what do med schools think of college level athletics

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How do they view students who apply that play at the division 1, 2, or 3 level at any sport? Will a kid who plays D1 look more impressive than D3?
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Yea, if you maintained a solid GPA while doing that it will look more impressive. D1 might look a little better than D3, but not by much.
 
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Some adcoms probably think it is a good thing, but you are still expected to keep a great GPA - it is not a pass for poorer grades.

Other adcoms probably think D1 is a vitamin.
 
I always thought how cool it must be to be really passionate about a sport and extraordinarily talented while pursuing medicine goal.
 
We have quite a few D1 (and above) athletes in our class, but they did that in addition to doing everything the rest of us did. It's not an excuse for poor performance elsewhere, but can be a valuable asset.
 
Any athlete who can excel academically while playing sports is an excellent med school candidate.

Athletics as a substitute for academic merit will not work.

You do realize that there are tons of Adcom members who have absolutely no idea what D1-3 mean?????????

Fuarky said:
How do they view students who apply that play at the division 1, 2, or 3 level at any sport? Will a kid who plays D1 look more impressive than D3?
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Are you expected to get as many volunteer hours in? As a D2 collegiate athlete myself, I do think it was more difficult to get a lot of volunteer hours in (I could only do about 400).
 
cyang said:
Are you expected to get as many volunteer hours in? As a D2 collegiate athlete myself, I do think it was more difficult to get a lot of volunteer hours in (I could only do about 400).
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400 is plenty, athlete or otherwise.
 
WedgeDawg said:
We have quite a few D1 (and above) athletes in our class, but they did that in addition to doing everything the rest of us did.
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Above DI....semi pro/pro? Howd they manage to do that during college?

Or are they super non trad?
 
You do know that some Olympians do apply to med school too ...
 
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sports are nice but they don't make a med school application.
 
Was a college athlete, had no time for volunteer work, so essentially applied sans volunteer work. Turned out fine. Athletics was the only thing that came up in every single interview.
 
There are at least a couple of Div I former football players at my med school. Both did post-baccs because they felt that they couldn't have maintained the GPA needed as undergrads if they had taken the premed prereqs while doing their sport. They "took it easy" as undergrads by majoring in less-demanding majors to get A's, which is actually a smart plan. Then once done with sports, they went back and did well with post-baccs.

Both had multiple acceptances, one is OOS. I think med schools are impressed by college-level athletes. They were able to demonstrate discipline and dedication. JMO.
 
Being a D1 athlete and believing I have a pretty decent GPA, I don't find it impossible to fit in volunteering/research, etc. I just find that I am much busier than the other pre-med students, but you learn to discipline yourself if medicine is something you really want to do.
 
Not an athlete at all so do not really know the commitment involved with that and how that effects time for studying, volunteering, and other important stuff for med school.
 
But would give up lot of things just to be talented at a sport and play at high collegiate level.
 
cke11 said:
Being a D1 athlete and believing I have a pretty decent GPA, I don't find it impossible to fit in volunteering/research, etc. I just find that I am much busier than the other pre-med students, but you learn to discipline yourself if medicine is something you really want to do.
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It may depend on the D1 sport. I'm no expert, but it seems that some sports are more demanding than others. I'm sure all are demanding, but a few sports may require more hours per week.
 
SOMBound13 said:
It may depend on the D1 sport. I'm no expert, but it seems that some sports are more demanding than others. I'm sure all are demanding, but a few sports may require more hours per week.
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I definitely agree! There are a lot of variables that come into play on how demanding the sport can be, at my school the baseball guys seem to have to devote the most time to their sport.
 
I think it depends on who reads your application or who interviews you. Some people love it, others may not be as excited about it as supposed to research or something medically related. Athletics was brought up in every single one of my interviews though. And one of my interviewers (who was also an adcom member) told me that athletes had a "special place" in her heart. I played D1 softball and we had to commit 20-25 hrs per week in the fall and around 40hrs per week in the spring during our actual season (and that included practices, workouts, and games, but did not include the time we spent traveling which was another 5-20 hrs depending on where we were going and how often we were traveling that week).
 
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piii said:
Some adcoms probably think it is a good thing, but you are still expected to keep a great GPA - it is not a pass for poorer grades.

Other adcoms probably think D1 is a vitamin.
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I don't even know what this thread is discussing in terms of D1-D3...
 
AlfonsTheGuru said:
I don't even know what this thread is discussing in terms of D1-D3...
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All of your larger institutions (which tend to have more funding towards athletics) are D1, the smaller schools are D2 and D3. Rule of thumb, almost all of the college teams you see on TV are D1. D2/D3 are rarely (almost never)televised.

D1= UT, Bama, Mizzou, Duke, Harvard
D2= UC San Diego
D3= Texas Lutheran University, Trinity University (the schools that you most likely haven't heard of unless they are from your home state)
 
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D1= Bama, UT, Mizzou, Duke, Harvard
D2= UC San Diego
D3= Texas Lutheran University, Trinity University (the schools that you most likely haven't heard of unless they are from your home state)


Fixed it for you.
 
Isn't UCSD D1 for most sports? Or am I thinking of San Diego state?

My collegiate athletics came up in every interview I had. I think it is viewed positively if you are able to maintain the rest of your application nicely. It also provides a bit of diversity - it provides a different experience than the normal cookie-cutter type stuff. If is not a saving grace for a bad GPA or mcat however.
 
SOMBound13 said:
D1= Bama, UT, Mizzou, Duke, Harvard
D2= UC San Diego
D3= Texas Lutheran University, Trinity University (the schools that you most likely haven't heard of unless they are from your home state)


Fixed it for you.
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Ummmm nooo...I think I had it right the first time.

1. UT
2. Every other Texas university
3. All other universities in the USA
99. The Crimson Tide

Hook 'em horns!!!! :soexcited:
 
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Cookie04 said:
Ummmm nooo...I think I had it right the first time.

1. UT
2. Every other Texas university
3. All other universities in the USA
99. The Crimson Tide

Hook 'em horns!!!! :soexcited:
Click to expand...


looks like someone is still bruising from Pasadena. :eyebrow:

The Tide is rolling to #16 😍 :nod: :banana:
 
Cookie04 said:
Ummmm nooo...I think I had it right the first time.
Click to expand...

1. Big 10
2. Those SEC schools
3. Pac 10
4. All others

Go Green, Go White, Go Blue, and Go Buckeyes (MSU undergrad, U of M family, probably OSU med student).
 
FindMeOnTheLinks said:
Isn't UCSD D1 for most sports? Or am I thinking of San Diego state?

My collegiate athletics came up in every interview I had. I think it is viewed positively if you are able to maintain the rest of your application nicely. It also provides a bit of diversity - it provides a different experience than the normal cookie-cutter type stuff. If is not a saving grace for a bad GPA or mcat however.
Click to expand...

UCSD is D2 and San Diego State is D1!

Rainbow Zebra said:
1. Big 10
2. Those SEC schools
3. Pac 10
4. All others

Go Green, Go White, Go Blue, and Go Buckeyes (MSU undergrad, U of M family, probably OSU med student).
Click to expand...

Pac 12 😉
 
Cookie04 said:
All of your larger institutions (which tend to have more funding towards athletics) are D1, the smaller schools are D2 and D3. Rule of thumb, almost all of the college teams you see on TV are D1. D2/D3 are rarely (almost never)televised.

D1= UT, Bama, Mizzou, Duke, Harvard
D2= UC San Diego
D3= Texas Lutheran University, Trinity University (the schools that you most likely haven't heard of unless they are from your home state)
Click to expand...

Mizzou, UT and Duke are like super D1's haha.
 
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