Student Athletics and Academic Success


By: Brendan Hughes
Stonehill College News Blog Staff
EASTON, MA - For many years, there has been a debate on whether athletics positively or negatively affect a student’s academic performance. It depends on the individual whether sports help or hurt college academic success, a recent report said.
The Senior Associate Director of Athletics at Stonehill College, Cindy MacDonald, has been working with student-athletes now for more than two decades.
MacDonald started her career at Stonehill College as the head athletic trainer and later moved to more administrative roles to reach her current position.
In terms of the debate, MacDonald believes that athletics help students to be more successful in the classroom, even though they may lead to a busier schedule.
“I 100 percent believe that athletics have positive impacts on a student-athletes’ academics. Student-athletes often do better in season, even when the demands are higher,” she said.
MacDonald mentioned that this is mainly due to great time management skills that many student-athletes develop during their time at school.
“I have been doing senior exit interviews here at Stonehill College for almost two decades now, and when I do them I ask each senior about the main attribute that they have garnered from their time as a student-athlete. Time management, if I have to say one thing, is an attribute that many of them bring up in their interviews,” she said.
Although she mentioned that athletics have positive impacts on a student-athletes’ academics, she explained why athletics may also negatively affect academics.
“Obviously, stress might be an added component for student-athletes due to extremely busy schedules. The other thing is, mainly in a student-athlete’s freshmen year is that the transition is tough in academics alone, and with a busy athletic schedule on top of that, it isn’t always easy for a student-athlete,” she said.
Aside from Cindy MacDonald’s opinions, numerous studies have contributed to the topic as well.
In a study titled, A Comparison of Athletes and Non-Athletes at Highly Selective Colleges: Academic Performance and Personal Development, written by Elizabeth Aries, Danielle McCarthy, Peter Salovey, and Mahzarin Banaji in 2004, the topic is broken down with extensive research.
The study took place over four years, and mainly featured students from liberal arts colleges and Ivy League universities.
Within the case, it starts by mentioning the positive effect that athletics have on a student-athletes’ academics.
Students who participated in organized sports reported that they felt better, got along better with their peers, became better leaders, and were more committed to their academics,” said the authors.
The study went on to explain that athletics give many student-athletes opportunities to enroll at some of the country’s top colleges.
“Recruited athletes are often given an admissions advantage, entering college with less impressive academic records,” said the authors.
However, the study, just like MacDonald, explained why athletics may also negatively affect a student-athlete’s academic performance.
“According to some researchers, the time demands of athletic programs force student-athletes to sacrifice attention to academics, making it difficult for them to devote time to study and earn good grades. Greater commitment to the athletic role and less to academics is associated with lower grade point averages in college,” said the authors.
Most importantly, student-athletes have added their opinions on the subject, backed by their everyday experiences with athletics and academics.
Daniel Pereira, a senior at Stonehill College, has been a member of the men’s varsity soccer team now for four years. He is majoring in accounting, a major that features a heavy workload.
In terms of Pereira’s experience as a student-athlete, he has balanced sports and academics well but said it was difficult at first.
“Freshmen year I definitely had to adjust to the college workload as well as a busy soccer schedule, but it didn’t take me much time to figure it all out,” said Pereira.
Throughout his time in college, he has maintained a grade point average that many student-athletes, and even regular students, would kill for. At this point, he has a grade point average of 3.83 out of a 4.0.
“I know for some kids, school and sports together is a hard task. You have to dedicate a lot of your time to both to be successful, and I have been able to thus far,” said Pereira.
“Playing a sport in college may have even helped me, as I am always aware of when I must have assignments done. I cannot waste time when I am in season, so I have learned to become very organized with my course work,” said Pereira.
Evidently, Pereira does well in the classroom, but he also excels on the soccer field. Pereira has been a starter on the soccer team now for about three years, playing in most of every game.
Pereira was even a finalist for the Stonehill College Breakout sophomore of the year award in 2017, which is given to one male athlete and one female athlete at Stonehill College’s annual athletic award ceremony.
Pereira is one of 460,000 NCAA student-athletes, and he does not represent an average one. The average GPA of a student-athlete is a 2.379, so in terms of the debate, it comes down to each student-athlete and how successful they want to be in both sports and school.


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