Odds of becoming a professional athlete:
"The NCAA has compiled statistics on the number of high school athletes who continue their sport participation at the intercollegiate and professional levels. The data covers men’s and women’s basketball, football, baseball, ice hockey, and men’s soccer. These are team sports that have well-established professional leagues in the United States.
"Basketball and football, the most visible of high school and college sports, have a very low percentage of athletes who play in high school and then eventually move up to the professional ranks. In men’s basketball, for example, there is only a .03% chance of a pro career. This means that of the almost 156,000 male, high school senior basketball players only 44 will be drafted to play in the NBA after college, and only 32 women (.02%) out of just over 127,000 female, high school senior players will eventually be drafted. In football the odds are slightly better, with .08% or 250 of just over 317,000 high school senior players being drafted.
"The sport with the most professional opportunities is baseball, with high school players having a .4% chance of playing professionally."
"Basketball and football, the most visible of high school and college sports, have a very low percentage of athletes who play in high school and then eventually move up to the professional ranks. In men’s basketball, for example, there is only a .03% chance of a pro career. This means that of the almost 156,000 male, high school senior basketball players only 44 will be drafted to play in the NBA after college, and only 32 women (.02%) out of just over 127,000 female, high school senior players will eventually be drafted. In football the odds are slightly better, with .08% or 250 of just over 317,000 high school senior players being drafted.
"The sport with the most professional opportunities is baseball, with high school players having a .4% chance of playing professionally."
I know part of our choices are psychological: "Understanding How Women’s and Minorities’ Perceptions of Scientists Influence Students’ Choice of Major," a Masters Thesis by Amy R. Ryder-Burge give an excellent example of a similar results to the "Barbie Doll" preference test when subjects were asked to "draw a scientist." Most results generated European-background males.
The Pew Research Center reports a record income gap between white Americans and minorities.
I submit we could close that gap...through science, technology, engineering, and math.
It takes discipline to be a scientist. It takes discipline to be an engineer.
No one becomes a professional athlete without putting in "sweat equity," thousands of hours, hits, drills and shots until the act is effortless, second-nature. In martial arts, it's called Mushin, or "no mind."
To recognize your errors in equations, electric circuits or programming languages takes a certain "sweat equity," hundreds of problems practiced over-and-over until problem-solving and attaining solutions become...second nature.
Any NBA/NFL/NHL/MLB star is an injury away from lack of job security. If you watch the professional drafts, think on this: the 30-odd people "picked" each year are replacing the same number of persons leaving, many involuntarily.
I'm betting...STEM has a wealthier future, and better odds!
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