<p>How much does playing a Varsity Sport in College help on a medical school application. We're talking DIII, not going to win any awards varsity sport. If my grades are going to be the same and I can either just work out and play intramurals with friends or play a varsity sport, should I play the varsity sport?</p>
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<p>My thought is that varsity sport, even at D3 would be considered a significant time commitment, and can only help out for medical school applications. As far as ECs go, varsity sports probably trumps most things you can do outside of medical-related volunteer/community service, and research.</p>
<p>I strongly disagree. Sports are not a substitute for research, volunteering, and community service. Period. It is a decent EC if you enjoy doing it, but I warn you that it can be dangerous too. You will have a hard time scheduling classes for one, and your grades might suffer. I don’t know how much time you will spend on the road or training, but thats a HUGE amount of your free time gone that you won’t be able to use for other ECs. So even if sports was a great EC in the eyes of a given adcom (rugby is loved by Columbia I know), it won’t necessarily make up for the multiple ECs that you won’t have time for.</p>
<p>Yeah saejinbilly said
He never said they are a substitute for those. Maybe you missed the “OUTSIDE of”?</p>
<p>Indeed I did! Thats the problem with reading CC when you wake up and haven’t put in your contacts.</p>
<p>I still recommend thinking deeply about doing sports. If you are passionate about it, its a good EC to pursue. However, it will still cut into your ability to do others.</p>
<p>Hmm, my DD played rugby at her university, should she add Columbia 
Women’s rugby is still a club sport, so not quite the commitment of, nor the support of DI sports, but still, it was an intense commitment.</p>
<p>You should know it will take a great deal of time and know that it will cause some timing issues some weeks- for example if you have to travel for a tournament and have an Ochem mid-term, that is a touhg week.</p>
<p>It will also show adcoms you can successfully manage your time, but you should only do it if you love it.</p>
<p>Somemom: I like your name. In regard to the discussion, I do love my sport. I simply question whether it is worth changing my college schedule/experience for. I feel I would love to simply do intramurals as well. The choice is really something I will have to make for myself. I just wanted to know how important extracurriculars are for med school admissions because I am virtually clueless. If anyone else has any opinions on the original question, that would be awesome.</p>
<p>Another question: Besides research, EMT work, and writing for my school health journal, what are other great extracurriculars? I know what your passionate about. I personally am interested in public health/international medicine and plan to do peace corps in South America to perfect my spanish and experience international medicine. I have already done Americorps. I’ve thought of becoming involving in scouts as an adult leader because Scouts really shaped me as a young man. What would be other great extracurriculars to be involved in? How are the ones I am already thinking of?</p>
<p>All of those would be great, just don’t over burden yourself for a given semester. The problem with the peace corps is that it is, I believe, a several year year commitment. So you would have to do it after undergrad probably. You certainly wouldn’t be the first pre-med to do it, but just throwing that out there. Plenty of folks do that and teach for america and similar things before going to medical school. It’s just a matter of priorities.</p>
<p>I know it’s a two year committment. But it’s worth it. I want to work for a nonprofit as a doctor in developing nations. I think Peace Corps will give me some experience and also give me a chance to get my head straight. From your post, it doesn’t sound like all med schools appreciate Peace Corps; however, if a schools admissions doesn’t appreciate such an experience, that’s probably not where I want to be.</p>
<p>Oh, no the definitely appreciate such things if you have your heart in them.</p>
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This is a bit of a red flag here.</p>
<p>EDIT: Actually I might have misread your post. Hm.</p>
<p>From what I have read it seems like just like with college apps, it is the authentic people that they seek out. I will, of course, know more this time next year when DD is done with the application cycle, but my DD has not done ANYTHING because she was ‘supposed’ to. In fact she deliberately chose to do other things; she did not seek internships her junior summer, she went to another country, studied for the MCAT, worked to pay for her living expenses and volunteered. </p>
<p>In other words, in each decision she made, she was aware of the ‘you shoulds’ but she pursued what she wanted to to do to actually determine if med school was for her, not to convince an adcom, but to convince herself. I have to believe that the authentic ness about her entire profile will shine through.</p>
<p>So far, with very average at best numbers she has 1 interview and a large number if screened secondaries, so something is making sense somewhere.</p>
<p>You really will be best served by serving yourself, BUT that also means pushing yourself. I don’t think some one who never does any ECs is going to be an attractive candidate, but some one who honestly pursues their interests is going to present a very cohesive picture overall.</p>
<p>My Dd was really not sure medicine was for her, even when taking the MCAT, it was her upper div bio and some shadowing that pushed her over the line to decide she had to pursue medicine.</p>
<p>DD did play her sport at her university, at her study abroad school, for the USA jr national team and she also coached an upper level team one summer. She did not play her senior year, so she had more time to shadow etc, but she is already playing in an adult league this summer. It is a cohesive overall picture that happens to nicely fill out boxes- not as pretty a picture as if she had played senior year and been captain, but she needed to do other things this year so she had to skip that, but what she did do would make sense to any adcom that she had a serious commitment to her sport. If you love your sport, play it, whether DIII or IM; if you start DIII and it does not work for you, go IM, do what feels right and you should be okay, as long as you are doing something you love</p>