Just as he’s busy balancing research, classes, and football, Nelson also deals with the process of applying to medical school, and it isn’t a free run at the quarterback by any means.

Nelson explained that the first step in applying is filling out the American Medical College Application Service and sending it to desired medical schools.

The schools that like Nelson’s application will get in touch with him and have him fill out a secondary application, which can lead to an interview and more. But it’s a tedious and time-consuming process.

“They want to know everything about you, so they try to look at you [with] a holistic approach to admissions and that sort of stuff,” Nelson said.

Nelson won’t hear back for sure until the spring on how he did.

“It kind of leaves you anxious,” he said. “‘Did I say the right thing? Did I write the right thing? Did I do well enough?’ It just kind of leaves you on edge for a long time.”

Nelson said that he’s looked at a mostly schools in the Midwest, including a few in Chicago, but ultimately, he estimated he applied to anywhere in the neighborhood of eight to 10 different institutions.

He joked that realistically, he would attend whichever school would accept him, but he did have one specific program in mind.

“Iowa would be a dream school for me,” he said.

But at the same time as when he’d be hearing about his medical-school applications, the Iowa football program will host its Pro Day, an event in which NFL scouts and personnel venture to Iowa City and watch Hawkeye draft prospects go through various drills.

Football is an unpredictable sport, but in the event that Nelson would have to make a choice between enrolling in medical school right out of college or going to the professional leagues, he would have a tough decision to make — both options are on his radar.

“I’d like to go to the NFL if they gave me a shot, and then I’d give that one go-around,” Nelson said. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll focus solely on the medical-school aspect. I’ve been training so long for the NFL, so I might as well give it a shot while I’m here.”

Some might think the NFL aspirations are out of Nelson’s reach, but not many people could have predicted his track to where he stands now.

His dream, to make it in the NFL or to repair player injuries, becomes even more tangible each day.

“I will say this over and over again: the greatest gift a parent gets is to watch their kid chase after their dreams,” Julie Palmer said. “I have a front-row seat watching Matt chase after his dream, just like I do with my other sons. There is nothing more rewarding than that.”