School and skating

[megsy]

Out of interest, how many world class skaters have managed to balance skating and College successfully?

The number of skaters that have managed skating and full time high school are few enough (Hughes sisters, Mirai, Caroline, Ashley...), but the only ones that strike me as having done College successfully are Meryl Davis and Charlie White? One could argue that Emily Hughes is, but she is definitely not the skater she was last year, whereas Meryl and Charlie are still very competitive and actually improving, while handling more academic work.

I was watching a piece of fluff on them and going to Michigan (http://youtube.com/watch?v=W99zCbKiR_0) and it really struck me how remarkable it was - full time College is nothing like online College/part time College that others do, and they seem very involved in College life with Meryl a member of a sorority. So props to them!

Anyone else?

Thanks for answering my curiosity!

 

[heyang]

Paul Wylie attended Harvard while he was skating. He graduated just prior to the 92 Olympics.

Matt Savoie also attended college fulltime. I think he went to the University of Illinois - Urbana. He was planning on going for his master's degree in urban planning.

I can't remember which, but either Kristi Y or Nancy K got their associate's degree while skating.

Debi Thomas was attending undergrad as pre-med at Stamford and a member of a sorority when she won her World title and when she skated at the Oly's.

Michelle Kwan attended UCLA while skating. I think she might have been full time her freshman year and lived in the dorm, but then switched to part time and living off campus. I assume that the demands of training AND contractual obligations limited her to part-time college.

 

[all that]

I thought I heard that Meryl and Charlie attend part-time?

 

[acraven]

Yes, I believe Davis and White started out taking just two classes each this year, but Davis ended up having to drop one of hers because the timing conflicted with practice.

Quite a lot of skaters have been serious college students, but I don't know how many top-level American competitors have managed keep up their skating skills and finish college in 4 years; I suspect not very many.

 

[all that]

I believe Tessa Virtue is attending college part-time this year as well.

 

[attyfan]

I recall hearing Paul Wylie talk about college (when Michelle was going to UCLA). He said that it was much easier to combine college and a high-level skating career in Debi Thomas's time (and to a lesser extent, during his eligible career) because the skating load was much lighter -- there was no GP series until '96, no cheesefests, and, tours were much less important to Oly eligible skaters because they couldn't get paid anyway.

Alissa C and Ryan B are also attending college while maintaining their skating careers.

 

[mskater93]

Derrick Delmore also did it (full time at a prestigious university across the nation from his coach).

Savoie did his undergrad at Bradley University in Peoria and his Masters at U of I @ Chambana.

Czisny is taking a full load at BGSU but I believe 2 of her classes are on-line.

 

[KeineZeite]

The number of skaters that have managed skating and full time high school are few enough (Hughes sisters, Mirai, Caroline, Ashley...), but the only ones that strike me as having done College successfully are Meryl Davis and Charlie White? One could argue that Emily Hughes is, but she is definitely not the skater she was last year, whereas Meryl and Charlie are still very competitive and actually improving, while handling more academic work.

I do not know about the academic life in colleges in relation with the skating results, but I believe US skaters have the great edges when it comes to the well established web-high school system.

I have heard that a lot of top skaters have enjoyed the advantages of Web-school since they can concentrate on skating and have flexible time-tables while they can study a lot when there are no competitions.
MK has made a history and become a role model in this aspect. Maybe, that's why so many elite female skaters relish a challenge to balance an academic carrier and a school life.
Sorry, this is a bit off the topic, and does not exactly answer to your question.

 

[sillylionlove]

I believe that I read some where that Kimmie was taking classes at the University of Delaware and that she was taking some classes in person and other online.

 

[skatergirl45]

Yes, Kimmie is taking classes at UoD.

I am not about you all, but I have way more respect for skaters who go to high school/college while skating instead of just skating or being home schooled...........

 

[attyfan]

...

I am not about you all, but I have way more respect for skaters who go to high school/college while skating instead of just skating or being home schooled...........

I doubt that skaters have much of a choice about home schooling -- simply because the decision about home schooling vs. high school would be made at an age where the parents are legally obliged to make those kind of decisions.

When skaters get older, they really have to make a choice. So far, there hasn't been a US skater able to maintain consistently a medal-worthy caliber of skating and a regular college career at the same time -- Paul Wylie got his Oly medal after he graduated, and he didn't get a lot of international medals prior to that one; Kwan had to drop college courses to maintain her medal streak.

Maybe, on-line courses will change that -- such courses are still relatively new..

 

[conga]

Very, very few skaters at the elite level are or have ever been full-time college students. Every time I have been impressed with a bio listing a university, I have later found out that the skater is taking one or two courses per semester. Full-time is 12-15 credit hours and we would be hard-pressed to find many skaters with that kind of school schedule training and competing successfully at the national, international and world levels.

I'm not sure about Derrick Delmore. Did he actually attend full-time or is it that he finished his degree over a longer period? It's still quite an accomplishement. IMO, it's Matt Savoie who should have received a special award because he not only maintained full-time status, he also trained in a town and at a facility that was far from the type of center that breeds champions.

If the US wants to promote continuation of education in addition to medal winning performances, maybe there should be another level of the academic team. Right now there is a reward for high school age students, but no recognition of those who go beyond. Maybe it's because the skaters who do try to balance both a full-time training schedule with a full-time college schedule end up without those all-important medals?:frown2:

 

[megsy]

Very much agree - I am so impressed by skaters who attend top universities and manage to skate - either is a huge commitment on its own! (Full time credit hours may be around 15 hours, but the weekly workload adds up to a good 40-60 hours at a top College)

And in today's society, where in many jobs the norm is often a College degree, choosing skating over going to College is a big sacrifice.

I doubt that skaters have much of a choice about home schooling -- simply because the decision about home schooling vs. high school would be made at an age where the parents are legally obliged to make those kind of decisions.

I think this is true to an extent, but the parents definitely consult the children and I think the skaters often try out going to high school and skating, and then admitting defeat - I remember pieces on Bebe and Caroline to this effect. Unless they started off being homeschooled, but I think most kids prefer to be in a normal school.

Maybe, on-line courses will change that -- such courses are still relatively new..

The problem with online courses is that most of the more academic universities refuse to teach courses using them - if the same calibre of teaching was available online, then there would be little point employing the world class academics to give the value added teaching to their students. There would be no point going to College - we could rush through degress via the internet in the comfort of our homes. Hence, although online classes are a good idea, they're much more of a compromise than an ideal solution since the benefits of a real College education certainly don't translate.

As I see it, the only methods that are successful for a top College education combined with a world class skating career seem to be either:

- Winning everything before College age a la Sarah Hughes (!!! Not impossible, and you can certainly try Mirai, Rachael and Caroline seem to be on track for this and all are 4.0/AP type students)
- Taking a sabbatical year / lengthening out College into 5 or 6 years to compete.

Although - all the Japanese skaters seem to have College degrees. Does anyone know if they attended full time?

From Wiki:

- Shizuka enrolled at Waseda University in March 2000, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in social sciences in 2004, while still competing in competition. She won her world championship title days after completing her graduation examinations at Waseda.
- Yukari is apparently doing a Masters..!
- Nana Takeda is also at Waseda.

IMHO, their skating is just so incredibly more impressive once we take this into account

 

[gkelly]

I think Tonia Kwiatkowski got her degree in 5 years while competing internationally. Her results were better after she graduated, for the most part.

 

[Tinymavy15]

Alissa Cizny has been attending college full-time for the past few year, maintaining a 4.0 avarage. I do not know if you could argue that her skating has not been all that sucessful, but she has won a GP event, medaled at another, made the world team... a lot more than many skaters who do not attend school.

 

[feraina]

Well, in the vein of skaters who put up a valiant fight to balance full-time college and competitive skating but then eventually admitting defeat -- Kimmie has just moved to Florida to train with Richard Callaghan, and putting on hold her college education. See the other thread that I just started with reference.

I think this is probably a right move for Kimmie's skating career. While I feel great admiration/respect for skaters who try to juggle skating and college, I do feel like skating is something you can only do when you're young, while college is something you can always come back to a few years later. For the development of an elite skater, training around the age of 18-19 is critical for developing their full potential. While there have been some examples of skaters who managed to compete internationally and get their degrees, we'll never know whether they wouldn't have done even better competitively if they had focused on skating more intensely, and moved on to focus on their education later on.

When I was younger (college-age) and being an academically competitive over-achiever (as many of these young skaters also seem to be), I certainly felt like college was something that couldn't wait. It was a part of "normal" personal development, and I felt like I had to finish college at the same age as everyone else, preferably earlier. But now that I am older and looking back on those years, while I certainly enjoyed my college years (and had no other serious interests that could've competed for that commitment), I do feel like that it would've been no big deal if I did take a year or two off as a break.

In Great Britain, it is extremely common for young people to take a year off before university, known as the "gap year", to go traveling, do charity work, take on a fun job like being an outdoors instructor/trainer or English teacher in some exotic part of the world, or pursue various other interests. Once you accept "gap year" as a perfectly normal and even desirable concept, then taking a two-year break or even three-year break to focus on a competitive skating career doesn't seem so strange either.

 

[conga]

Alissa Cizny has been attending college full-time for the past few year, maintaining a 4.0 avarage. I do not know if you could argue that her skating has not been all that sucessful, but she has won a GP event, medaled at another, made the world team... a lot more than many skaters who do not attend school.

How is she doing that? She lists Bowling Green (Ohio) as her university, but trains in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Is she taking 12+ hours online?