I've posted this before but didn't include some more questions I might need help with.
I'm currently a Junior at my state school with a solid GPA, about 100-120 hrs shadowing/volunteering, and probably over 500 hrs of research and much more coming. I haven't taken the MCAT yet.
I have been given this opportunity to run track at a DIII school also top 20 academically that is making me contemplate transferring. Since I am a junior I'd have to repeat a year essentially in order to run track.
I picked up track in college as I was with a friend who was on the track team that thought that I'd make a pretty good sprinter. I started running as a hobby and I'm at a point where I can compete with middle tier D1 athletes in college. I do currently attend a D1 college that is unfortunately filled with All-American sprinters (half of them made it to the olympic trials if not the olympics in Rio 2016), and I've talked to the coach about waking on. He basically said that because he didn't recruit me, he'd not let me on the team.
Keep in mind, there are plenty of other colleges where I'd be one of the fastest on their team, but since I've never ran track in HS nor middle school, I don't have much of a recruiting background that HS athletes have. So I'm pretty sure other D1 schools are out the door since only DIII schools are willing to take a chance.
What do y'all think? Should I go run track for DIII school. (I'd have a shot at the school record there but that's beside the point) I'm super scared that it will affect my GPA since I'll be super busy and competing with other academic hot shots at a top 20 school. Although I will have an entire summer to study for the MCAT if I transferred, it will probably cost me around 15K of extra money if I did.
Looking at the big picture, how big of a pro is doing athletics in college for med schools? As I currently see it, I still am the "classic" pre-med student with an x amount of activities and stats, but I don't believe I have the "it" factor in my application yet. I'd consider transferring more if it can give me an upper hand on some other applicants.
I'm open to any inputs to my situation! Thanks!
I'm currently a Junior at my state school with a solid GPA, about 100-120 hrs shadowing/volunteering, and probably over 500 hrs of research and much more coming. I haven't taken the MCAT yet.
I have been given this opportunity to run track at a DIII school also top 20 academically that is making me contemplate transferring. Since I am a junior I'd have to repeat a year essentially in order to run track.
I picked up track in college as I was with a friend who was on the track team that thought that I'd make a pretty good sprinter. I started running as a hobby and I'm at a point where I can compete with middle tier D1 athletes in college. I do currently attend a D1 college that is unfortunately filled with All-American sprinters (half of them made it to the olympic trials if not the olympics in Rio 2016), and I've talked to the coach about waking on. He basically said that because he didn't recruit me, he'd not let me on the team.
Keep in mind, there are plenty of other colleges where I'd be one of the fastest on their team, but since I've never ran track in HS nor middle school, I don't have much of a recruiting background that HS athletes have. So I'm pretty sure other D1 schools are out the door since only DIII schools are willing to take a chance.
What do y'all think? Should I go run track for DIII school. (I'd have a shot at the school record there but that's beside the point) I'm super scared that it will affect my GPA since I'll be super busy and competing with other academic hot shots at a top 20 school. Although I will have an entire summer to study for the MCAT if I transferred, it will probably cost me around 15K of extra money if I did.
Looking at the big picture, how big of a pro is doing athletics in college for med schools? As I currently see it, I still am the "classic" pre-med student with an x amount of activities and stats, but I don't believe I have the "it" factor in my application yet. I'd consider transferring more if it can give me an upper hand on some other applicants.
I'm open to any inputs to my situation! Thanks!
