Pre Med/ Science Major and Baseball

You have to look hard and at the same time you must make sure the science program is friendly to sports.

i.e. if you are interested in engineering ask the dean of the engineering school how many athletes are in the program and how flexible is the program? If the program is flexible he/she will be able to answer that question quickly.

btw it doesn't matter if its D-1, D-2, D-3, JC etc it's still the same problem.

Good luck.

Shoot a pm to Observer 44- I think his son is premed and he could answer your questions. Each school seems to be different. We know some D1 players that are engineering majors. It really seems to depend on the willingness of the coaches to let the student-athlete miss practices for labs. It also depends on the students gpa and abillity to handle really challenging academics while playing a sport.

I am an Engineer and wanted my son to follow my path because he did good in Math and Science in high school. His college does not offer that discipline however. I coaxed him into Computer Science and that has been challenging for him. He has many classes that have labs but most departments are flexible when they have to actually be in the lab. The main requirement is that the work gets done. The way I helped my son out with respect to a science major was not expect him to graduate in 4 years. Essentially a five year program. A more expensive solution obviously, but he is an honor-role student and still devoted full time to baseball. IMHO, a disciplined student can do both. One thing to remember with pre-med is that his college GPA means everything and will determine whether or not he can be admitted to med school. If that is the route he chooses, it is imperative he maintains very high grades imho.

There are many Student/Athletes who are Pre Med/Science Majors, the trick is finding the school and coaching staff that will support it.

Some schools have very good Athletic advisors who will lay out a 4-5 year program which will get the athlete through the classes needed. One of the advantages that most of the schools will give your athlete is they get early registration to classes, which is a great advantage over the normal student population.

Another advantage that some schools offer is tutors to their athletes, who can rally help get through the classes, it is still difficult to get to the labs, but that is what the fall is for.

It is certainly not for most, but for the highly motivated student/athlete who has the discipline of excelling, it can be done.

quote:

Originally posted by Homerun04:
There are many Student/Athletes who are Pre Med/Science Majors, the trick is finding the school and coaching staff that will support it.

This is what I meant in another thread about compromising for your education. I always thought the same for son, he majored in math and science engineering in middle school and followed with a strong math and science course in HS. I thought that he would follow in families careers and become an engineer. He was told by the academic advisor it would be literally impossible to show up at every practice and game and travel if he majored in engineering. His desire to play baseball was greater than to become an engineer.

This is a good thing to find out BEFORE you set foot on campus.

Also, the division of the school (DI, DII, DIII) will not always indicate how difficult it will be to juggle this type of major with playing baseball.

My son's DIII did not offer some of the assistance to athletes that may be available at DI's. For example, at some DI's there is someone from academic advising who can take notes in a class that an athlete misses while traveling, while at my son's DIII that was totally unheard of. His teammates handled it informally, asking older players which professors "liked" baseball players and would be receptive to providing the info or assistance needed. DIII's may not have as many games on their schedule as a DI, but they still would usually travel at least 2 to 3 days per week during spring semester (Tuesday and Thursday games missing at least their afternoon classes, plus Friday travel to a weekend opponent).

This is an ancient example regarding the Pre-Med/Science major, but way back in the stone ages I was a DIII fastpitch player and Pre-Med major. My grades always dropped in spring semester because of the demands of daily practices and travel. I worked very hard to try to get a 4.0 in fall semester so that even if I earned a 3.5 or 3.6 in the spring, my average would still stay in the 3.7-3.8 range which at that time was required for med school applications. (But after earning my undergrad Science degree I had had enough of school and did not apply to med school - I now work in computer science.)

Julie

Our son was (still is) a chem major. When he was in high school, he excelled in chemistry and did very well in math. Upon entering college, he had decided that he was going to pursue law school after graduating and so signed on as a poli sci major ... that lasted 3 quarters. He took a science class as an elective and realized how much he missed his sciences. AJ was very fortunate to have an outstanding academic counselor who worked with him on his schedule so that his labs, practices, and games/travel did not interfere too much with each other.

The only drawback for him is that he really cannot take classes in the fall when he is in the 'off season' for pro ball because the chem classes he needs to finish up his last year are sequential through the quarters ... the 2nd in the series is only offered in winter, the 3rd only in spring ... so he will need to wait until he hangs up his cleats before he can finish that chem degree, which I imagine might be followed up with a teaching credential so he can teach at the high school level and coach baseball. (Just an old ma's wandering mind ...)

Cleveland dad,

I thinks its great your giving your son the support to take 5 years instead of four in order to go after a more difficult major and still be able to experience college baseball. Best of luck to these types of players. I really admire their work ethic.