You’re not going to like this, and I’m surely going to take a lot of flaming for this.
Where do you want to be, 5-6 years from now? Med school? A biology degree without going to med school (which means a starting salary of 35-45K/yr, IF you can even find a job)? What is most important to you? Because it’s extremely time consuming to be a recruited athlete for any sport. Unless you expect to go pro in men’s football or basketball (which I’m sure you do not expect), you’re going to expend a huge amount of time on your sport, and it’s not going to leave you the time that you will need to get the 4.0 GPA you seek, nor to do all the hours of research, volunteering, and clinical work that you need to apply, plus studying for the MCAT. You can take possibly 3 gap years before your MCAT score will expire, assuming that you finish all your premeds while an undergrad, maybe take the summer after college off to study full time, and take the MCAT in mid September (usually the last administration date until the next calendar year). Or you can enjoy college, major in whatever you want, play your sport, do your best, and finish the pre-reqs after college at your local 4 yr state college, while living at home, and take the MCAT when you finish them - it will be a 2 year process, at a minimum.
You can be a successful premed. You can be a varsity athlete. It’s going to be very, very hard (not impossible, but very hard) to do both, even if you push off all the other required ECs to after college, and take a 3 year gap. And here come the flames of “My Iphigenia was a varsity swimmer all four years, and a pre-med with a 4.0 GPA, got a 528 MCAT, and published 8 research papers, was a right-hand-woman assistant to a family practice doctor for hundreds of hours, and did hundreds of hours of needle exchange outreach at the closest inner-city skid row, all while having a lively social life in college.” Umm, no. For most people, this is just not possible. It’s hard enough to do it without being a varsity athlete, and unfortunately, practices, games, away games, and the expected social events for your team are all not on a flexible schedule, making it very hard to even fit in studying, let alone research and the hundreds of hours of ECs.
And I haven’t even hit the issue of money. Med school, if you go, costs as much as 400K total, and will only go up. Sure, some schools offer massive fin aid, but most don’t; most people are paying the rack rate. You’re talking about paying 75-95K/yr for college, and you’re going to be spending a huge chunk of your time on the varsity sport.
BTW, you can major in anything you like, absolutely anything, and still get into med school, as long as you have the pre-reqs and the other elements of the application. It’s best to major in something you absolutely love, because it’s easiest to get A’s in something you love, and you need that high GPA. If that’s Bio, sure, but you shouldn’t think that because you are planning on applying to med school, you should be a Bio major. You can be an art history major, an English major, a folklore major, anything you like, and as long as you have all the pre-reqs and other components, med schools don’t care; in fact, they seem to like people who major in other than Bio or Chem.
If you really want to become a doctor, and if your family is not upper class, if your parents will miss 800K over the next 8-10 years, which might mean that they’d have to work a few years longer, or if you would be forced to borrow for college or med school, then PLEASE reconsider. Your best option is likely to be your in-state flagship, if you want to get into med school. It probably will cost you 30-40K/yr, and you can play your sport on the club level, or the rec level, to the degree that you are able. You’ll come out 200K ahead, and you will more likely be able to spend the time on studying for the high GPA and MCAT, and compiling the EC record you’ll need.
So please, if you really, really want to become a doctor - potentially satisfying life work, a decision that will affect the rest of your life, not just college - then consider the “third option”. Even if you weren’t planning on med school, choosing to pay rack rate or 80% of rack rate for a choice of two small LACs because these are the two offering you a spot as a recruited athletes is not necessarily the wisest choice. You haven’t mentioned anything that’s drawing you towards Carleton or Grinnell other than the fact that they’re offering you a spot as a recruited athlete - one at full pay, and one at the still very high rate of about 75K/yr, for the privilege.
Please, have a serious discussion with your parents, and anyone else who knows about the current state of applying to med school. Consider whether it’s worth it to you to pay that much money for one of two schools whose only draw for you seems to be that they want you to play your sport there. Consider whether you really want to be a doctor, or whether it’s just a thought, not a burning desire, because believe me, you have to really want it, to do the work to compile the record to get in.
And if you have to borrow to attend these schools? Not a good idea, at all (and I’m restraining myself).
