To be able to play college sports, you're considered to be in a very elite group of kids that get the opportunity to keep playing. However the transition from high school and college is not easy at all especially if you're playing a sport. Regular students might have it a little bit easier then student athletes with all the time that regular students have on their hands. Student athletes have all the responsibilities as a regular student and more. With being student athletes you're held to a higher standard then regular students because you have to make sure you maintain a good GPA to keep playing and making the program look good as well. To make sure student athletes maintain good GPA's they have to have a certain amount of study hall hours per week they must attend ("NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA." NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. Web. 15 Apr. 2015). However regular students have all the time in the world on their hands that they really don't need study hall. If managed right regular students could complete their homework and still have extra time to do extracurricular activities.
Unlike student athletes most regular students don't endure the stress that student athletes have. Regular students are more likely to be less stressed because they are free to do more activities like take breaks from work to go hangout with friends or go participate in school activities without suffering the consequence of not getting their work done and they also have more days to themselves which also relieves stress. Meanwhile student athletes have long and tiring days, five days out of the week and sometimes six. Even on that off day, which is usually a Sunday, they have to attend study hall or some events pertaining to the program. Depending on which sport you play in college will determine your daily schedule. For example, if the student athlete is playing basketball they can have cardio workouts in the morning, class after and during that class time they have to fit in times to eat.