Is Honor Courses and SB too much for freshman?

[Cannonball]

PEPPERS, it is critical to your child's success in college that you and your child develop a good relationship with her academic advisor. My dd is a freshman. They have an athletic/academic advisor and I'm sure your daughter will as well. We (parents) have met with this gentleman a couple of times, and email him on a regular basis. Our advisor is a professional who knows his stuff. He also gets to know the athletes and so, along your journey, you should be able to contact your dd's advisor anytime and know where she stands academically. (Note, you will have to sign a waiver when you register your child in order to get any information on your child. Otherwise, privacy laws will hinder your attempts to keep up with your child's progress.) An example of my wife and I working with our dd's advisor was an email we sent this week. We asked her advisor if he could look up some summer school options at our local JUCO that are transferable to her school next fall. DD's advisor replied that he would have a half dozen options outlined for her when they meet to plan for fall classes. I wish everyone had this type of experience. As parents, it sure takes a load off our mind knowing that several people are involved in helping our child along the way.

 

[PEPPERS]

Daughter wants to be a veterinarian, has been an A student all her life, has the Governor Frank Harris Scholarship which pays the entire tuition in Georgia. Her HS is second in Georgia in academic scores, and she is 4th in the school in her academics this year. She has always played sports and taken honors classes sense HS, but the travel missing class and being a freshman, guess I’m concerned it maybe a little too much.

My ideal was for her to begin slow, kind of get her feet wet, and then go on to Honors Classes later. The letter daughter received advised that additional scholarship money is available for being in honors classes, looks better on a resume, and would be beneficial to transferring to a school of special studies such as a medical/vet school.

It is up to her.

Cannonball

As parents, it sure takes a load off our mind knowing that several people are involved in helping our child along the way.

So true!!!!

 

[Bouldersdad]

PEPPERS, it is critical to your child's success in college that you and your child develop a good relationship with her academic advisor. My dd is a freshman. They have an athletic/academic advisor and I'm sure your daughter will as well. We (parents) have met with this gentleman a couple of times, and email him on a regular basis. Our advisor is a professional who knows his stuff. He also gets to know the athletes and so, along your journey, you should be able to contact your dd's advisor anytime and know where she stands academically. (Note, you will have to sign a waiver when you register your child in order to get any information on your child. Otherwise, privacy laws will hinder your attempts to keep up with your child's progress.) An example of my wife and I working with our dd's advisor was an email we sent this week. We asked her advisor if he could look up some summer school options at our local JUCO that are transferable to her school next fall. DD's advisor replied that he would have a half dozen options outlined for her when they meet to plan for fall classes. I wish everyone had this type of experience. As parents, it sure takes a load off our mind knowing that several people are involved in helping our child along the way.

That was one of the things I liked about the university the dd chose, her classes had to be approved by the athletic counsler before going any further. They tweaked it to fit her practices and fall games and then again for the spring travel out west. They defiantly earn their pay.

Tim

 

[fastpitch91]

Contrary Opinion here. College is about getting an education. Softball is about having fun playing a game you love. yes some get some money for it but most would find a way to go to college and get it paid for even without softball. And guess what, you get injured and the softball money is gone.

Softball ends in 4 years and very very few can earn a living with softball after college.

Choose the courses and major and everything else academic to maximize your education. Yes it is a good idea to plan a heavier schedule in fall than in spring. College is a time to explore and expand. Something a lot of softball players have missed as they have focused on making it to the college game. Life goes on for decades after softball.

 

[PA SB Dad]

Peppers, what division will she be playing? Any idea what the athletic schedule will be like compared to the academic load? What do the current players do in terms of an academic load and how successful have they been? Just how serious is she about vet school?

I ask these questions because becoming a vet is not something you dabble in and wait until your junior year to make a decision. Vet school admissions is EXTREMELY competitive - much more difficult to get in to than medical school, and your DD's entire academic record is important, not just sophomore and junior year. The students she will be competing with to get in to vet school will all be taking honors courses, will all be getting very good grades, and many will have other collegiate activities such as athletics on their records. JUCO classes will NOT cut it in terms of what professional schools look for. You are talking about the very best students in the country going to vet school. many who have had the dream of doing so longer than your DD has probably had the dream of playing softball in college. If this is where her passion is, then softball may not necessarily be a good fit, especially if she is not at an academic powerhouse like Emory that has academic prestige to help her.

 

[PEPPERS]

Thanks everyone for the responses, I pasted and copied out the responses and gave to my daughter to read. She decided to sign up for the honors classes and will confirm her decision at orientation in June.

You will never know how much your responses were appreciated and how much you helped her make the correct decision. She and I know her future is in the classroom and not the ball field.