Need help narrowing down or learning insights on some schools. We are from CA and planning a visit to the East Coast to see some schools D26 has been in contact with for her sport. She wants premed so I’m worried about grade deflation at some of these, though the coaches insist the athletes all do well academically. We have what I feel are too many for a one week visit, and I’m trying to do visits in that timeframe. If we absolutely have to, we will come for a second trip but that is not ideal. Please help!
Hobart & William Smith
RPI
WPI
Clark
Connecticut College
Stevens Institute of Technology
Dickinson
Thomas Jefferson University (aware they are D2)
Also on list and for a separate visit: St. Olaf
Please help with your experience/knowledge about any of the above. She is not looking for party life, but social life is important. Diversity also matters. She is a great student and is very disciplined, but I don’t want her 4 years to be ones of struggle because of grade deflation or any type of cut throat competitive vibe/environment. If we can eliminate any of the schools for a compelling reason, it might make our trip doable.
A few thoughts. The sport matters. The major matters. Is it a winter sport, so impacts both semesters? How many 7 week terms would be in-season at WPI?
In terms of major, if she’s looking at engineering, that is a tough road for any pre-med in terms of GPA. Then combining that with a sport can be difficult. Of course some students excel, but others drop off the pre-med and/or engineering track and that’s ok. Just make sure the school fits without sports and her first choice major.
Also as a pre-med, playing a sport means fewer hours for clinical/patient care and research experience. Does her sport require summer participation? Is her plan to take a few years after undergrad to do these types of activities to strengthen her med school apps?
I would talk to coaches about academic supports for athletes. I would understand what the out of season time commitment is…this can vary widely by coach, sport, and school, ask the teammates about this too.
People will have different opinions of all of these schools, and nothing will beat your D actually talking to students. For me, RPI and WPI are intense, grindy schools. I’m sure all the schools have some students who are serious, competitive, and focused on getting good grades, especially pre-meds. I’m not sure I would say any of these schools are ‘cut-throat’ which is different to me than saying a school is competitive, grindy, intense.
Are you talking about racial diversity? Income? Religious?
Does the proportion of women matter to her? RPI ~30%, WPI ~35%, Stevens ~33% Most of the others will skew more female.
I would try to find out the majors for the current and past players on the team. If there are no pre-meds or engineering majors, that could be a red flag.
Some pre-med extracurricular activities like research and community service prefer a year round commitment. There could be a problem with participation, especially during the sports season.
I wouldn’t necessarily cross WPI off your list. Sports are kind of low key at WPI and coaches are used to working with the 7 week terms as well as the required IQR. When we looked S23 was deciding between which sport to continue and we found out that there are multiple sport athletes at WPI. I believe all of the schools in their athletic conference are within an hour radius which is HUGE in terms of time spent on the road. It’s really nice not to have to do overnights or spend hours on a bus during the regular season. I would definitely visit and set up time to speak with other athletes. I also wouldn’t worry too much about grade deflation as it’s not known for deflation and there is a NR (no record) option where you can retake a class and there will be no record of the first grade. I see alot of value in project based and applied learning for a pre-med major rather than remaining in a lab science silo.
By the time we visited St. Olaf (forced visit to a smaller school by me, his heart was already set on a large state school), S23 had already decided that he wasn’t going to continue his sport(s) in college, however, he did comment that St. Olaf was the only school where he would had the school been a fit for him.