Colorado Technical University

Do med schools consider the time commitment of Division 1 college athletics?

I play baseball for a fairly successful division 1 baseball program and it is a huge time commitment that often overrules academics. Do med schools realize my GPA may be a little lower because of this?

Public Comments

1. Most medical schools prefer students who are involved in extracurricular activities. However, if your GPA has suffered because of your extracurriculars, you will be less competitive for medical school. Medical school is a major time commitment in and of itself, and most medical students are also involved in extracurricular activities, because this makes them more competitive for residency programs. If you are unable to balance both, medical school may be quite difficult for you.
2. Yes and no... For every guy like you, where athletics have been a huge time commitment and have tarnished your GPA a bit, there are 10 other guys where athletics have been a huge time commitment and their GPA is a 4.0 throughout their college career. You've probably heard of or met a few of these academic all-star athletes or whatever. Just do the best you can do and always understand that GPA is the most important thing. Med schools will like to see that you've been in athletics your whole college career, just make sure you still get in shadowing, hospital volunteer work, and non-medical volunteer work. Also, try and become some form of a leader on your team, just to make your commitment to baseball that much more impressive to adcomms.
3. Medical schools don't really care. If you haven't realized academics should be your #1 priority, then you will be unpleasantly surprised during medical school. If you have any hope of passing medical school, you should now how to put academics first. Plus, there are students who manage to balance sports and grades.