Division I Athletics

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Bulldog2014

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I am going to be a Division I athlete at a very prestigious undergrad institution in the fall. How much does being a D1 athlete factor into med school admissions? I'm just looking for any info regarding this subject.

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There is nothing "unique" about it but I will say that one of the most flattering and informative LORs I ever read was from a "Bulldog" coach. ;)


This is because coaches at Yale can actually write a well constructed sentence. Alas, this is a skill that is unusual in the coaching ranks. I briefly toyed with the idea of asking my college soccer coach for a letter of recommendation for med school but decided that it was not a good idea.
 
I am going to be a Division I athlete at a very prestigious undergrad institution in the fall. How much does being a D1 athlete factor into med school admissions? I'm just looking for any info regarding this subject.
It may not be super "unique" but I think that it can benefit you. I spoke to people who are involved in admissions and they do take it into consideration. but it wont just automatically admit you into school.
 
I think it depends how good you are too. If you're say, like a D1 football player and anywhere near competitive, you'll probably get into med school in my experience. Succeeding in school with that kind of year round time committment really impresses adcoms (at least me, anyways)
 
Eh, I really don't know. Depends on a lot of things. I don't think it will get you admitted but the time commitment is pretty tough, so if you can manage good grades I think it'll look good. Relevant ECs are going to be hard to fit in.

I was lab partners with a D1 athlete in organic 2 and he was NOT bright. I would do a lot of labs alone because he'd get home from trips at like 4/5 AM on a Monday if he was too tired to go and was eligible to "skip" the 1 pm lab we had and do the labs later in the week in another class. Also, he got to take physics tests on the road with him for the weekend because we had our tests on saturdays and he couldn't be there so they just let him bring the test with him and the coach was supposed to make sure he didn't cheat, but 1 coach and all the baseball players...obvs know how that turned out.

He would always say things like "Well, I got a C+ in orgo 1 and like...it's orgo so..." and other just mind-numbingly ignorant things. He had like a 3.1 or something overall GPA and a lower sGPA. We would always talk and hang out on weekends sometimes but in the back of my head I always wanted to just tell him to buckle up because a hard hit of reality is gonna come your way once you start turning in apps. Basically no ECs, no research/leadership, etc. Then he drops a 42 on the MCAT and I didn't know what to think anymore. Graduated this year and haven't talked to him since the fall so he may or may not be in. This wasn't relevant at all, just thought I'd share my only experience with a D1 athlete and pre-med student. Most of the athletes I know are soc/com/business/psy majors which makes it easy to do well while focusing on athletics, so consider it if you want to keep your GPA high with less time
 
IMO: It won't make up for poor numbers or a lack of clinical ECs. It will look good if you can do other things on top of it because of the time commitment required.
 
If you have a competitive gpa, and a solid MCAT, and the necessary EC's, especially the necessary exposure to the medical profession, and you are a varsity athlete in college, especially at the DI level, you are in great shape in the application process. It will not save you if you are weak, but it is very helpful if you are solid. I spent alot of my interviews talking about college soccer.
 
I'm also a college athlete. I have played D1 and D2 football. This past spring I had the opportunity to speak (actually, it was more like a mock interview) with the Director of Admissions at one of the medical schools I am interested in attending. We spoke of football for quite some time. He mentioned several times that he understood that playing college football was a HUGE time commitment and that he thought I must be very good at managing my time. I have a decent GPA (3.5ish), and he made it clear to me several times that he thought I had a very solid GPA considering all of my time commitments with football, while at the same time working, shadowing, volunteering, being married, blah blah blah. Now don't get me wrong, being a college athlete is not going to save a low GPA, but I do think ADCOMs will respect a good GPA from someone they know is willing to work hard in the classroom while also being so commited to their sport. Remember, ADCOMs want to see applicants that can excel in the classroom and still be well rounded. Just make sure that you are getting plenty of clinical experience when you can (probably during off-season). It's not an easy task, but you must keep your grades up while competing in athletics if you want to be a competitive applicant.
 
If you are D1 shouldn't you go pro in your sport? You will get more chicks than if you are a nerdy doctor.
 
Well, I was in a similar situation as you. I played a varsity sport in undergrad and I am currently in Med School. I can tell you that during your interviews you will get a lot of "wow, that must have been a lot of time for practice / games / travel" (as well as they should, because most of the time it was over 40 hours a week). But, I don't think it really made the biggest difference in my application. Sure it was great that I did it, and they were impressed, but you need to stats to back it up.

Also, surprisingly, it isn't as unique as you think it is. I ran into countless people during my interviews that were all varsity athletes. So, moral of the story, there have been many people like you that are in med school now. Just don't think it is going to get you into school alone.
 
Well, I was in a similar situation as you. I played a varsity sport in undergrad and I am currently in Med School. I can tell you that during your interviews you will get a lot of "wow, that must have been a lot of time for practice / games / travel" (as well as they should, because most of the time it was over 40 hours a week). But, I don't think it really made the biggest difference in my application. Sure it was great that I did it, and they were impressed, but you need to stats to back it up.

Also, surprisingly, it isn't as unique as you think it is. I ran into countless people during my interviews that were all varsity athletes. So, moral of the story, there have been many people like you that are in med school now. Just don't think it is going to get you into school alone.

I very much agree with this post, as it has been my experience as well. It will not make up for a below average GPA and MCAT, but if your numbers are good it shows an ability to manage time well and succeed in multiple areas of life, two qualities that are important to doing well in medical school. So enjoy your time as a D1 athlete but put in the work in the classroom too.
 
Also, surprisingly, it isn't as unique as you think it is. I ran into countless people during my interviews that were all varsity athletes. So, moral of the story, there have been many people like you that are in med school now. Just don't think it is going to get you into school alone.

If we just go by the bolded part in this quote, then being a varsity athlete is a big plus in your application because it will improve your chances of getting an interview. In other word, it sets you apart from the rest of the applicants when its time for sending interview invitations.
 
I am going to be a Division I athlete at a very prestigious undergrad institution in the fall. How much does being a D1 athlete factor into med school admissions? I'm just looking for any info regarding this subject.

FWIW, the other day I talked to someone who has a brother who is an interviewer for a med school that uses a "points" system. In their formula a pretty significant amount of points is automatically assigned for each year of being a varsity college athlete. I don't know the exact relative value, but said it was definitely more than a typical EC.
 
Being a college athlete would show that you are well rounded. A D1 athlete has to practice, travel, go to the trainer/weight room and then study while physically drained. As long as the academics are good, I think adcoms would be very impressed by a D1 athlete applicant.
 
If we just go by the bolded part in this quote, then being a varsity athlete is a big plus in your application because it will improve your chances of getting an interview. In other word, it sets you apart from the rest of the applicants when its time for sending interview invitations.

This is a trick... we see many others on the interview trail with a particular characteristic and believe that whatever characteristic it is is highly valued by the adcoms. However you are only seeing the numerator and must know the denominator (number of applicants with that characteristic) to really determine if that characteristic is highly valuled or if you are merely seeing a representative sample of people with that (non-meaningful) characteristic.

That said, you'll get adcoms who love athletes, adcoms who love athletes from the Ivies and other academically competitive schools, and adcom members who count athletics like any other non-clinical extracurricular.
 
Being a college athlete would show that you are well rounded. A D1 athlete has to practice, travel, go to the trainer/weight room and then study while physically drained. As long as the academics are good, I think adcoms would be very impressed by a D1 athlete applicant.


Just to spread some education, a D2 and D3 as well as an NAIA athlete also has to do the same thing. The commitement is the same, the talent is the difference.
 
OP- if this is you...you're going to be accepted to a full ride no questions asked.

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however...if this is you, well, lets just say it's another EC. right behind tutoring physics for a semester.

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sorry cross-country. but you're not that cool.
 
i am going to be a division i athlete at a very prestigious undergrad institution in the fall. How much does being a d1 athlete factor into med school admissions? I'm just looking for any info regarding this subject.


uga?
 
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