Being a college athlete provides a unique undergraduate experience, but does it influence outcomes and perspectives during and post graduation? Gallup, Inc., an American analytics and advisory company based out of Washington D.C., performed a study titled “A Study of NCAA Student-Athletes: Undergraduate Experiences and Post-College Outcomes,” which aimed to provide an answer as to whether or not athletes had different experiences and outcomes than non-athletes. The study, conducted on behalf of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), was based on surveys of a nationally representative sample of 74,385 U.S. adults who graduated between 1975 and 2019 with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The survey included ten questions to measure the respondent’s wellbeing across five separate elements:
Purpose — Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
Social — Having a strong and supportive relationships and love in your life
Financial — Effectively managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
Community — The sense of engagement you have in areas where you live, liking where you live and feeling safe and having pride in your community
Physical — Having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
These categories were used to measure respondent’s ability to “thrive in key elements of the human experience,” as reported by PR Newswire, in their post-collegiate lives.
The study found that former student-athletes were thriving at greater rates than non-athletes, by a 5-10% spread, in all categories except financial wellbeing, in which student-athletes mirrored their counterparts, with a 1% difference. These results were found to be consistent across a spread of factors, such as demographics, NCAA division, graduation era, gender, and race and ethnicity. Beyond general wellbeing, student-athletes were more likely to pursue higher education: while the study found that 39% of student athletes went on to pursue higher education, only 32% of non-athletes did. All other factors held constant, a logistic regression found that NCAA student-athletes were 1.3 times more likely to earn a postgraduate degree than their counterparts.
Student-athletes were also found to benefit from high-quality student experiences. While 35% of NCAA student-athletes strongly agreed their professors cared about them as a person, only 28% of non-athletes said the same. Student-athletes were also more likely to strongly agree they had a mentor in college who encouraged them to pursue their goals, coming in at 27% as compared to 23% of non-athletes. Immediate career outcomes were similar in number, as 33% of student-athletes had a job lined up after graduation, as compared to 30% of non-athletes. However, this metric was much more significant for first-generation college students, in which 36% of first-gen student-athletes had a job lined up, as compared to 30% of their counterparts.
In terms of campus involvement, student-athletes were much more likely to have a leadership position in a club or organization, such as student government, Greek Life, or on an athletic team, totalling 55% as compared to the 31% of non-athletes. A much smaller number of student-athletes transferred colleges — only 22% rather than 38% of non-athletes. In addition, a significantly greater percentage of student-athletes donated to their alma mater within the last 12 months of the survey being taken: 28%, as contrasted with 17% of non-athletes.
What makes student-athletes so sought after? In an article for Forbes, President of Miami University of Ohio, Gregory P. Crawford points out a couple key factors. First and foremost, college athletics teach passion and perspective. Athletes learn there is more to life than their sport, and in turn gain a better understanding of time management, and a personal reflection of the “meaning of a thriving life, and how its different elements are synthesized for the good of the whole person” as according to Crawford. The personal responsibility and group engagement of athletics helps student-athletes build a distinctive attention to detail and resilience, which Crawford notes is “vital for success” in environments that are innovative and entrepreneurial in nature. The status and service student-athletes experience as working as a part of a team gives them a sense of servant leadership, gaining the empathy needed to be a good team player. In essence, the experiential learning that college sports offers provides a unique opportunity for athletes to build on their teamwork and leadership skills, which later prove key to their professional and personal success.
