Hey I was wondering if being a student-athlete helps out on your application and improves your chances. Anyone with such experience and knowledge ??
Student-athlete benefits?
- Thread starter ab_kaka8
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It definitely helps, and it will look exceptional if you have solid numbers and other experiences to go along with it
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All other things being equal, definitely a net plus, especially if one can relate the experience as correlating with handling the rigors of med school and beyond.
I have found an interesting ambivalence about the extent to which athletics are a net plus on SDN, however. This may reflect significant fluctuations in how adcoms at different schools and even adcoms within schools view athletics....but I think it is more likely that it is a net plus, period, and that the ambivalence with acknowledging this is about something else entirely which I have yet to figure out.
I have found an interesting ambivalence about the extent to which athletics are a net plus on SDN, however. This may reflect significant fluctuations in how adcoms at different schools and even adcoms within schools view athletics....but I think it is more likely that it is a net plus, period, and that the ambivalence with acknowledging this is about something else entirely which I have yet to figure out.
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Huge app boost, shows you can work with multiple priorities and still excel. That is, if you excel. But it can be difficult to maintain good grades and such with the stresses and time commitment of being an athlete, so it's not like you aren't going to have to work your butt off to earn that boost.
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Only if you have good academics. The logic of "I played D1 ball and maintained a 3.2 GPA" doesn't mean anything. Maintaining a 3.6? That's something!
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^^^^Agreed. If the question is, "Can being a collegiate athlete make up for a sub-par app otherwise?" then the answer most likely will be NO. But in a pool of similarly competitive apps, athletics should provide some boost.
Looks as if I would most likely be graduating with a 3.4 sGPA and 3.6 cGPA. I've also done other EC's such as shadowing two doctors at a clinic and volunteering 200+ hours at a hospital. Before I take my MCAT and submit my application, I'm going to do research for at least 200+ hours and get into a tutoring and mentoring program. Assuming I get at least a 30 on the MCAT, I think it would definitely be a net plus that I played soccer in college and also for a amateur club in the metropolitan area. But who knows?
