someone reaching their goals, and athletes are just 1 step ahead with the next step already there.
After hearing and seeing what both sides have to touch on, we the affirmative side believe our statement is stronger. To conclude the affirmative side, I want to highlight a couple main points. First, injuries take athletes out and some schools even take away scholarships when this happens. If students depend on just an athletic scholarship, they are putting a lot at risk. Your academic scholarships can’t be taken away and this is why being book smart can give you overall more success. Along with this, people grow out of their athletic abilities. It isn’t something you can hide behind for the rest of your life, eventually you will need a degree and schooling to get you a job. As stated before according to NCAA.org, 80% of college athletes actually finish their degree and have a job when they graduate. While this is a successful statistic, there are still 20% of people who leave college without a degree that are athletes. This is important because you are going to eventually outgrow your athletic abilities and sport, but you will never outgrow your smarts or at least not until a later age. Finally to conclude, think about your aftermath of college. Once those 4 years of college athletics are over… What’s next? Having a degree and strong academics will get you farther in life in terms of success. Think about all of this next time an athlete tries to convince you they have a lot going for them. They need more than just athletic abilities to get them far in life. Not all students have to be athletes, but all athletes must be students.