<p>My daughter is thinking about majoring in Biochemistry. She enjoyed chemistry much more than biology in high school and is leaning in that direction. She is also hoping to go to medical school (if that's relevant).</p>
<p>My daughter will also be playing a varsity sport at UD. The travel schedule is pretty managable and the practice schedule is a few hours a day, but, I am concerned after looking at the course requirements (labs, research, etc) that she will be able to manage it all. My daughter is very organized and efficient. She has managed her senior year in high school to play her sport every day, work 3 jobs and maintain a very good average while taking 6 ap classes her senior year. Even so, I am a little bit nervous. I am also somewhat concerned after speaking to people that it might be difficult to maintain the kind of GPA that you would need to gain admission to medical school as a Biochemistry major. I was told unofficially that generally biology majors st UD are able to acheive higher GPAs. I just want to lead my daughter in the right direction. She really does like chemistry and would prefer to major in that I just want to make sure it is the right way to go.</p>
<p>Any advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I think that is a hard question for someone else to answer. My son was very involved with marching band in high school, and planned to continue it at UD. Then at Accepted Students Day, the engineering students were told that joining the marching band was not recommended, especially if they were in Honors Engineering. So, my son did not join. He was reluctant to overcommit himself without knowing how much work he would have. Fast forward to the fall, and he would have had the time to participate. But, I have to assume that some previous students found it difficult, or else the department would not have given that advice. That is why it is hard to know how your daughter will respond to the combination of academics and athletics. </p>
<p>Have you thought of asking the chemistry department at UD what their % of students are also athletes, and how they handle the workload? If there are very few, that might give you some idea.</p>
<p>Good luck with the decision!</p>
<p>I am definitely going to speak with someone in the chem department. We tried to do that over the weekend but with decision days going on it was hard. I appreciate your insight and we will just have to see what the department thinks. The good news is the coach said that she would be flexible w/re to practice time, etc. we’ll see… thanks again.</p>