College and Sports

[swoop]

What do you guys think about this statement:

Having played on a varsity team myself, I know the demanding schedule involved. You often wake up early to train, and practice five or six times a week for two hours each. During the season, you may travel up to half of the weekends. With all of this, the time commitment can reach upwards of 30 hours a week! This means you will have no time for anything else, and little time for doing significant studying. Remember that extracurricular are secondary to grades and MCAT. You do not want to be sacrificing your grades for your sport. Make sure your priorities are straight. Getting to medical school is tough enough already; don't make it harder by lowering your GPA.

If you really want to be a doctor, then you should be prepared to make sacrifices to do so. Sports will only be the first of many such sacrifices. You may be able to be premed and on a varsity team in college, but there is no way you can play varsity in medical school, much less in residency. I know the prospect of giving up something which has been such a part of your life is frightening, but realize that you will be taking on a whole new challenge as a doctor. It will be time to move on sooner or later, and by playing sports in college, you may be jeopardizing your future as a doctor. These are discouraging words, but I think they are needed. Varsity sports or any other such time-intensive activity may adversely affect your grades and lessen your chances of getting in to medical school.

I think that this is probably true enough. However, I think that an adcom may know enough to realize that a varsity sport is a lot of work and may lower GPA a little bit but improve character greatly.

What do you think?

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[bridgie]

what is this for/ from?

 

[mellotron]

In no way does one anecdote really give justification to a general premise, but...

The quarterback for Ohio State's National Championship football team is a 3.8 or so Molecular Genetics major who has intentions of going to med school. Of course, those numbers became public this past fall, he's currently a Jr., so they're most likely just two years of basic sciences and stuff. Still, no slouch. And it's not like he's on the Varsity Table Tennis team, we're talkin' Buckeye Football here!

People also say the same things about Varsity sports and engineering. An added challenge, yes. But people are doing it.

I just wish people didn't weigh every choice in their life against how it hurts or helps their medical school chances... Not saying the OP is one of these types, it's just a reoccurring theme you get around here. Just had to get that off my chest.

 

[UCLAMAN]

One of Stanford's School of Medicine Alumni played for the 49ers while he was in med school. I think he has started up his own orthotics company now as an MD. I guess this was possible because of stanford's flexible curriculum.

lots of people play varsity sports as premeds. but in medical school i'll admit varsity sports would be difficult if possible at all(depending on the school). I'd have to agree that it is impossible to be an NBA player during residency, but thats pretty obvious.

With that said...being a physician doesn't mean one has to eliminate everything in their life to solely focus on medicine.

btw...what was the point of your original post? do u want to try and play a varsity sport in medical school or something?

 

[swoop]

I did not mean to concern playing varsity sports in medical school. I meant playing sports as an undergrad. I think you should do what you like and have fun. Not worry about getting into medical school all the time. One should not quit playing a sport they love because they think they might have a higher GPA for it. Even though it is entirely possible to have a good GPA and participate in varsity athletics.

 

[aalber9]

I think it the comitment also depends on the level of sport where talking about. For example playing a sport at a divison 1aa, 2 or 3 which for the most part is non-scholorship is a lot less time consuming and demanding then playing a scholorship level. For example I play football at a major D1 school on scholorship, my brother on the other hand plays at a non-scholorship school, if he wants to skip a workout or not study film its not a problem, if i want to i have to worry about having my scholorship renewed on july 1st..

Postive though, playing sports is a easy opportunity to get some clinical exposure. You usually have decent relationship with your team doctors who generally are really open to allowing you to work with them in there office or in the hospital or hooking you up with some decent expereience. Also, sports make you stand out your not the "cookie cutter" person who belong to this club and i tutor this subject. no offense to people who do this. Athletics make you kind of unique.

From an addmissions perspective, my orthopedic surgeon, played football in college and was part of the student representation on the adcom at his med school and said that for the most part, it is a plus that one is particapatin in athletics, no matter what level.

 

[ColdChillin]

Hey,

I would definitely say that if you really want to play varsity sports in college then go for it. You can use the huge time commitment and other factors that go into it to your advantage when applying to medical school. And yes, it is still possible to maintain good grades while playing a sport, but be warned that you will have to make huge sacrifices in other areas of your life in order to do so.

I played baseball at a D-I school and it was seriously about 50 hours a week time commitment during the spring. Unfortunately, I was also majoring in engineering and doing the premed stuff. As a result, my life consisted mostly of going to class, going to practice, and coming home and doing homework. If you're willing to place sports and medical school at the top of your priority list, then do it, but make sure you really really really love the game you want to play, because it will become your life.

Lastly, don't think that playing a varsity sport will in any way compensate for a mediocre GPA. It will only work to your advantage if you can play and maintain a high GPA at the same time. I hoped this helped, good luck.

 

[runner]

You should ABSOLUTELY go ahead and play your sport! I have been out of college for 6 years now and will be starting medical school this fall. Just this weekend i was at a game with 12 other alumnae who remain some of my closest friends and with whom i share some of my fondest memories. i attended a division I school and our team was ranked top 12 and higher for all of my 4 years. Of my teammates, one graduated summa cum laude, phi beta Kappa and won the biology prize for the university and is now in her second year at harvard, another is in her third year at Penn, another 4th year at cornell, another 4th year at yale, one a first year at umass and one graduated from uconn. the list goes on and on - i hope the moral is clear - you can definitely do both. so enjoy it!
you will never have the opportunity again...

 

[Spelbo420]

Im just finishing out 4 years of baseball at the division II level, and while very time-consuming and physically and mentally draining, would not trade it for anything. The unique experiences, great people met, and the joy of competitive sports are things that very few people get to be a part of. I really dont care if playing a sport for 40-50 hours a week lowers my grades or affects my MCAT scores. Think about it like this, when your grandchildren are sitting in your lap and its story-telling time, will they hear the story about the all-nighter studying for the organic final, or about the three-hit shutout thrown in the conference championship game with a partially torn rotator cuff? Do what you can while you can cuz we are all just one accident away...

 

[IrishOarsman]

Or... play and don't let your grades slip. I think I've done better because of the time structuring, disipline, and patience varsity sport has forced upon me.

9 hours o' mcat seemed like cake compared to 3 hours in the rain grinding on bleeding blisters.

 

[lil pook]

As an ex-athlete that suffered a career ending injury, I can only wish everyday that I could go back in time. Enjoy your good health, your ability to still play your sport and do what makes you happy. Cuz someday you might not have it anymore.

 

[Dr Chooch]

Originally posted by IrishOarsman
9 hours o' mcat seemed like cake compared to 3 hours in the rain grinding on bleeding blisters.

word, my fellow sufferer.