<p>I have a offer to play tennis at a smaller D1 school. It is a good academic school with a below average tennis team that practices basically everyday during the season with three night work outs and about one match each weekend. On the other hand, I really want to become a doctor some day and plan to major in biology as a pre med student. To add onto this, I would also like to have a social life in college whether its going to parties, going into the near by city, or just hanging out. With all honesty, because I have heard "Sure u would be able to fit all that in if your organized enough" so many times, will I have the time for all this while a.)get good grades in order to get into med school and b.) simply having a normal college experience/social life? Your honest and realistic opinions are much appreciated, thank!</p>
<p>Depends whether you are going there on a tennis scholarship, financial aid or on your parents’ dime.</p>
<p>If you accept an athletic scholarship, you have to play in order to keep it. If you are going there on FA with tennis coach’s recommendation, or paying for the school your self, then you can decide not to play if you find you can’t balance it. I know a few who have been recruited to Ivies as athletes who have never played for whatever reason.</p>
<p>texaspg brings up an important financial consideration.
Regarding time: sleep, study, socialize, sports - you can only pick two.</p>
<p>“Regarding time: sleep, study, socialize, sports - you can only pick two.” ahahhaha I like that. I think im going to go with study and socialize.</p>
<p>My daughter is a D1 athlete, you can PM me if you’d like. She dropped engineering after one semester. She would prefer to be an Econ major and an athlete than an engineering major and non-athlete. There are pre-meds and engineers who are also athletes, it a very rare bird who can pull it off, however.</p>
<p>whether they practice everyday or three times a week…NCAA rule is 20 hours anything more is risk for you and the program. So, put your priorities in place surrounding 168 hours in a week less 42 sleep/20 work-out/18 classroom /45 study hours/12 transportation/movement/gotta eat, be social etc…not a whole lot of time, there</p>
<p>It will be a difficult balance and the social life you have may need to revolve around the team. Son is a science major at a D1 school. Advisor there told him the best plan for success is to take one focus class a year e.g. just Bio or just O Chem or just Physics. It will be hard to take more than one lab class with any type of travel schedule. You can still be pre-med without being a Bio major, in this way you usually have more flexibility to take science classes over the summer at another school, since most schools limit the number of courses in your major that you can take elsewhere. But to keep the grades high enough for med school will be tough. </p>
<p>On a personal note, I was a D1 distance runner and Engineering major for one year. Ended up with mediocre grades and very burned out, not injured, but lost too much weight and chronically sick. Switched to liberal arts for balance of eligibility, took summer school three years and graduated with BA and them went back part time to finish up engineering, I could not maintain normal courseload (which is insane for engineering anyway!), make practices, travel and still keep up. There is always someone who has done it all somewhere, but they are the exception. You will need to prioritize the activity that is paying the tuition bill or what you want the most whether it be athletics or academics. And dont be misled, just because the team doesnt perform well, doesnt mean they dont still spend the same amount of time at practice!</p>
<p>My son also a D1 athlete, went in as a biological science major and switched to Econ after the first year… VERY hard if not impossible to handle labs with the travel and missed school. He also does not have much of a social life but he is not much of a social guy anyway so it is okay for him. The guys who tried to do it all… either quit the team, or their performance was not strong enough to make starting lineup. Good point above if you are on athletic scholarship or not. Makes a big difference.</p>
<p>I have a D1 athlete currently who is pre-med at a tough academic institution with a less strenuous athletic program. However, it is incredibly difficult to manage academics, athletics and social life. NCAA says a maximum is 20 hours per week. However, there are extra training sessions (weights, running, etc); there are 8-12 hours per week mandatory study hall, there are numerous meetings about your sport, and of course, at least 3-4 weekends in the fall–having recruits come to visit. Your time is not your own.</p>
<p>Typical advice to athletes is to take five years to get an undergraduate degree if you major in a lab science. This is hard to do if you are paying the bill for college yourself. </p>
<p>Is it impossible to be pre-med? No, just very difficult.</p>
<p>Here is a typical day:</p>
<p>545am wake up call
6-8 sport
8-8:40 breakfast
9am class
10am class
11am class
12pm lab
2pm weight lifting
4pm shower/study
6pm dinner with team
7pm study until 11pm</p>
<p>prdaly,</p>
<p>I agree with others that it is very difficult, but not impossible given the right situation. My oldest son is a senior D1 baseball player and engineering major. Here is my two cents…Ask the coach about your intentions, and see what he or she says. In addition, ask the coach to speak to someone on the team in a similar demanding major or close to it. If there is or isn’t someone on the team with your intended major that will tell you a lot. Grab a map and look at their tennis match schedule. Get a feel for what is needed for travel (bus and/or plane). Look into club tennis as an option if you truly love the sport but can’t make the varsity athletic commitment. JMO.</p>
<p>We were told at white coat ceremony that 20% of the current med school class were collegiate athletes. So Adcoms want the athlete stories and your dreams are very doable!</p>
<p>Who else is going to keep the grad bowl trophy in the med school? ;)</p>
<p>I wonder if they were athletes all 4 years. I knew a neuroscience major/premed at Brown who played 2 years and had to give it up due to lab classes conflicting.</p>
<p>So OP, what’s the scoop regarding texaspg’s concerns re finances in post #2? That makes a difference. Will you be on scholarship? If so, do you absolutely need it?</p>
<p>And are you looking at D3 at all? Or is your decision solely between the D1 school with tennis and the D1 school without tennis?</p>
<p>If you are really concerned about the workload for pre-med and having a social life (while playing tennis) then D3 might be your best bet. But there’s no mention of it.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to do, and every year there are probably hundreds of kids around the country who get into medical school immediately after a 4 year varsity collegiate sport career. There are even more who take a year or two off after college to take classes, do research fellowships, etc. My d1 athlete daughter (not premed) knew a girl who played 2 d1 sports at an incredibly high level and still graduated with a 3.8 as a neuroscience major. It depends on your drive, discipline and intelligence. It’s really hard to do, but it’s still doable. Good luck.</p>
<p>I am a junior in college and I run XC/TF in the NAIA (<a href=“http://www.naia.org”>http://www.naia.org</a>), I am also a Chemistry major going to Grad school where just like pre-law/med where high grades and internships are vital. There people in D1 Ivy League or D1 at USC who are math/science majors and do well while committing more time to athletics than school. However it is no walk in the park!</p>
<p>My advice is to look into tennis at a D3 school. It can be competitive but not overwhelming, the reason for this is the fact that D3 schools don’t make money off of athletes as do D1 schools. Therefore, professors and coaches cannot expect you to put athletics before school and they won’t! If money is an issue and you want the scholarship, look into D2 or NAIA which is where I am at. We earn scholarship money and aren’t expected to give as much for athletics, we don’t fly across the country 3 days out of a week or have week long tournaments. These schools ar generally smaller to so you can meet with professors and stay in good touch and they will work around your schedule (same as HS). There is a catch tho, it various institution to institution but here at my NAIA school athletes aren’t dedicated to being the best they can… which can cause conflicts between athletes who are trying to be all-american and pre-med, pre-law or grad school where GPA and internships are vital! But I will say that it can go both ways. I remember sitting in a Van driving back 9 hrs on Saturday night after nationals trying to study for an Ochem exam on Monday. And during the spring semester the conference championships is three days long the week before finals… IN CONCLUSION, here at the NAIA level you will find it is very similar to HS Varsity where you have am lifting or two a days and have to drive 2-6 hours for a game or meet… but the difference is in college everything is more intense! Not impossible, but more INTENSE! </p>
<p>I would recommend looking at the schedule to see when the matches are and how much travel. My daughter is in her first year playing for a D2 team, but 12+ games are at home, a few others are within 3 hours (on weekends) and only 2 on Wednesdays, at home. It really looks like she’ll miss very few classes which was a big factor in picking this school. She belongs to a sorority, but the sorority has a lot of athletes and she is excused if there is any conflict.</p>
<p>She loves the structure of being on the team, the work outs, the study schedule. She’s not as fond of the social parts of the team (Halloween party, some ‘team events’ like swimming on Sundays). I don’t think they are required, but they are required if you know what I mean. We consider her playing as her job. </p>
<p>If you don’t want to play 100%, don’t do it. It eats up a lot of time, but for my daughter, that’s okay and she’s willing to do it. My other daughter plays a club sport and works out on her own, and that’s plenty for her.</p>
<p>With all honesty, because I have heard “Sure u would be able to fit all that in if your organized enough” so many times, will I have the time for all this while a.)get good grades in order to get into med school and b.) simply having a normal college experience/social life? Your honest and realistic opinions are much appreciated, thank!"</p>
<p>Normal life…no. Possible…yes. Depends on how hard you want to push yourself, and what level of medical school is your goal. You can start out playing tennis to see if it works for you… I’d ask the coach if others have taken a similiar path, and how many have been successful.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>OP posted this a year ago and has not been seen since February. We can only assume that s/he has already made a decision. Closing thread.</p>