--- description: Female athletes do even better than their male counterparts. title: Student-Athletes Lead Better Lives After College Than Their Peers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Sports](/section/sports/) ## Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [College Sports](/tag/college-sports/) ## College Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Student-Athletes Lead Better Lives After College Than Their Peers, Survey Finds by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 17, 2016 8:18 PM CUT by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 17, 2016 8:18 PM CUT Former student-athletes have more to celebrate than winning a game—[they tend to lead better lives than non-athletes](https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/gallup-study-measures-long-term-life-outcomes-former-student-athletes "undefined") even after hanging up their uniforms for good, according to a new survey. The Gallup survey, conducted with the NCAA to focus on long-term outcomes for [college athletes](http://time.com/4055730/ncaa-court-ruling-athletes/ "undefined"), found that while jocks of both genders fared better than non-athletes on four elements of wellbeing—purpose, social, community and physical—the difference was most pronounced among female athletes. They were [more likely to be more engaged](http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/female-athletes-score-higher-non-athletes-college-article-1.2534682 "undefined") at work than female non-athletes, 48% to 41% respectively. Among men, the difference was marginal. In all, 82% of former student-athletes of both genders are employed at their desired level, compared to 78% of graduates who weren’t jocks. The survey polled 1,670 former NCAA athletes and compared their answers to those of more than 22,000 non-athletes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/"},"headline":"Student-Athletes Lead Better Lives After College Than Their Peers, Survey Finds","datePublished":"2016-02-17T20:18:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:09:55.023Z","description":"Female athletes see the most benefits, the Gallup and NCAA survey found","url":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/","keywords":["College Sports","Athletes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/college-sports/","name":"College Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/","name":"Student-Athletes Lead Better Lives After College Than Their Peers, Survey Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Advice for Would-Be College Athletes","description":"If you want to play a sport in college, the early you get started, the better chance you have.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gCL2ulwx/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-12T21:46:38.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gCL2ulwx.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/","duration":"PT58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4227968/student-athletes-wellbeing-after-college/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```