Are Kalamazoo College Student-Athletes Missing the Goal?

A recent study was conducted regarding the effects that playing a sport can have on the GPA’s of student-athletes at Kalamazoo College. Evidence was found to support the theory that student-athletes have the ability to be overwhelmed at times. The study was conducted to determine what student-athletes spend their time doing, compared to regular students, when not playing their respective sports. The goal was to enlighten student-athletes on what should be done to ensure that they are practicing effective time management, which can result in maintaining a high-performance during athletics and improving results in the classroom.
During the study, a sample of 101 students was taken from the Kalamazoo College population. Of that sample size, 62 of the participants were student-athletes while the remaining 39 of the participants were regular students. There was a 93% response rate for student-athletes and a 75% response rate for regular students. The survey consisted of questions that attempted to analyze how student’s spent their time, how they rated their academic performance and effort, and (for athlete’s) their effort and performance athletically.
According to the results, student-athletes and regular students have a very similar amount of free-time and each group exemplifies an equal amount of effort in the classroom. However, there was proven to be an inverse correlation in regards to study time and overall GPA. According to results, student-athletes spent more time studying than regular students, but their GPA did not reflect their time spent. The overall GPA of student-athletes was 3.27, and the overall GPA of regular students was 3.49.
The overall conclusion of the study provides the idea that student-athletes may have too much on their plate. Although, student-athletes may have a relatively equal amount of study-time compared to their peers, it doesn’t express the mental and physical strain that accompanies playing a collegiate sport. Student-athletes are not missing the mark by much, but they can modify this statistic if they sacrifice some of their free-time and exchange it for study-time. Student-athletes have occasionally been placed under the negative stereotype of not applying themselves in the classroom. This study shows that student-athletes are still working hard, and can be exceptional if time-management is a priority.