If you join a college sport, how does it affect your schedule?

Hi Helen, it varies per person, but one thing you can do is get a planner or calendar. First write down your sports schedule. Then write down key due dates for assignments that you know of right now - for example, a math test or an English paper. Also write down any other obligations - church, a weekly dinner with a friend, driving your brother to baseball practice, etc. So what should be left now is free time. What I do then is, each week, I make a separate list of all of the homework I have (like reading for history class, homework in math, etc) and then try to plan based on my calendar when I can do each thing. So maybe math homework will take me an hour, and on a certain day I have an hour and a half right before dinner where I have some free time. So I'll plan to do my math homework then. Or maybe science is the hardest for me, so I will plan to get that out of the way first when I get home and have the most energy. Doing it this way helps me feel like I have more time, because I can see when I will have time to do everything. If you legitimately can't fit everything, that might be a sign to get rid of an activity. Also, remember that popular wisdom says that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so for whatever organizational plan you try, be patient if you forget to write something down at first - just stick with it and it will become routine.

It depends a bit on your school; for example, Division I athletics has much more in terms of off-season practices than Division III. In-season, however, you generally have one practice a day for ~2.5-3 hours, plus however long it takes you to travel to the field, get ready for practice, see the trainer, etc. You have one day off of sports a week - that's an NCAA rule. So 6 days a week, either with a practice or a game.

You will have to strategically plan your classes, but at most schools there is some flexibility on the part of either the class scheduling or your coaches' schedule for practice to help you balance both. Also, if you do join the team, the upperclassmen are a great resource for learning how to structure your time and class schedule.

If you have any more specific questions about scheduling, please let me know!