As we all know there are many levels of every competitive athletic program. From competing at the YMCA, high school, college and professionally they are all so similar yet different. In this post I am going to discuss the differences between a D1 track athlete and a D2 athlete.
I interviewed a junior in college at Kent University, Division 1, to get some insight of what it is like. Here are some details I got…..
- The balance of school, family, friends, athletics is crazy
- 20+ hours of training and workouts a week
- Free Merchandise
- More responsibilities
- Always on campus
- Top notch facility
- 20k average cost without scholarship
- Class sizes of 200
I also interviewed a junior who attends Malone University, Division 2, to see what they thought about their athletics
- Balance of school, family, friends and athletics is not much harder than in high school
- 10-15 hours of training
- Select given merchandise
- Held responsible for a lot but coach babies them
- Goes home often
- Promises of a new facility, current is out dated
- 40k average cost without scholarship
- Class sizes of 20
As we can see even with just a simple 35 min drive to a different campus the level of what athletes are given completely different things. The private D2 school pays way more and is given way less in return; While the D1 athlete gets everything handed to them for cheaper but they have to work for it.
Athletics are such a major part of schooling anymore, this is why athletes take picking out a college so seriously because it is where they will be growing their careers for the next 4+ years of their life.
Making a College Athlete 