<p>Pre-med kid has three options. (1) Full ride at big state flagship, but the college doesn't offer kid's beloved sport. Kid can participate in sport off campus. Money saved ($110,000) can be used for grad school. (2) Good school, 3/4 scholarship, varsity sport included, money saved ($50,000) can be used for grad school or (3) Ivy (no money saved for grad school) but only club participation in sport. </p>
<p>Kid is leaning toward option 2. Is it wrong for me to encourage option 1 or 3?</p>
<p>College level sports is very different than high school, there is a lot more time commitment. I know quite a few kids who quit their sports while in college. I say pick college base on academic, not ECs.</p>
<p>Son was pre-med with a D1 sport offered at only some campuses, including his ivy choices. He chose the best school academically for him and walked-on to the varsity sport. Kept the D1 sport, stayed pre-med at the ivy. He had a low EFC so no loans for him or me and very, very little out-of-pocket. He was also responsible for med school/grad school finances so the no debt from the ivy played a large role.</p>
<p>Med school is much, much more expensive than undergrad, and school for undergrad plays little in admission decisions for med school. More GPA, MCAT and ECs for med school. And a D1 sport is like a full-time job even at an ivy. Made it difficult for summer research and interning with early fall practice but son did manage to do both, not easy and not his first choice for summer research but again he did make it work. For med school GPA needs to remain very high, and lots of ECs, hospital/clinic work, shadowing, and research. It can be done but it is very time consuming and with the sport, exhausting.</p>
<p>Take a look at med school tuition, fees and total COA. Look at what it takes to get in. Then look at what school #2 wants for time comittment for the sport. Will the lab(s) for the required pre-med requirements conflict with practice times? How is the coach for letting the students prep for an Ochem exam? For research lab hours? TAs? Is this an ivy with a known “grade deflation” policy? Is this a high injury sport? I ask since I had 3 kiddos in D1 sports…and some injuries can make it hard to continue pre-med not just the sport itself.</p>
<p>Which school can your child see himself at NOT playing the sport? Which is a better fit academically? If the one with the varsity sport is the same for “fit” then you have your answer. And pre-med it a set of courses he takes, not a major? Which one has the major he is currently interested in? That of course can also change…as with the pre-med.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>kat</p>
<p>Excellent post, kat!!!</p>
<p>Kat, you do bring up some excellent points to mull over. The Ivy (#3) is supposedly a grade deflator, but the club sport at this school seems very low key, as in 3 practices a week. The good school (#2) with the varsity level sport requires around 15 hours, I think. However, the participants at #2 report high gpas, though very few are pre-med (series of courses - not a major). Definitely less stressful than the Ivy by reputation, and kid indicates a desire to be less stressed. This sport does involve injury - kid knows three participants who had to stop and one who had to withdraw from school entirely, so that is definitely something to think about. Kid definitely needs to do more research on scheduling and policies! Thanks for your advice. </p>
<p>Is the scholarship at #2 an athletic scholarship, and if so, what happens if he gets injured and can’t play?</p>
<p>Have you looked at where premeds end up for med school at each of these schools? How many of them actually end up getting accepted? I also know kids who dropped out of sport after 1st semester, they found the time commitment too high. </p>
<p>Kat and Hunt bring up excellent points. If the 4-year differential is $50K, I’d be inclined to go for the Ivy, BUT that depends on how difficult it is for you ad he to come up with the money. If that is going to be $50K in loans, it is a much more difficult choice. It is also a much more difficult choice if the scholarship at #2 is an athletic one that could be lost.</p>
<p>Then here is the whole issue around the MANY kids who enter college intending to be premed and change their minds, either because something else grabs their interest, or because they can’t hack O-chem, or whatever. You have to ask: where would your S be most fulfilled if he decided against premed and couldn’t play his sport? And to complicate matters, if your financial situation changes, will #2 or #3 be affordable? (An Ivy would be most likely to come through with FA…)</p>
<p>Kid has a pot of money to spend. If kid goes to the Ivy, there will be no money left for grad school. On the other hand, it’s an Ivy. Kid has merit scholarships at #1 and #2, so if kid can’t play it won’t matter unless grades drop. The Ivy and #2’s honors program advertise med school acceptance rates in the 70s and 80s. #1 doesn’t publish that information (and also has a much lower graduation rate than the others). I am beginning to think that kid’s question to #2’s advisors should be whether kids in this sport are able to successfully complete the pre-med (and honors) requirements. Thanks for all the advice!</p>
<p>Is the Ivy affordable without loans? If it isn’t, the potential for needing even more money for med school might make that a more undesirable choice. If he does go to the Ivy, how would he pay for med school?</p>
<p>Nice problems to have! I think I would make sure kid thinks about worst case scenarios, like what if he stops sport, would he still be happy there? </p>
<p>Ivy will be covered without loans. If kid graduates from Ivy with current intended major, kid can either get a job for a year (school claims 100% placement in jobs or grad school) and take out loans or go the military route. I won’t be able to help kid at that point because there are two other kids. So to be really safe, kid could go to big state school #1 and have some money left over to pay for med school. Kid never did play it safe, though, which is why I think kid is leaning toward #2. Kid obviously needs more info on scheduling and acceptance rate though. Kid also needs to do soul searching to determine if #2 is a good fit if the sports aspect is eliminated.</p>
<ol>
<li>Most kids who start out pre-med do not end up going to medical school.</li>
<li>Labs and science classes seem to be frequently scheduled at weird times. They do not tend to mesh well with college level sports practice and travel schedules.</li>
<li>Every college athlete is one injury away from not being able to continue with their sport.</li>
<li>Any coach we have spoken to is pretty upfront about the difficulties of science heavy majors and their ability to maintain needed GPA’s for med school admissions. Not impossible, but very difficult.</li>
<li>Be honest with yourself and have your kid be honest with himself about how hard he has to work to get those top grades. Some kids need to spend a lot of time to earn the top grades, while some don’t. That will make a world of difference in how easy it will be to balance a sport and science heavy course load.</li>
</ol>
<p>There’s no right answer and your son has some great choices. Congrats to him. The ivy undergrad does not matter much for med school. It’s by no means worthless, but the whole process is more about numbers than undergrad prestige; however, Consolation’s point about possibly deciding against med school is a good one. When you read a schools’ stats about percentage of kids who gain admission realize that the denominator is not kids entering as pre-meds but kids who remain so in their senior year. Lots of people change their mind along the way for a host of reasons. If your kid is absolutely, unequivocally certain that he’s gonna be a doc, option 1 or 2 makes most sense. If there is any hesitation, option 3 looks good. My kid is ivy varsity athlete, not pre med ( I am med), but has several pre med friends. Good luck.</p>
<p>It is much more difficult and entertaining college level sports than high school level. Competition is much more higher than high school level.</p>
<p>Money talks. I’d pick one of the scholarship schools. Once u have a graduate degree, no one really cares about your undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>If the student is serious about becoming a physician, I would be encourage him to consider #3 because he can have his cake and eat it (to use a very old expression). He will have a chance to play the sport he loves but because he would be playing at the club level, he would also be able to give his academic work the attention it needs – which is essential if he’s to have any chance of being admitted to medical school. </p>
<p>I think it would be very difficult to combine the degree of academic seriousness needed to qualify for medical school with the heavy commitment required in a varsity sport.</p>
<h1>3 is the least desirable financially, of course, but if he doesn’t get into medical school (which is what I envision happening at #2), he doesn’t need money for medical school, right?</h1>