Committing for Med School?

MidloDad - I read the same article, and I admit I immediately started scratching the old noggin and googling the same school of medicine.   Frankly, I don't get it but I guess everybody is entitled to their own reasons, and MCAT predictions.   

Midlo Dad posted:

In the local news this week, a rising junior (2019) quarterback committed to a particular, nationally renowned university, citing its fine medical school as a key reason for his choice.

Am I missing something?  Or is it now possible for athletic programs to put a kid on the fast track for a highly selective graduate program?

I have to admit, my first instinct was to laugh at what appears to be a terrible reason for making an undergraduate choice, even though the particular school is a very fine one and in fact, is near and dear to my heart.  But hey, maybe there are things going on out there that I don't know about?

To be clear, I checked the programs available at the school of medicine and there are no offerings for undergraduates.  It took me 2 minutes to figure that out.  I would hope that anyone choosing their school from among multiple suitors would take that much time to figure that out.

There are some schools that will grant preferred admission to the their medical school contingent upon meeting requirements for admission after completing undergrad studies at their school. When I taught at USC I had one student who did just that and ended up going all the way through medical school there. It's not like medical schools don't have enough applicants, it's actually kind of a similar situation as sports recruiting. You want the top students to come to your medical school to either build your reputation and ranking or to sustain it.

I'd like to ask a related question... for the first time, we have a player in our program who is interested in becoming a doc and wants to play college ball.  What are the challenges with those four years, aside from the likely difficult class workload and labs?  He has the grades and plans on talking to some Ivy's along with others.  There have been quite a few threads here regarding the difficulty of the engineering major but I was unable to find much with pre-med and I am in the dark with this one.

There are some schools, Brown is the first that comes to mind, that admit a select few to undergraduate and medical school as a high school graduate.  Also, there are some colleges who tout their ability to get kids into medical school.  When my oldest toured Notre Dame, they said that the prior year, every graduate who applied to medical school was accepted.  Not necessarily their first choice med school, I later found out, but a med school.

cabbagedad posted:

I'd like to ask a related question... for the first time, we have a player in our program who is interested in becoming a doc and wants to play college ball.  What are the challenges with those four years, aside from the likely difficult class workload and labs?  He has the grades and plans on talking to some Ivy's along with others.  There have been quite a few threads here regarding the difficulty of the engineering major but I was unable to find much with pre-med and I am in the dark with this one.

I can't speak to this very well, cabbagedad, but I have to think that the amount of dedication needed to maintain the GPA to be competitive for admission to medical school down the road while being a collegiate athlete is tremendous. My daughter is getting ready to start her sophomore year and we are finding out that there is so much more that factors into the equation for medical school admission that I can't imagine a student-athlete doing it and going directly into a medical school program after a 4-year undergraduate program (summer internships, research, volunteering, shadowing).

At some schools like Arizona State, the classes are programmed for self-identified "pre-med" track kids to kind of weed out those that can hang from those who can't. Freshman year, first term my daughter had biology, chemistry, stats, English and another course. Welcome to the grind - hang on if you can.

Sophomore year and she is looking at Organic Chemistry (a litmus test of a class if you want to be a physician from what I understand). Don't wish that on anyone. I know there are special kids out there who can do this kind of workload and perhaps be an athlete (like engineering majors do I guess), but you have to have your act together and incredible discipline.

There are schools that have a 7 year MD track.  The student will apply as a freshman where they will get their undergrad in 3 years and then med school during the next 4 . Some schools also have an option to get an MBA with a little more time as well!  Not sure how a athlete can find the time!

Here is an alternative idea.  I am a dentist, not a physician, but I would imagine it could work for medical school admission.  I was a science major, chemistry then changed to microbiology.  There were a number of guys when I got to dental school that were non science majors.  Some were  business majors, which is actually a great idea as you get ZERO business classes in dental school and then you are supposed to come out and run a small business.  Anyway, my daughter is starting dental school in August.  She was originally a biology major, but she decided after a couple years in college that she wanted to go into early childhood education.  She switched her major, was accepted into the education department and finished her first year of the 2 year program.  She then decided that she wanted to go to dental school after all.  She was worried that she needed to get back into a science major.  I encouraged her not to do that and to continue on the path she was on.  She took the DAT, got interviewed and then was accepted.  One of the things she said they liked was that she was an education major and NOT a science major.  Obviously she had to take the required science classes that were needed for dental school admission, but there is no need to take additional science classes with labs that you don't have to have for admission.  With that idea, I would think you could schedule the science classes with labs in the summers or fall when travel for baseball wasn't required.  I would think this same course of action could be applied to medical school admission.  With some discussion with the coach on the front end, it is doable. 

There were twin brothers, Kessler was their last name, that played basketball at UGA and went on to medical school.  It isn't easy, but it can be done.

cabbagedad posted:

I'd like to ask a related question... for the first time, we have a player in our program who is interested in becoming a doc and wants to play college ball.  What are the challenges with those four years, aside from the likely difficult class workload and labs?  He has the grades and plans on talking to some Ivy's along with others.  There have been quite a few threads here regarding the difficulty of the engineering major but I was unable to find much with pre-med and I am in the dark with this one.

Son played on same team with a person who went on to med school. It's tough for the ballplayer who may be lacking the much needed internships which often conflict with summer ball. He took a year off between graduation and medical school.

Midlo, I read the same article and didn't even consider the player was interested in medical school, even though the article said he was a student athlete, but rather the reason was the medical facilities he would have access to possibly due to his prior injury which was also mentioned?  

 I also did a google search and college the player committed to does have an Early Assurance Program where (well qualified) sophomores can apply to medical school without having to take the MCAT.  I know William & Mary has a similar arrangement with Eastern Virginia Medical School and Virginia Commonweath Univ has a program where HS seniors can get a dual acceptance to undergraduate and medical school. 

Tip of my cap to anyone who can get a good grade in Organic Chem and play a sport.  Or take it with 4 other classes and no sport.  

Side note:  I think I have the story straight, but a W&M baseball player who played one year there as a grad student (graduated in 2 1/2 years from ECU), was ready to go to medical school but was drafted.  Did several years of pro ball and is now in law school instead.  

If you can go in to college with a bunch of AP or dual enrollment class credits, it could be an easier road for pre med, but then you are starting your college career taking upper level classes (like Organic Chem).  

Was the college on this list? There are others. This is the top 25. Or maybe the college has a quality reputation placing their pre meds in top med schools.

BA/MD programs

https://blog.collegevine.com/a...bined-bsmd-programs/

Medical school and collegiate sports can be done but it is not easy. One must make sure they they choose a school where academics take precedent over athletics when conflicts arise. Easier at some schools than others and coaches need to be on board.  Forget a meaningful social life. Some can do it in 4 years, other 5 and some need to go back to take make up classes after graduation.  Tough for sure, but not impossible for the dedicated student. 

http://www.espn.com/college-fo...state-tennessee-utah

Is this the player you are talking about?

Our son played baseball in the ACC and majored in mechanical engineering.  There are several old posts detailing his experiences, so I won't bore you with all of those stories again.  Our DAUGHTER rowed at the same ACC school for 2.5 yrs before giving it up due to shoulder issues.  She also double-majored in Philosophy and Biology.  (Philosophy being her first love, Biology being a way to keep her options open).   She really did not consider med school until her senior year in college.  

It is very difficult to compare engineering vs. pre-med paths, even with two kids I know so well.  In fact, as I write this, I keep going back and forth with regard to which is more difficult.  However, my gut feeling is that engineering is probably a slightly more difficult path.  That is primarily because of the time involved with the engineering major.  Your experience/opinion may be totally different.  As with all things, it really depends on the kid.  

Baseball undoubtedly had some effect on son's GPA, but so did his other extra-curriculars.  Rowing probably affected daughter's GPA a little as well, but nothing major.

GPA is VERY important for med school.  My daughter's was somewhat marginal, in the 3.65 neighborhood.  Most of her classmates in med school had much better undergraduate grades.  What they didn't have was a 37 on the MCAT. 

As someone else pointed out, med schools do like kids with non-traditional majors, provided they have all of the necessary core courses and MCAT scores.  I'd say half of daughter's med school classmates had traditional majors like Biology and Chemistry.  The rest were all across the board in terms of majors.  They also like kids with work histories, something that's hard to get while playing baseball.  I know one kid that had good enough grades and MCAT score, but they told him he needed to get some clinical experience and reapply.  He did, and was accepted.  Of course, if his SAT and/or MCAT had been higher, he probably would have been admitted the first time. 

Some schools, like the one my kids attended, do very little to accommodate kids with time consuming majors.  However, others do an excellent job.  Wofford College is a great example.  There are currently 4 former Wofford College baseball players in medical school.  If I am not mistaken, they all started Wofford the same year.  Wofford bends over backward to help kids like this.

The bottom line is baseball and pre-med are doable.  It just depends on the kid.  

Matty posted:

There are some schools, Brown is the first that comes to mind, that admit a select few to undergraduate and medical school as a high school graduate.  Also, there are some colleges who tout their ability to get kids into medical school.  When my oldest toured Notre Dame, they said that the prior year, every graduate who applied to medical school was accepted.  Not necessarily their first choice med school, I later found out, but a med school.

There are also some schools that do a combined BS/MD program where you actually start your first year of medical school during your senior year of college and the credits count both toward your BS and toward your MD. You then graduate college between your first and second years of medical school. Some schools do the same with law school.

Thanks, all, for the valuable feedback on my question.  Sorry for the diversion from OP.

Although not playing baseball in college, my son was accepted into a dual bs/med school admission program.

As long as he maintains a 3.25 GPA and attains what is a pretty mediocre MCAT score (don't remember the exact number) he is guaranteed a med school seat.

He could have gone through the program in 7 years except that his undergrad (athletic training) has a specified course progression, heavy on field work, that requires 4 years to complete.  As it stands he is entering school with 30 credit hours already, so he is probably going to end up just doing a dual major - likely in psychology. 

His school offers this type of program with both their medical school and law school.  Obviously the intent is to lock up the brightest kids for 7-8 years.  It's a selective program with pretty high GPA and test score requirements.  The prospective students have to go through interviews both with the regular admissions people and then the admissions committees from their graduate school.

I will say that my son has gotten to know a few of the kids accepted into the dual programs and none are planning on pursuing athletics.