DIII sports and MCAT studying?

[deleted895369]

I was considering joining track and field and cross country when I transfer to a four-year as junior. However, since this is the year that I will be taking the MCAT as well as volunteering weekly at a hospital, would doing a Division III sport be too much? Can anyone speak to the time commitment necessary and if I am just being stupid by adding sports into the mix? BTW first semester of my sophomore year I took 20 credit hours of STEM/honors classes (Chem major) and was involved in competitive Irish dance and worked 13 hours a week, which I handled ok. Feel free to knock some sense into me if I am being dumb lol

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[deleted682435]

My two cents - If you love the sport, then go for it. You'll have to make the time to study. For the MCAT, this probably means hitting things hard between seasons. It's definitely doable.

And I'm not trying to insult the competition level, but the commitment required for sports at the D3 level is so variable. Some schools require as much as a D1 school, others just require you to pop your head in every now and again. I'd recommend finding out where your team lies on that spectrum before you make a decision.

Personally, if I could do it all over again, I would study a little bit less and focus on my sport a little bit more. It's really a rare opportunity that you only get in college.

Source: Former D1 Athlete

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I ran DIII track for two years. While the commitment is going to be variable between schools (and even within the team by event type), I'm gonna disagree with the poster above because I don't know of any schools where you just need to "pop your head in every now and again" - that sounds like a club sport to me. Even during off-season when we were training "on our own" (I didn't run XC) we were still expected to show up to student led practices every day (or make up the equivalent actually on our own). The difference between DI and DIII track is more likely to be the level of competition than the time involved (and maybe a bit more leeway from coaches for academic issues and conflicts).

I really loved running track, so if it's something you have the time for it might be worth it. However, the reason I quit after two years was because I just wasn't able to commit the time - I wasn't trying to study for the MCAT, but I had a lot of other ECs on my plate that I wanted to devote more time to. Track can really eat up a lot of your free time very quickly. For me, the time commitment was generally 1-3 hour practices 5 days a week, then either competition (sometimes including substantial travel) or longer practice on the weekend, with one rest/active recovery day. This doesn't include the stuff we were expected to do on our own time - active recovery, lifting, rehab/prehab, informal team events/dinners, etc. it adds up really quickly. For reference, this was as a sprinter/hurdler - the distance folks had a somewhat different schedule (more morning runs, less lifting) but I'd imagine that probably took up more time if anything.

If you're planning to still do competitive irish dance, you may have a hard time fitting it all in - even if you technically have enough hours in the day, I know that I found it hard to balance track with similar performance related activities, so you may find yourself having to choose one over the other.

With all that said, I know several people who ran track for all 4 years of undergrad and are now in med school. It's absolutely doable, and if you'll enjoy it I say go for it. I really did enjoy my two years.

 

[deleted682435]

I ran DIII track for two years. While the commitment is going to be variable between schools (and even within the team by event type), I'm gonna disagree with the poster above because I don't know of any schools where you just need to "pop your head in every now and again" - that sounds like a club sport to me. Even during off-season when we were training "on our own" (I didn't run XC) we were still expected to show up to student led practices every day (or make up the equivalent actually on our own). The difference between DI and DIII track is more likely to be the level of competition than the time involved (and maybe a bit more leeway from coaches for academic issues and conflicts).

I really loved running track, so if it's something you have the time for it might be worth it. However, the reason I quit after two years was because I just wasn't able to commit the time - I wasn't trying to study for the MCAT, but I had a lot of other ECs on my plate that I wanted to devote more time to. Track can really eat up a lot of your free time very quickly. For me, the time commitment was generally 1-3 hour practices 5 days a week, then either competition (sometimes including substantial travel) or longer practice on the weekend, with one rest/active recovery day. This doesn't include the stuff we were expected to do on our own time - active recovery, lifting, rehab/prehab, informal team events/dinners, etc. it adds up really quickly. For reference, this was as a sprinter/hurdler - the distance folks had a somewhat different schedule (more morning runs, less lifting) but I'd imagine that probably took up more time if anything.

If you're planning to still do competitive irish dance, you may have a hard time fitting it all in - even if you technically have enough hours in the day, I know that I found it hard to balance track with similar performance related activities, so you may find yourself having to choose one over the other.

With all that said, I know several people who ran track for all 4 years of undergrad and are now in med school. It's absolutely doable, and if you'll enjoy it I say go for it. I really did enjoy my two years.

All good points. To be fair, "pop your head in every now and again" was a bit of hyperbole on my end.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

All good points. To be fair, "pop your head in every now and again" was a bit of hyperbole on my end.

That's fair. I haven't done DI sports, but I imagine that the biggest difference is likely the pressure you're under rather than the time commitment. For example, our coaches were more flexible about academic conflicts than I imagine a DI coach would be - they weren't happy if you had to miss practice for a lab or exam, but it was made clear that we were supposed to be students first and athletes second. I imagine for many D1 athletes it is the other way around.