<p>Hey everyone! I was accepted RD and am planning to major in human biology/pre-med. I am also very interested in joining one of the highly competitive club sports. Since I know that the team travels much throughout the year, I am slightly concerned regarding how to juggle both. Is there anyone here who is an athlete at Stanford and is a pre-med student as well or knows someone who is? Is it very difficult to manage both or are professors generally understanding? Please let me know because I don't want to give up either.</p>
<p>The time commitment required for club sports can vary quite a bit depending on the sport and how seriously you want to pursue it. I was on the cycling club team. Rides were optional, so one could skip practices, if they were busy that week. This was quite different from my experiences on crew, which was not a club sport. Practices were mandatory, and it was common to spend ~25 hours per week on practices and travel. There a good number of pre-med students on both teams.</p>
<p>When I was at Stanford, HumBio had a reputation for being an easier major, which may relate it’s flexibility. I’ve known many athletes who majored in human biology, including one who was the captain of a national championship winning sport and went on to play that sport professionally after graduating. The HumBio core classes substitute for the Bio portion of the premed classes (Bio 41/42/43 or HumBio 2A/B,3A/B,4A/B). They set a maximum of no more than 10 credits of pre-med requirements can be used for the HumBio foundation major requirements. I believe the major requires a total of 87 units, leaving a lot of room to take the remaining pre-med classes as electives, along with electives in other areas that interest you. There are many athletes at Stanford, so I’d expect professors to be well aware of special needs, although I wouldn’t expect you to need special allowances in your classes. I completed both the pre-med and engineering tracks while being on a sports team for a good portion of the year without significant issue. </p>
<p>Agree with @Data10. @caliamy19. Our K2 tells me that HumBio is one of the easier majors for premeds…as a matter of fact, many of the premeds who want a REAL challenge major in something they are really interested in like Physics, Math, Chemistry, CS, or some Engineering field…or if they are more “fuzzy” type they major in psychology, English, music, economics, what-have-you…remember…college only comes once in a life time (so might as well enjoy learning about your passion during your 4 years)…once you get to med school…it will be 24 hours of eating and breathing subjects related to biological sciences, biochemistry, physiology, gross anatomy, pathology, infectious disease, immunology, pharmacology, etc…</p>
<p>…moreover, as I have said in another thread…most of the premeds I have known over the years at Stanford who were scholar-athletes who were SERIOUS about going to med school carried the same average or higher than average GPAs than non-athletes because of their FOCUS and TIME-MANAGEMENT skills.</p>
<p>…if you go to GoStanford <a href=“http://www.gostanford.com”>http://www.gostanford.com</a> sports website you will be able to see all the female/male athletes roster list for each sport listed…and you can review each players profile and what their major is…for the underclassmen many will be undeclared but if you look at the upperclassmen juniors and seniors you can see their majors listed on the top short bio or near the bottom under personal…and I can tell you…there are many majoring in HumBio (at least two are graduating seniors on the women’s basketball team…which is considered the toughest scheduled sport for women…among many other scholar-athletes) and many other tough majors… </p>
<p>…and last but not least…the best way to get inside information is to attend Admit Weekend next week (if you can)…there you will be able to schmooze with other student-athletes and ask any and all questions related to being a premed HumBio major as a scholar-athlete in YOUR sport or related sport…</p>
<p>…I can tell you being an athlete (highest NCAA Div 1 level competition) at Stanford (highest academic reputation) will definitely give you a strong boost in your medical school applications! (that is…if you choose to go to medical school…you never know…you may be like Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo)…and change your mind)</p>
<p>…hope this helps.</p>
<p>As I have said in many other threads (having some knowledge about elite med school admissions)…Stanford and many of its elite top-tier medical school peers…look for outside the box passionate college students who major in such things as English, history, CS…</p>
<p>…see a recent discussion given by the Associate Dean of Medical Education to high school students interested in pursuing a career in medicine:
<a href=“Stanford's senior associate dean of medical education talks admissions, career paths - Scope”>http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2014/04/25/stanfords-senior-associate-dean-of-medical-education-talks-admissions-career-paths/</a></p>