Flatt plans to skate through college | Golden Skate

Flatt plans to skate through college

R.D.

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Jul 26, 2003

silverlake22

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Nov 12, 2009
New Rachel article:

http://figureskatersonline.com/news/2010/01/07/rachael-flatt-to-skate-during-college/



Damn, best of luck to her. She'll quickly find out that it will NOT be easy...

Yeah, but if anyone can do it, I bet Rachael can. I mean, 4 AP courses while she's skating about 40 hours a week? She must have great time management skills.

Plus, in college, there is more freetime than in highschool. Usually you only have 2 or 3 classes a day meaning Rachael would have plenty of time to skate, unless she is still thinking science in which case she will be in labs for many hours.
 

R.D.

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Jul 26, 2003
Yeah, but if anyone can do it, I bet Rachael can. I mean, 4 AP courses while she's skating about 40 hours a week? She must have great time management skills....

True, but it's completely different once you're fully immersed in the college experience...

She could also choose to defer a year if she's serious about skating, or if the unforeseeable happens (e.g. she wins an Oly medal)
 

mandykane21

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Aug 17, 2003
What are the major skating clubs around the schools she applied to? Might be interesting to see what coach she might switch to.
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
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Dec 28, 2006
She didn't say she would continue competing and might pull and Emily, making a comeback in 2014 for the Olympic team. If she wanted to, though, certainly she could continue competing and going to college. She is handling herself fine now. Sure, she probably could not join a sorority and "go out" every night, but Racheal does not seem like that kind of girl anyway.

“I applied to the University of Denver, UCLA, Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins and Dartmouth,” Flatt said

Well obviously UCLA is close to Toyota Sports Center and the Culver City Rink, Dartmouth has one of the best collegiate skating programs in the country, Harvard has the Skating Club of Boston, Duke also has a good collegiate skating program I think. I am not really familiar with the others but she seems to have done her homework as far as training facilities are concerned.
 

mskater93

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Oct 22, 2005
Duke does NOT have a good collegiate skating program, but there are rinks nearby around NC and some good coaching available there.

Stanford is in CA and I am sure there is plenty of opportunity nearby...

Princeton has a good collegiate program

John's Hopkins is in MD - plenty of good rinks there/DE
 

silverlake22

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Nov 12, 2009
Duke does NOT have a good collegiate skating program, but there are rinks nearby around NC and some good coaching available there.

Stanford is in CA and I am sure there is plenty of opportunity nearby...

Princeton has a good collegiate program

John's Hopkins is in MD - plenty of good rinks there/DE

Harvard is near the Skating Club of Boston. I think that is a good facility because there are always a lot of skaters at nationals from there.
 

mskater93

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Oct 22, 2005
Harvard is near the Skating Club of Boston. I think that is a good facility because there are always a lot of skaters at nationals from there.

Yes - Tiny already mentioned that, which is why I covered the others (except the obvious U Denver) and corrected the Duke misnomer.
 

chuckm

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Aug 31, 2003
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Rachael actually said she plans on skating through her college year, but she didn't say she plans on competing the whole time. Two different things.

If she trains actively, she might be able to skate during her freshman year and see how it goes. If she at least remained in high-level training while in school, she could take a couple of years off before returning to competition the year before Sochi, then take a year off from college for 2014 (she will be only 21).

Good for her. She is so smart! If anyone can do it, she can.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Is Denver near Colorado Springs? I thought they were a couple hours apart

*Ahem* Colorado Springs is 69 miles due south of Denver. If Rachael measured the altitude of the North Star at midnight at Denver, she would find that it is about 39.5 degrees. Then she could make the same measurement at Colorado Springs: 38.5 degrees.

From this she could determine the circumference of the Earth. 69 miles corresponds to a difference in latitude of 1 degree, so the circumference of the whole Earth is 69 times 360 = 24,840 miles. :biggrin:
 

FlattFan

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Jan 4, 2010
Flatt probably should have applied to Williams. It's like Dartmouth, but with its own ice rink, just like Mao's university. The school has the highest athlete per capita in the world or something, so she'll blend right in. :)
 

Nadine

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Oct 3, 2003
Great article!:thumbsup:

My money has been on Rachael from day one, since last year, though I may have been a tad distracted during the GP looking for the ONE, lol.:biggrin: But I'm sticking to my guns, Rachael will be an Olympian!!!!

Regards combining both college & skating, she's the only one I see that can actually pull it off, not even my fav Sarah Hughes could do that. And I'm talking about elite skating, Worlds & Olympics, nothing else.

The reason I feel she can do both is because Rachael is a literal genius, smarter than even the Hughes girls IMHO, and that's saying a lot. I mean Rachael's parents are like nuclear physicists, right? Whatever, a nerd in the same vein as Bill Gates.:biggrin: And we all know how far that took him...

:love::love::love::love:GOOOOOOOOOO RACH!!!!!!!!!!:love::love::love::love:
 

FlattFan

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Jan 4, 2010
Her dad graduated from MIT. She's not applying there, though. Well, MIT doesn't give much wiggle room to legacy cases anyway. But she's Rachael Flatt. Her extra curricular activity sure beats all the other kids vying for the few hundred spots.

For someone her caliber, I think all the schools will take her, especially Stanford and Dartmouth. Columbia isn't atheletic (despite being in the league) Oops, didn't realize she did not apply to Columbia. She was really excited about the campus and its close knit community (top 3 schools during the fall college tour from her AT&T blog) and said something about insolated, but not isolated.

I'd totally give her GOE on her SAT for being so brilliant all the time. :rock:
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I am a total sucker for scholar athletes.

If she goes to Harvard, she'd be the latest in a long tradition of skaters at that college, including Dick Button and Paul Wylie. Emily Hughes too, right? Most skaters these days don't tend to finish college in four years if they keep skating, because training is so intense. But they get there in the end, and usually with distinction, as Dr. Debi Thomas did.

Wherever Flatt goes, she'll figure out how to do both skating and studying, though she may have to recalibrate from her original plan to Do It All in record time. She'll still do fine, in both pursuits I hope.
 

gfskater

On the Ice
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Jul 4, 2009
For more than two of my college years I worked full time and carried a full time load of about 21 credits (Electrical Engineering), calculus, physics, thermodynamics... My grades were their best then because my schedule was so rigid. I could not say I'll do that homework later. I had to do it now!
 

ankka

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Dec 29, 2009
I think combining sports and university is definitely possible. Kiira Korpi is one of the current skaters doing so (I know, she is not quite at the top of the world but still). I am a competitive ballroom dancer and our sport requires about the same amount of training as figure skating and even the top of the world usually get a degree in uni and then proceed to working life as only few dancers get sponsorships allowing them to concentrate only on dancing. But, as I mentioned, these dancers still keep on practising several hours a day (usually a couple of hours twice a day).

My point being, there should be no problem for Rachael to pull it off :)
 

Buttercup

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Mar 25, 2008
I think Flatt's ability to combine college and competitive skating will depend on what she's trying to get out of the experience. If she's looking to study and get her degree, she should have no problem even in a difficult major. Where I live, students usually take more courses per semester that in the US and still work, though not necessarily full time. But the hours needed are about the same as what Flatt would be putting in, except during events, and she does appear to have the ability and the time management skills needed.

If she's looking forward to a normal college experience (well, what's normal in the US, anyway ;)), with a fuller social life, parties, maybe a sorority etc., I'm not sure she'll be able to compete.

A lot of people combine university studies and skating, though it may mean taking longer to finish your degree. Looking at the most recent Universiade results, there are quite a few skaters who manage to combine the two, and I know of some who are even graduate students by now.
 

kiz_4Ever

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
I don't know how it works in US, but I think it's very difficult to combine college and work/high level sport. But I'm sure that if one could do this well, it's Flatt..

only, I hope she will stay in competition, I think she has still much to achieve and in the next four year she could become one of the top skaters..
 
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