Taking a year off of UG to pursue athletics + college degree

[turcotte44]

I am considering taking a year off of school to play hockey in the OHL. Since I will not be playing/living near school I have the option of taking part-time courses paid by the team at UWindsor or St. Clair College. I also have the option of not taking courses while playing. I am entering my second year of studies.

 

Questions:

 

1. Will taking a year off of school hurt my chances?

 

2. Will taking part-time courses at UWindsor be beneficial? Full course load isn't feasible.

 

3. Would completing a 1 year college program (Personal Support Worker or Autism & Behavioral Science) be worthwhile?

 

4. Is my performance important if I were to complete a program at St. Clair College? 75% vs. 90%

 

Thanks for your help!

[Mei_Mei_girl]

The more I meet med students, the more I realize how convoluted some people's paths are to get into med!! So certainly, the old-fashioned BSc to med seems to becoming one in many options. If you do College, make sure you look into med school requirements...I think I remember reading they look at ALL your postsecondary...and for UBC they LOOKED AT MY FINAL GRADES even though I did not initially submit them (university grades for my fifth year). So watch out ---you wouldn't want low college grades to end up screwing you. But then again, some med schools dont care at all what final grades you got if it isn't apart of the initial application process..

 

you just have to investigate

[a41]

Playing on the spits?

 

I don't really see this as something that would hurt your chances.

 

I would opt for the university classes rather than the college program. I can't see schools making a huge deal about you not taking a full courseload when you're already heavily involved in something else. If anything this demonstrates that you value education. There's the whole deal with full course load, but you can take a full course load when you return. These are free credits at UWindsor which I would be eager to take.

 

When you're done playing, if you haven't been drafted or whatever, just start back up at university. You'll have an interesting story and on your way to your BSc or whatever.

[turcotte44]

Playing on the spits?

 

All depends on how training camp goes, but my chances are good.

 

The reason why I was worried about full course load is missing out on some of the "freebies" that schools give (dropping courses, weighting etc.).

 

Should I take courses that relate to my program (health studies) while at Windsor?

 

The college programs sound like a great way to diversify a little bit. Seems like it would make finding relevant summer jobs easier as well, no?

[future_doc]

1. Taking off a year is not going to hurt your chances.

 

2. Part-time UG, I would check with the med schools before going that route.

 

3/4. Unsure about college, but grades are always important, less so if not considered for cGPA. For example, I attended CEGEP in Quebec, covered many prerequisites, but nobody cares about my grades, they do not form part of consideration for GPA.