Division 1 Football at Cal [Pac-12]

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Hello everyone,


I am creating this thread to get some advice and to ask questions. First, Do medical schools recognize the time constraints from sports? Secondly, What are some ideas for other ECs I can do? Last, How much would sports help on the App? If you can't answer 1 and 3 focus more on 2. Your insight is very much appreciated.

I would be very impressed at a div 1 football player, more so if he got playing time. However I met a guy that did a div 1 sport at a very well-known school and he had to re-apply so it isn't a magic ticket.
I wouldn't assume that all or most adcoms know of the time commitment because you can't assume that they have first-hand experience so it will probably be a case by case basis.

I don't think playing time will be an issue, but thanks!

Did you have time to get some medical related experience? If i were an adcom I would place a lot of weight to playing football at Cal but I like football and know how much time goes into it. But you're gonna need to have the basics down in your app.

Sports help, more than you might think. I played college football, and med schools definitely realize that it is at least a 40 hr per week commitment YEAR ROUND. It came up in every one of my interviews, and I believe it helped me a lot. adcoms also understand that it is harder for student athletes to maintain competitive GPA's. Particularly during the season. My fall GPA was always like a 3.0, and my spring was much closer to a 3.5-6. That being said, being a student athlete does not excuse you from having to get the shadowing, volunteering, and other standard EC's that med schools expect, however, in my experience, they expect a lot less of it from you. Like in my experience one or two summers of solid research, and 50 hrs of shadowing were more than enough to take care of that stuff. And lastly, while I did not go to cal, I would like to say: ROLL ON YOU BEARRRRRSSSSSSS!!!!!! Cal was my dream school growing up, but I didnt have the size to play for them.

The key question is how much leniency they would give him for GPA & MCAT.

[QUOTEThe key question is how much leniency they would give him for GPA & MCAT.[/QUOTE]

There's no way to answer this unless you're an ADCOM, you'd be speculating at best.


My advice is coming from a football fan, but give it a shot. You only have one opportunity to play college sports but quite a few more years to apply/get into medical school. I would suggest taking five years to do undergrad if finances/scholarships allow it, that will allow you to space out classes and make it less demanding (you have, IMO, an acceptable reason to do this) during the season. Best of luck.

Yeah I've been thinking about red shirting, I guess it would help with classes and everything. I have been shadowing Neurosurgeons throughout high school. I also have a neurosurgeon that I shadow now. So the shadowing part I have down, but what could I volunteer for?

Originally Posted by elitechrstn

Yeah I've been thinking about red shirting, I guess it would help with classes and everything. I have been shadowing Neurosurgeons throughout high school. I also have a neurosurgeon that I shadow now. So the shadowing part I have down, but what could I volunteer for?

You could volunteer at local high schools using football as an in to a local team and help them with conditioning or drills or something for a few hours each week. Simply call the head coach and let him know of your situation. It shouldn't be hard to find something you could help with. Or work with one of your coaches to set up a tutoring session for some of your teammates. That helps get you volunteer hours, helps them make grades - everybody wins.

There are several things you could do to rack up volunteering hours. It sounds like the largest obstacle there will be your availability. Where could you fit it in your schedule?

Originally Posted by elitechrstn

Yeah I've been thinking about red shirting, I guess it would help with classes and everything. I have been shadowing Neurosurgeons throughout high school. I also have a neurosurgeon that I shadow now. So the shadowing part I have down, but what could I volunteer for?

You should definitely be expanding your shadowing beyond just a neurosurgeon, including at least one office-based primary care physician

Originally Posted by elitechrstn

I don't think playing time will be an issue, but thanks!

When I visited LSU-med, I met one of their students who had been on LSU's team for four years, and never played a snap, basically there to raise the team GPA, and in exchange he got a ton of cool swag, and to dress for home games, lol

Haha I had an offer there actually.

Originally Posted by sector9

You should definitely be expanding your shadowing beyond just a neurosurgeon, including at least one office-based primary care physician

I never thought about that. Sounds like a great idea.

Having been a D1 athlete myself, track and swimming, I know that it was looked upon very highly when in combination with my cgpa (3.7 something). I don't know it's ability to offset a lower GPA OR MCAT: I would imagine they'd be more forgiving, but I doubt it has the ability to completely make up for bombing classes.

I was fortunate enough to go to a university that had a world-renown co-op program, so my volunteer activity was relegated to sports coaching and sports camps, where my medical field activities were all 40+ hour a week, paid six month jobs. So a lot of schools were okay that I didn't volunteer in hospitals doing gopher work when I was a PT assistant, did research, ED tech etc. It's just about using the time you have (not too much when you're a D1 athlete) and showing schools you're committed. Dont do something just to do it: it's a waste of your time and ADCOMS can see it as plain as day.

As a student athlete you also have access to a bunch of leadership and volunteer activities through your SAAC. You will still need to get your medical exposure elsewhere. At my school the board positions and the slot to be the conference representative were not hard to get and looked great on my application and came up as topics during my interviews. You can even get in health related experience as advocacy for the health and well being of student athletes is always on the agenda of the national and conference SAACs and you can choose that to be your area of interest.