School and skiing

It's a great big "It depends"

Lots of athletes have gone to school, and lots of athletes have skipped college to pursue skiing. Gotta consider proximity and access to the mountains, school-sponsored ski programs, academic ability, time management skills, financial standing, ski ability, etc. That answer varies on a case-by-case basis.

Ask yourself the question: how much is skiing important to you. Do you want to ski 30 days a year or 130 days?
Skiing is difficult with school. Time management is everything. I did a lot of night skiing while in college to keep the skill going.
I chose seasonal work; work all summer to get winter off. Life is about balance.

I know a dude (I never talked to him one on one my parents relayed this info on me when I was in a similar situation) who did only fall semesters and skied the rest of the season and it took him a long ass time to get just his associates, from what it sounds like though he’s glad he did it

Places like minnesota are really nice for the school year I can go to a hill 15 mins away and ski for 2ish hours 5 days a week

What is this 'ski career' you speak of? I skied a ton in college but only cause I become an instructor at my local hill. If I had a different job and had to actually pay for my skiing I probably would have only done a handful of days a season instead of 50+.

It all depends on what you go to school for as well, and how much you have to work to support yourself. You should also be realistic with yourself, if your best trick is a rodeo 5 and you're 25 years old then I hate to say it but skiing is just a hobby for you. I enjoy skiing now more than I ever have because I went to school, got a good career that I like and it's now not stressful to buy food and clothe myself.
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If you are just skiing to ski, and aren't doing what you can to make a real career out of it (which is a lot of work for not a lot of money) I would recommend sacrificing some ski time as an investment to set yourself up to ski comfortably and happily for years to come with a sustainable career.

Sorry for the run on sentences, it's morning here LOL

OP depending on location, comittment to skiing, and if you are working you can probably rack up 100+ days a season. I say committment because if you wanna do this you better believe you are not gonna be going to many partys haha. Also, like @Schoess mentioned you gotta be real with yourself about your ability and options. If you are good enough or believe in yourself that's awesome and you should pursue that. If you aren't, like me and many other people, you could set yourself up for an industry job. You may not be able to ski as much but working within the industry will help you to stay near skiing and allow your life to revolve around it for as long as you'd like. If you are only just now entering college you have a lot of time to get internships, figure out what you're good at/interested in within the industry and set yourself up for success...just my 2 cents.
Regardless of which of those two options you choose (or even neither) just don't lose your love for skiing and you can't go wrong
Edit: realized from your post that you might not be starting college but eitherway you could set yourself up for success. If you are competitvely skiing now you could possibly use those connections to find some form of employment?

**This post was edited on Aug 10th 2021 at 9:49:57am

Same situation here (except I'm not trying to make career out of skiing, just tryna ski as much as possible)

There's a few professionals (ski/snowboard) that take the second semester off every school year

Schedule all your classes in 2 days and ski 5 days a week

LazylightningOP depending on location, comittment to skiing, and if you are working you can probably rack up 100+ days a season. I say committment because if you wanna do this you better believe you are not gonna be going to many partys haha. Also, like @Schoess mentioned you gotta be real with yourself about your ability and options. If you are good enough or believe in yourself that's awesome and you should pursue that. If you aren't, like me and many other people, you could set yourself up for an industry job. You may not be able to ski as much but working within the industry will help you to stay near skiing and allow your life to revolve around it for as long as you'd like. If you are only just now entering college you have a lot of time to get internships, figure out what you're good at/interested in within the industry and set yourself up for success...just my 2 cents.
Regardless of which of those two options you choose (or even neither) just don't lose your love for skiing and you can't go wrong
Edit: realized from your post that you might not be starting college but eitherway you could set yourself up for success. If you are competitvely skiing now you could possibly use those connections to find some form of employment?

**This post was edited on Aug 10th 2021 at 9:49:57am

I ski competitively and managed to balance competitions through my first a second year of university, I was just curious of anyone else had done something similar. I know of a few Olympic athletes that have now graduated with Bachelors of things and what not but they just went through the uni thing at their own pace and managed (like Phil Marquis and I believe Tom Wallisch). I just wanted to know the opinions of someone that has done it or is currently doing it. Not planning on letting the dreams die.

This may not be relevant at all but you can def make both work at the same time you just need to pick the right school and location. I’m a prime example. I love to ski so much and I wanna get really good. Not to compete but just for myself cuz skiing is the best. But I knew I wanted to go to college this year cuz I j graduated hs. So I’m going to the u of Utah which is perfect because they have Woodward pc nightskiing. So that way I can get my school shit straight during the day and still ski later on. And then ofc on days where I don’t have too much or nothing to do I’ll ski pc. Just gotta find the right fit and you can definitely make it work

**This post was edited on Aug 11th 2021 at 3:26:05am

My bad haha, yea I have no advice for you you don't already know

Mahalo_shredsI ski competitively and managed to balance competitions through my first a second year of university, I was just curious of anyone else had done something similar. I know of a few Olympic athletes that have now graduated with Bachelors of things and what not but they just went through the uni thing at their own pace and managed (like Phil Marquis and I believe Tom Wallisch). I just wanted to know the opinions of someone that has done it or is currently doing it. Not planning on letting the dreams die.

@LamSobinsky

It can be tough to find the balance at first but one thing that for sure helps is expand your range of skiing. You won’t have time to hit the resort every day, but you’ll have a lot easier time going for a quick tour or maybe linking a handrail at night after work.

Damn I’m a little late to this, but here’s what I do to stay skiing as much as possible while going to school. First of all what kind of school you’re going to be doing is going to affect how much time you’ll be able to ski. Also if you’re trying to get school done as fast as you can it’s going to be a bit hard to get out with a full load of courses. Also if you’re doing in person courses it’s going to be a bit hard given that you’ll most likely have scheduled lectures throughout the week. Im doing full online courses at SLCC that don’t have any scheduled lectures. So the courses are essentially work at your own pace and turn shit in when it is due. What I do is I take a full load of courses in the fall. Fall semester ends basically right when skiing starts to become a thing out in Utah. For spring semester I only take 2 or 3 courses. This allowed me to ski around 6 days a week last season. If you’re motivated enough you could take summer classes to try to “catch up” so you’re not falling behind. Summer courses were pretty mellow and I still had time to do all the things I wanted this summer. Hope this helps.

You won't be killing the dream, but you will have to eventually sacrifice free-time and the things you love to do in order to get to wherever you want to go....A pro ski career sounds amazing, yes, but you're still super young and have a lot to live for besides skiing everyday.....and you can't ski everyday if you don't have money, its just a matter of fact. Nothing is a guarantee in life but find something worth studying, sell yourself and network your ass off, find good people to be around, and you'll be able to write your ticket to any place on earth near the skiing. And honestly, depending on where you are going to school, you'll be skiing with a school schedule way more than you think. A lot of people on NS and throughout the ski world, myself included, skied our balls off throughout school, some maybe a bit too much than others, but need not worry. You'll have snow under your feet more often than not.