<p>Hello,
D is a 2015 Harvard recruit. Many thanks to all on this board who generously share their experiences as I have found your insight invaluable as we have stumbled through the recruiting process. Now that she has hopefully?! decided (and fingers crossed it will all work out!) my thoughts have turned to the challenges ahead for an athlete who wants to eventually attend medical school. In the past D has said she wanted to study biology, but has been open to other majors as she gets older and now more recently is thinking bio might be too much with the labs and the sport schedule. Also she isn't sure biology is her passion. Her plan is to take classes her freshman year and "see what interests her." She noticed psychology has some hard science concentrations that might interest her,but she really wants "to keep an open mind freshman year and study what she loves." Whatever her major she said her plan would be take the courses along the way needed for the MCAT. She has a parent working at our flagship state university, so at any point she can take summer courses there for free (for a grade and/or not for a grade) and perhaps this will come in handy for certain courses that she might not want to take at Harvard because of sport schedule constraints, might not want to take for a grade (possibly organic chem? considering GPA will have to stay very high for med school) or might not have room for due to her major? Is it unrealistic to think she will take a summer course? Will it be the last thing she wants to do? I am just starting to think about this and don't plan to offer any advice until she asks, but I want to be ready with some ideas. I don't know what I don't know! I wondered if people can offer advice, point out flaws in this plan (other than going to a different school...since that ship has apparently sailed!) or better ways to think about this? As a student she hit her personal goals for ACT (32, 10 on essay), SAT(2100) with little prep on first try, but obviously many Harvard students score much, much, much higher. She knows she is going to have to work hard! She has a strong study/work ethic when it comes to high school (juggling 3 varsity sports all four years, many APs, planned double science 3 of 4 years,advanced math track, etc), but honestly who knows what will happen when college classes, sports demands and social experience mix. Thanks for any advice. Cheers!</p>
<p>My two cents…</p>
<p>Truthfully, it sounds like nothing is certain from your note…she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to study, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much right now. All her energy she should be put into getting accepted first and then cross the next bridge as it comes. Students change their majors all the time. I believe the number I saw was that 70% of college students change their majors at least once.</p>
<p>Also, certain classes in their major will have to be taken at that specific school. My son was an Ivy athlete and engineering major. Almost all his engineering classes had to be taken at the Ivy. There may be flexibility with Biology or any other undergraduate degree if Medical School is the end goal…GPA is king to get into Medical School. My guess is organic chemistry will need to be taken at Harvard (sorry to break that to you), as that is the make or break class for any aspiring Medical Doctor.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds very driven and can manage her priorities. That mind set will serve her well as a future college athlete.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Rose: Recruited athlete in what sport?</p>
<p>A little confused. She hasn’t been admitted yet, right?</p>
<p>From DD, Stanford class of 2014, varsity athlete…study what you love, but realize that any major is premed. Take the additional pre requisites as electives, or summer school. Per her pre med advisor, it matters not where you take the pre reqs. And this includes the community college or state university. Out of 40 med schools surveyed by the dept ( a variety of super selective to moderately selective schools) 39 did not care where the pre reqs were satisfied. We were relieved to know that we needn’t spend much to finish her two remaining pre reqs! And plan on one-and-done for the mcat. Don’t take the test until you are sure you know the material, so no SAT type plan of taking it multiple times. </p>
<p>JoBenny. Some sports for juniors have already gone through the “verbal commitment” stage. I know a family friends d15 has verbally committed to play volleyball at Columbia. I am only assuming that her transcript has already been approved by admissions. </p>
<p>A couple of things to be aware of:</p>
<p>1/ Med school requirements have to be taken for a grade, so organic chemistry at the state flagship is acceptable, but only if graded.</p>
<p>2/ Harvard does not give credit for summer school courses at your state flagship (or any other college in the U.S.), which is fine if she doesn’t need the course for her major, or the credits for graduation.</p>
<p>[This</a> link](<a href=“http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/careers/medicine/premedguide12.pdf]This”>http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/careers/medicine/premedguide12.pdf) gives more info on pre-med at Harvard.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. This info is really helpful. It’s really good to know the med school requirements must be completed with a grade. Yes ahsmuoh D has verbal and had her tests and transcript put through admissions. Hopefully it will all work out! D is focused on finishing her senior year strong, getting her application done this summer and has no idea I am worrying about this. </p>
<p>Threesdad I don’t really want to say what sport until next fall when likely letters go out! It’s a small world. These are good things to think about going forward. Shellz what did you mean “realize that any major is premed?” Do you mean that any major works for med school if you have the prerequisites done? I figured the classes at flagship wouldn’t be accepted toward her degree! Thanks for confirming.</p>
<p>Any major + pre med prerequisites ( 2 years bio, 2 chem, 1 physics, 1 English…I believe this list is pretty standard) is considered acceptable for med school admissions. You don’t get brownie points for having a science major . Actually, there may indeed be a benefit to having a more humanities based major, as some med schools are realizing the value of such a course of study. The benefit of a Bio (or Chem, etc) major may be that you are more well acquainted with certain topics covered in med school and on the mcat. But of course, getting a high GPA is important, so choose wisely, given your natural talents and your time constraints…my DD is a Bio major and in hindsight I think her GPA would have been much higher if she had been a psych major. But…she LOVES Bio. It will all play out in the end, I hope. Given her track record with standardized tests, she is hoping for a high mcat score to compensate for her less than stellar GPA. Also, the varsity athlete hook is valuable in admissions, provided she has clinical experience along with the good grades/mcat. Makes applying to college and the whole recruiting process look like a walk in the park. Good luck! (And btw, you are correct…her summer school may not apply to her degree, but it would work for med school prereqs)</p>
<p>Med Schools want to make sure you can handle a heavy academic load. So you want to show you can take Organic Chemistry at your school during a normal semester. You don’t want to take it at an easier school during the summer…or even do you want to take an intense course like O-Chem that is normally 15 weeks in 6 weeks? I would recommend taking an elective over the summer so she can take less courses during the semester but take all her pre-req’s at her regular school. </p>
<p>Think about it…if you are a med school, you might see someone with a good GPA, but then they took pre-req’s at an “easier” school…would not instill confidence</p>
<p>Lots of pre-meds at H are in psych. Great Dept. </p>
<p>D’s former teammate at H will be attending a top med school. She was in a neurobio concentration and took orgo over the summer at a (very good) State U.</p>
<p>Re; the comment that any major is pre-med, that’s true. I recall at orientation the speaker said there 48 concentrations at Harvard, and people have been admitted to medical school from every one of them.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for these great points. Bopper I agree it’s good to consider how something will “look” to a med school admissions team. A lot is going to depend on D and how she responds to juggling academics and sports. Hopefully her challenging high school schedule has prepared her, but if she needs the option it’s nice to know there are people who have made summer classes work as Varska points out. Fenway is also correct that students change their minds all the time, so I will try not to get too caught up thinking about the NEXT school five years down the road!! A lot can and will happen between now and then! It is just nice to have all of these perspectives going forward. 2prepMom one of the classes D attended during UV was freshman psych. Her host said she was sorry it wasn’t “the best class” that day and D couldn’t believe it…she thought the class was incredible. D was checking out the concentrations in psych and thought they sounded really interesting. Thanks!</p>