Geometry in 8th Grade with one B+

I am going to assume that you are either in the USA or in Canada. If this is wrong let us know.

In the US, and in Canada, medical school is a graduate program. First you get your bachelor’s degree, then you apply to medical schools.

At one point in the distant past one daughter considered medical school as an option. I asked two different doctors I know where the other students in their MD program had gotten their bachelor’s degree. One said “all over the place”. The other said essentially the same thing.

I do not have any MD’s in my immediate family. I do have three close relatives who got or are currently getting some sort of medical related graduate degree (two master’s degrees, one DVM, and a PhD in progress). All of them have said essentially the same thing. The other students in their medical-related graduate program came from a very, very wide range of undergraduate universities. All of these were by the way in highly ranked graduate programs.

You do not need to attend a “top 20” university for your bachelor’s degree to get accepted to very good MD or DO programs (or very good master’s, DVM, or PhD programs). You do not need to attend a “top 100” university for a bachelor’s in order to get accepted to very good MD or DO programs (or …).

By the way, your daughter’s 3.86 unweighted GPA is very close to my older daughter’s high school unweighted GPA. She is at work today. At work they call her “doctor” (she is the one with a DVM). This GPA will help to get your daughter into universities that are very good for premed students.

Both daughters had undergraduate majors that overlapped a lot with premed classes, and both knew quite a few premed students from these classes. The required premed classes are tough at any “top 200” university. These classes will be full of very strong students. I am not a big fan of jumping ahead in these classes. Students really do get stronger as they go through their education. Waiting to take the toughest classes, or perhaps pacing oneself carefully in taking these classes, is a good plan.

But I would not worry about one B+ somewhere along the way. There will be lots more B’s for most students who end up being called “doctor”.

This might actually be advice that is worth thinking about. You can major in nearly anything, complete the premed required classes, and apply to medical schools. There is for example at least one video on-line by someone who majored in art, completed the premed requirements, went to medical school, and became a surgeon specializing in robot-assisted surgery. In the video he paints a very small picture of the hospital where he works, using the robot-assisted surgery system to do the painting.

One reason that many premed students major in biology is that the required courses overlap a lot with the required premed classes. Another reason is probably that they find it interesting and are good at it. However, there are a lot of premed students who major in biology, and most premed students do not actually end up in medical school. Having some “plan B” in mind is a good idea.

And to me it sounds like your daughter is doing very well.

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Can you please tell me more about shadowing? I am networking to find a doctor she can do shadowing. I know a doctor who is like 8 hours (flight+drive) away from me. would he understand if I ask him that my daughter want to shadow him. is it worth the time and effort to do in summer

I would not travel 8 hours by plane and car to shadow. Honestly, I think it is too early to decide that she definitely wants to become an MD/DO. She’s a HS junior.

Let her first find a college where she will thrive. When she is ready to shadow she can call her pediatrician and ask if he/she would mind (if MD/DO is still a consideration).

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Your D needs to work with patients, not shadow. Depending on her age and your state, she might become an assistant CNA, volunteer in a hospital/hospice/assisted living center, assistant EMT, etc.

There are no doctors closer than 8 hours away?

Your D can get patient exposure in many ways besides flying 8 hours. She can volunteer at a Hospice. She can volunteer at a homeless shelter-- many of the people served there have complicated medical conditions they are trying to manage. (Imagine being diabetic, high blood pressure, and no home, irregular meals…) She can get a paid job at a doctors office answering the phone, filing, restocking supplies (i.e. a clerk or receptionist). She can volunteer to do sports clinics with disabled kids, teach arts and crafts at a center for kids with Autism, become an aid at a stable which specializes in adaptive horseback riding for people with a wide variety of limitations. These aren’t fancy positions, but they will give her a much more realistic look into what patient care is all about than what kids see on TV. And they don’t have the same issues that “shadowing” does- many patients will not give permission for a HS student to be sitting in the examining room when they see their doctor. I will not- I choose not to discuss side effects of medication I am taking with a 16 year old- who lives in my town, who I see at the local library occasionally.

So let your D figure out how to get actual, close up experience with actual human beings with medical needs. That’s step one. Volunteering is great. If she can’t handle being around vulnerable people, that’s a good sign that she needs a different career focus for now!!! Her guidance counselor at school likely has a list of organizations in town that are eager for volunteers.

Is she good with computers? Nursing homes LOVE volunteers who can come in to help the residents learn to Zoom with family members, or retrieve the lost email password!!!

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Find someone local. There is absolutely no need to travel 8 hours from your home.

But I have to ask….if your daughter has never shadowed a doctor for a length of time…how does she really know what the job entails?

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Closing temporarily for review

Since Terms of Service prohibits multiple accounts, I am closing this thread. The OP can only use their original account

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