D1 runners who majored in a difficult major like engineering, how did you manage your time?

Run, class, run, hw, repeat until the weekend. I didn't study friday afternoon but usually did for part of the day on saturday and sometimes sunday. Exceptions would be at away meets, I never studied unless I had no choice, like a project or assignment was due monday or tuesday and I wasn't done or finals coming up. After home meets or meets that weren't that far away, I'd study.

Usually I didn't go anywhere for spring break, just stayed at my off campus apartment and studied, thanksgiving I'd go home, but finals were close so I definitely was studying.

It comes down to you only have time to do anything fun other than run on the weekend, so you better like running. If there was no hw, assignments, tests coming up, and I was ahead on readings, I'd take a day off studying and hang out or do whatever.

No frats, no clubs, no extra hobbies. You better have picked a school where running is taken seriously and not a chump school like Miami or some xc only school because running is the only socialization you're getting on this lifestyle for weeks at a time.

I was an A student though, maybe a C student could slack a bit.

That sounds awful

Fr/So years:

M-Th - Class, Practice, Clean up/Eat/Nap, Study (until 11:00 pm), Hangout in dorm lounge (~1 hr), Sleep

F - Class, Practice, Clean up/Eat/Nap, Study (until 9:00 pm), Hangout w/friends/Parties, Sleep

Sa - Run, Clean up/Eat, Hangout with friends, Dinner, Hangout, Sleep

Su - Run, Clean up/Eat, Hangout or Study, Dinner, Study, Sleep

Jr+ years

M-Th - became must more diligent about using time between classes and spent less time studying in the evening and more time hanging out. I also spent ~2 hrs tutoring at the Athletic Dept study sessions on several nights each week.

F/Sa/Su - similar to Fr/So years

Meet days were obviously different from anything listed above. As a general rule, always submitted work ahead of missing class for meets, but communicated regularly with professors/TAs and asked for extensions ahead of time if that wasn't possible - most were accomodating. However, don't expect extensions.

As you found in high school, work flows vary so it wasn't always necessary to study late every night. In 5 years with 145 credits, I pulled one all-nighter and that was due to borrowing a friend's new MacIntosh (it was the 80s) to write a paper and not knowing "Draft" mode left out formatting present when the final copy was printed. I spent HOURS putting in spaces to get it to look right in draft mode before printing the final copy and realizing my error....

Michigan BSME

Running D1 and taking classes were the easiest years of my life and I did two majors, a minor, and a masters in 5 years.

easy wrote:

Running D1 and taking classes were the easiest years of my life and I did two majors, a minor, and a masters in 5 years.

Even easier than HS?

david45 wrote:

easy wrote:

Running D1 and taking classes were the easiest years of my life and I did two majors, a minor, and a masters in 5 years.

Even easier than HS?

In college, you don't have to ask permission to use the bathroom.

My major came easy to me perhaps because I was passionate about it and knew it would be my life. Running D1 is not very time consuming. I built up to 110-mile weeks, would knock out my morning run quite early well before class to beat most the heat and humidity (this is in the South) and then would have class until 3pm practice. Study and homework every night until bedtime and repeat every single day of the year. You need to build consistency. I never missed a single practice or meet in 4 years of college, nor did I miss a single class or test (that was not compromised by meets/race travel).

jHwo wrote:

My major came easy to me perhaps because I was passionate about it and knew it would be my life. Running D1 is not very time consuming. I built up to 110-mile weeks, would knock out my morning run quite early well before class to beat most the heat and humidity (this is in the South) and then would have class until 3pm practice. Study and homework every night until bedtime and repeat every single day of the year. You need to build consistency. I never missed a single practice or meet in 4 years of college, nor did I miss a single class or test (that was not compromised by meets/race travel).

What was your major?

The club team at UCLA will be too time consuming for you.

David's Mom wrote:

The club team at UCLA will be too time consuming for you.

Stop trolling. I am not even going to UCLA.

You are in big trouble if you quit already. You will be paying me for the down-payment. It has always been your dream school.

extreme time management and getting really good at prioritization. both skills have served me very well later in life, and the experience built up a reservoir of confidence (e.g. many moments when I've said "this can't possibly be as hard as college"). I still managed to have lots of fun and make lifelong friends.

electrical engineering / high level D1 program

Grant Fisher is the patron saint of this thread. I'd put up a picture and light a candle or something

That's pretty much what it took me as well. About six hours a night of sleep during the week. Between seasons I might hit the parties a little harder, and the after conference parties were always epic. If you're a runner, there is no need to waste money on a fraternity, as the track team is the best fraternity there is, with all of the hottest women in the school included if you are man enough to attract them. As an engineer you won't have as much free time as the arts and parties majors (or be able to dedicate as much time to training and sleeping properly), but you will do better financially than most down the road. My junior and senior seasons were absolutely brutal as some of the design classes would take 20+ hours a week alone (and you might get 1-2 credits for them) on top of 10 hours a week doing at an intership or doing undergrad research . It's not easy, but few things that are worth much ever are.

C student checking in. Mechanical engineering, program was ranked about 20th in the country, but much lower in running. It was super easy to manage my time, I just never studied, went fishing, went to parties, chased girls, played video games, etc.

Dont do that. It was stupid. Bother to study. I finally tried halfway through my junior year and got good grades after that. It was too late, though. Ended up with a 2.9 when if I had just tried from the start, I could have been in the mid 3s. I wasnt even a good runner, I was just another mediocre heat filler at a d1 school.

I'm not saying dont have fun at college, but have a bit less fun than I did.

Quite poorly, unfortunately, though it didn't hurt that I was on a chronic injury cycle through upperclassman years.

Doug Padilla graduated (eventually) with a degree in engineering. I think it was EE but not sure. He also ran pretty well in college too and even achieved All-American status a number of times.