Are sporting events free for graduate students?

[neuropsych76]

So, I'm a pretty big baseball/football fan but only at the professional level.

I realized that the grad school I will most likely be attending has very sucessful division 1 baseball and football teams. I've never been to a college sports game in my life (i got to a very small liberal arts school) so i'd like to go to a couple games if i had time.

I've been searching my potential schools website and I can't find any explicit prices for tickets and google isn't helpful either. Are tickets free for grad students? I'm guessing it varies but is this the norm?

[anthropologygeek]

Whatever they do for undergrads is what they will do for you. Your just need a student ticket and grad student get priority like 4th year undergrads.

[timuralp]

Depends on the school. My particular institution treats grad students on par with freshmen, i.e. 0 credit hours logged at the school. As such, the seating is pretty bad. The football and basketball games cost money (football around $45/game or $250/season) and basketball is $25/game. Other games, due to low attendance, are frequently free, like women's basketball, volleyball, etc. It'll depend on the school and the particular sport. I'm sure you'll find out more from the school once you're there.

[rising_star]

So, I'm a pretty big baseball/football fan but only at the professional level.

I realized that the grad school I will most likely be attending has very sucessful division 1 baseball and football teams. I've never been to a college sports game in my life (i got to a very small liberal arts school) so i'd like to go to a couple games if i had time.

I've been searching my potential schools website and I can't find any explicit prices for tickets and google isn't helpful either. Are tickets free for grad students? I'm guessing it varies but is this the norm?

Tickets aren't free for anyone, at least not for the major sports at any major university. You might be able to get free tickets if you go to an Ivy or something like that.

Depends on the school. My particular institution treats grad students on par with freshmen, i.e. 0 credit hours logged at the school. As such, the seating is pretty bad. The football and basketball games cost money (football around $45/game or $250/season) and basketball is $25/game. Other games, due to low attendance, are frequently free, like women's basketball, volleyball, etc. It'll depend on the school and the particular sport. I'm sure you'll find out more from the school once you're there.

This sounds a bit like my MA institution. There, football tickets were done via lottery with slots assigned based on the number of credit hours successfully completed. As first year grad students, we were able to get home game split packages (so half the home games) at a price of like $6/game plus a processing fee. My second year there, we got full home game packages. You needed something like 90+ credit hours to be eligible for away game tickets, so maybe at the end of your PhD you could get into those lotteries. Then, you had to go stand in line to get your actual tickets, which were assigned seats in the stadium. One person could go with up to 4 ID cards, which also guaranteed that you'd have seats with your friends. As for prices, this is what I remember (keep in mind these are 2007-2008 prices): $2/meet for women's gymnastics; $8/game for football; $2/4 game for men's basketball. Women's basketball was free. I don't remember about baseball but it was either $2 or $5. These prices reflect the relative popularity of each sport.

As a counterpoint, my PhD university provides a set rate for student entrance to all athletics, but then an extra $50 or so to add men's basketball on to that. For football, there are 10,000 student seats, so it's definitely possible to have the student athletics thingy and not be able to get in. For basketball, you have to wait in line like 2 days before the game to get tickets or something. I'm a little unclear on all of that because I've never done it and neither has any of the grad students I know.

The best thing to do would be to find the athletics website for wherever you're going and look up the student ticket prices.

[timuralp]

This sounds a bit like my MA institution. There, football tickets were done via lottery with slots assigned based on the number of credit hours successfully completed. As first year grad students, we were able to get home game split packages (so half the home games) at a price of like $6/game plus a processing fee. My second year there, we got full home game packages. You needed something like 90+ credit hours to be eligible for away game tickets, so maybe at the end of your PhD you could get into those lotteries. Then, you had to go stand in line to get your actual tickets, which were assigned seats in the stadium. One person could go with up to 4 ID cards, which also guaranteed that you'd have seats with your friends. As for prices, this is what I remember (keep in mind these are 2007-2008 prices): $2/meet for women's gymnastics; $8/game for football; $2/4 game for men's basketball. Women's basketball was free. I don't remember about baseball but it was either $2 or $5. These prices reflect the relative popularity of each sport.

As a counterpoint, my PhD university provides a set rate for student entrance to all athletics, but then an extra $50 or so to add men's basketball on to that. For football, there are 10,000 student seats, so it's definitely possible to have the student athletics thingy and not be able to get in. For basketball, you have to wait in line like 2 days before the game to get tickets or something. I'm a little unclear on all of that because I've never done it and neither has any of the grad students I know.

The best thing to do would be to find the athletics website for wherever you're going and look up the student ticket prices.

That's even more draconian than what's going on here! We have group packages (so you can sit with your friends) and most students who care enough buy the season packages. The package is then sent out over the summer and you get all the tickets for the season in one go, without having to go to the ticket office. So at least that part is pretty good. Mind you, this is all football because that's the only experience I've had so far. Also, craigslist becomes littered with people selling (and sometimes scalping) their tickets the week before the game, so it's definitely possibly to get tickets even without the season package. The other thing that sucks is that the group seating assignment is done by the lowest credit hours in the group, so we can't get better seats by including an undergrad in the group

[michpc]

Ask your school...they certainly weren't free at my undergrad! however, they were cheaper for students and there were generally priority student seating areas. I think season passes were also quite reasonable.

[neuropsychosocial]

I've been searching my potential schools website and I can't find any explicit prices for tickets and google isn't helpful either. Are tickets free for grad students? I'm guessing it varies but is this the norm?

If you go to the athletics department website and poke around, there should be options for "tickets" under some menu or another. For my future school, it was difficult to find information for out-of-season sports, but it looks like football and men's basketball involve somewhat significant cost, women's basketball something, baseball $3/ticket, and everything else free. I think I may become a groupie of the gymnastics team.

[neuropsych76]

Thank you all for the replies! I feel so clueless because I know nothing about college sports and my school doesn't really have any. I'm still in awe when I go to a bigger school and see how much more stuff they have in general.

If you go to the athletics department website and poke around, there should be options for "tickets" under some menu or another. For my future school, it was difficult to find information for out-of-season sports, but it looks like football and men's basketball involve somewhat significant cost, women's basketball something, baseball $3/ticket, and everything else free. I think I may become a groupie of the gymnastics team.

I did check around the website but the pages that I needed to see prices (i think) required a student ID login. I'd probably be attending baseball games more than anything so if its only a couple bucks per ticket, i'd be fine with that!

[nhyn]

I know for a fact that big/rich schools like Harvard & Princeton have great discounts for employees, and since you'll be working as RA/TA I assume you might enjoy employee's perks too. Also students' perks (I'm still using my undergrad student card a year after graduation for movie tickets and stuff lol i guess i can move on to my grad student card now, yesh! ). best of both worlds ^^

[Phil Sparrow]

Tickets aren't free for anyone, at least not for the major sports at any major university. You might be able to get free tickets if you go to an Ivy or something like that.

Sometimes tickets are free! At my undergrad (member of a major conference), tickets were free for all students, grad and undergrad alike. At my current grad program (also in a major conference), undergrads get free sports tickets but grads have to pay, though at discounted prices.

I must say, however, that as much as it pains me, I haven't had time to attend any sporting events since I started grad school. Perhaps things will be different when I'm finished with coursework.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Phil Sparrow

[Xanthan]

I was told at the University of Kentucky that tickets to men's basketball were $5 for students (grad students included). Alabama-Birmingham is pretty much a mid-major school (D1, but not in a top conference)... it appears that most of their tickets are free for students.