So they want automatons who work all the time…sounds good.
@OldbatesieDoc Are you implying the MCAT score had anything to do with volleyball ? 
We did campus visits with coaches at a few D3 schools.
In these cases they had engineers and pre-meds on their teams, and did have kids get into med school. We specifically looked for that small subset of schools where the athletic culture supports academic achievement. D3 schools give no athletic scholarships, so the only pressure to participate is your desire to compete. If it gets in the way academically, then you can drop it anytime, no loss of scholarship. One could argue, exercise can clear the mind and help you study more efficiently anyway.
That said, D1 athletics is more of a job in most cases, and yes, would get in the way at most schools,
maybe the Ivies being somewhat of an exception. Problem is not just the hours, but your teammates.
You don’t want to be the only one on the team bus or hotel, studying.
In a nutshell, a 3.4 isn’t going to cut it for med school, athlete or not. My daughter, as well as many of her med school classmates were in sports in UG, usually 20+ hours per week. It’s all about time management, and if it isn’t doable, what is your sons priority, wrestling or his GPA?
Son was recruited by a wide variety of schools to play a sport in which the NESCAC and Ivy League are very strong;, including by several NESCAC/Ivy schools. Is interested in both the military and medicine. My brother and I are service academy grads (different ones). I share the fol based on my family’s experience; YMMV.
- My cousin was a non-Ivy D1 football player and a STEM major. Having at least a partial academic scholarship allowed him to push back with the coach when there was an academic/practice conflict. He said that if he were to do it again, he would have gone to an Ivy (if accepted) or a D3 school. He played for four years alongside some guys who made it to the NFL. His key point was that playing a D1 sport is an on-campus job. The old saw as a D1 athlete is that out of athletics, academics, and social life, you only get to pick two, so choose wisely.
- Average GPA for service academy grads is somewhere in the 2.6-2.9 range depending on major. While there are a few that go directly to med school, they are the exception and typically have 3.8+ GPAs. ROTC and academy recruiters will generally tell you that if want military and medicine, your best bet is to go to a civilian school, get the best grades possible, and apply for the military’s Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP); applicants must first get into a US medical school, then if selected, they get a full ride, a monthly stipend and housing allowance, summer training, a commission as an officer, and a job…and no grad school debt.
- A couple I know are both physicians and have three super smart kids. Oldest was an all-state athlete who was recruited by and attended an Ivy league school with the intent of playing their chosen sport and going to med school. D1 practice schedule conflicted with some classes and student left team after two years. Unfortunately, by that time had already barely gotten Bs in some key classes that are med school pre-reqs (still graduated magna cum laude). Pre-req GPA was .01 or .02 below min required by the med schools student applied to. Rejected by all; was told ECs only beneficial if min standards met. Worked for a year and took two key classes over, as well as some more advanced and related classes; was accepted this time and had several to choose from.
- Friend of mine went to one of the smaller NESCAC schools and was a three-season athlete, STEM major, and pre-med. Had a really great experience, with lots of close interaction with faculty, got into med school immediately, and did HPSP. Said would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
My son ultimately was admitted ED by a top LAC where he can pursue his academic passions (STEM and languages) and play his sport in a competitive D3 conference. A coach from a D1 school with a strong STEM reputation told him that they would support him as a pre-med, but that he should expect to redshirt a year because he would likely need five years to graduate; my son said thanks, but no thanks. He also decided against an academy because there are less opportunities to pursue his specific interests or study abroad, and because he is not 100% exactly sure what he ultimately wants to do. A key driver in his decision was that even if pursuing medical (or dental or vet) school admission is something one is only thinking about, you had better put yourself in a position to be competitive right from the start. Tip o’ the hat to anyone who has their life planned out at 17 or 18…I certainly didn’t.
We have just helped my non-athlete, older son, (younger son is the D1 athlete) successfully complete an MD application cycle. Based on our experience, med schools treat being an athlete the same as any other EC, no special accommodations are given for the level of competition unless the athlete is at an international level (i.e. Olympics) and can talk about significant life experiences, etc. There is a GPA floor for applicants (which med schools sometime publish on their websites), and you will need a high MCAT to at least partially offset a lower GPA. Studying for the MCAT alone is almost a part time job. The AAMC website has fact tables that give stats for prob. of admission with x GPA and X MCAT scores. That being said there are hundreds of schools and big ranges on grades, so it may be possible to get in with a lower GPA if you apply to schools that are ranked lower, but it will be because the application has other strong points, not just because he is an athlete.
Overall acceptance rates are around 40% for all applicants. The reality is that everyone applying is bright and there are just so many qualified students that med schools don’t need to be accommodating. You can get much, much, more insight into the overall med school app process on a site like SDN. In addition to grades, the challenge for an athlete will be getting the required hours for research, shadowing, clinical exposure, volunteering etc. which all need to be started in Sophomore year to accrue enough by the beginning of the app cycle, which will be the summer prior to Senior year. Even many non-athletes take the problematic classes (weed out classes like Org Chem & Physics) in summer school to maximize grades or take a gap year and go into a master’s program or research to improve grades and their prob. of success before applying.
Based on what we see are the pressures my athlete son goes through, (and yes…there are exceptions), trying to do D1 sports and pre-med will be a difficult balance at best and certainly not the best way to maximize the likelihood of success.
This got off to a rocky start, but ultimately several people with the experience I was looking for commented, thank you. S is not really sure what he wants to do, doctor was only one of several options he was considering. I think frankly that he isn’t that interested in keeping close to a 4.0 in college, so I’m guessing medicine will end up falling by the wayside. But this will give me better information to pass on to him so he can make that choice.
As a side note, little sister has been laser focused on med school since she broke her arm 8 years ago (and she has the grades/work ethic to make it happen if she continues on the same path). She is just entering into high school this fall, so lots of time But down the road I will definitely check out HPSP. That sounds like an incredible deal for the right kid!
Another option for debt-free medical school is the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the military’s own medical school. Like with HPSP, a service payback is required.
To the OP: Best of luck to your son as he goes through the process. Best advice my son ever got as a student-athlete was to make sure to pick a school he would love if he were no longer playing his chosen sport and/or he decided to switch major.