<p>My parents want me to become a doctor and I suppose I’m all for that (the wasting my life away for 8 years part sounds great). I’d like to go into film possibly, but I guess I’ll settle with the mindset of being a doctor.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my undergraduate decisions haven’t been that great. I’ve been accepted to Penn State Main, Pittsburgh, UW-Madison and Wake Forest and I’ve been waitlisted to Emory and NYU. If I can get into NYU I’ll go there in a heartbeat but since that isn’t the case my problem is sort of big.</p>
<p>My parents are Asian and huge about prestige. I’ve read that as long as you excel in your undergraduate school then you’ll be a good candidate for medical school. My parents think that prestige is the deciding factor for a place in a big medical school. For now I want to go to Pittsburgh because it’s in the city and the medical school is 17th in the nation. My parents think that it’s a no good school because its undergraduate is “horrible.” They haven’t even heard of UW-Madison which is a “better” undergraduate school for “pre-med” students. So instead my parents want me to go to Wake Forest. The thing that’s making me stay away from that place is the location and people. There’s nothing down there in Winston, Salem or wherever it is. I’ve been living in a small town for about 15 years and I’ve gotten sick of the small population. And the campus is just filled with people I’d never get along with (excuse me); white and preppy. </p>
<p>Is there anyway to convince my parents that I want to go to Pittsburgh without them basically disowning me and me being unhappy for the next four years. Yes, you may call me impulsive or whatever you want but I do not want to go to Wake Forest.</p>
<p>A quick e-mail or phone call to Pittsburgh will give you the stat of what percent of their undergrads are placed in their med school. I don’t know but I’m guessing that percentage isn’t large. But you’re right, doing well in a school is FAR more important than where you went to for med school. </p>
<p>Penn State does select some students for Med School from their undergraduate program but this is a small part of their med school to be sure. </p>
<p>But heck, I don’t get the sense that medicine is your interest as much as your parent’s. All of the schools you have listed are fine schools. I’d schedule some visits rather than just going on what you’ve heard about them and then your parents and you can see first hand.</p>
<p>Assasin - Your parents are transferring their home country values to here - and it doesn’t work!<br>
I’m not Asian, but I live in a community that is almost half Asian, and I see the dynamic played out over and over again. Your parents have to understand that you will do best where you are challenged and where you are happy. Better to be a great film maker than a reluctant and half-competent doctor. Less prestige for them perhaps, but more fulfilling for you. Research the undergraduate colleges of the Fortune 500 CEO’s, Nobel Laureates, or other successful Americans. Here’s a link:
[Where</a> the Fortune 50 CEOs Went to College - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1227055,00.html]Where”>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1227055,00.html)
Unlike your parents’ experience, success here is not determined by WHERE you went to college, but by other more significant factors - your work ethic, quality of training, dependability, ability to think outside of the box, etc.
In certain arenas, the prestige of your undergraduate college might matter, but mostly, it matters more what you did with the opportunities presented to you. Often, particularly for medical school applications, it’s even better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.<br>
I feel for you.</p>
<p>I would caution that sometimes schools’ medical school placement numbers can be “soft.” My daughter was an undergraduate at a top-3 college. She earned two B’s in core science courses, and the pre-med counselors discouraged her from applying to medical school, telling her she wouldn’t get in. The college boasts that 2/3 of their students who apply to medical school get in. I suspect that they discourage anyone who isn’t a sure bet. I’ve heard the same from other parents of med school applicants. Fortunately, she had always wanted to be a physician, and so had no Plan B. In the end, she got into all but 2 schools that she applied to.</p>
<p>Please post that article all over this website! It’s one of the sanest things I’ve seen on here, and based in fact. That and a list I saw recently of the 270 or so UG schools admitted to Harvard Law.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of an Asian who got waitlisted to schools such as Emory and NYU, Asains should be getting into those schools easily, very strange, you must have made several mistakes during HS, do you have a criminal record? ever assaulted anyone at school? I’m assuming your SAT scores are 2300 plus, it’s weird that your not going to a Top 30 ranked university—OK all jokes aside, you shouldn’t be a doctor just because your parents want you to be one, you gotta start making your own decisions some day, prestige isn’t all that is important, different schools have different pros and cons, besides you can always decide to start caring about school, get good grades and then transfer, Wisconsin is a great school and well known too, oh and Wake Forest is filled with a bunch of kids who drink until they can’t feel their hands and legs anymore, so tell your parents that if you go to Wake your bound to become an alcoholic…seriously</p>
<p>Lol, yeah I qualify for honors in all the colleges and I thought I did everything possible but I guess it wasn’t good enough, yeah that took me by a shock but the distance is too much for my parents that’s the only thing I can find reasonable about any of their arguments. </p>
<p>I’m starting to reconsider Wisconsin now since it’s a bit of a balance of “prestige” and education…oh yeah and the party life which i’m not that big on. I just hope 5 years from now I’ll be laughing about all of this.</p>
<p>You got into the Scheyer’s Honors College program at Penn State? Go there. Supposedly, they have a 100% acceptance rate into medical school. At least that’s what they told me. I still chose Duke, though.</p>
<p>This is gold. Few parents are going to want their children at a school with excessive drinking. Your parents probably have no idea about the culture at each of the schools you’re considering. Letting them know about this problem would be a good way to make them receptive to schools other than Wake Forest.</p>
<p>But be prepared to back this up with evidence if necessary. Many people disbelieve statements from random, anonymous people on the Internet unless there are numerous such people saying the same thing. It shouldn’t be hard to research evidence of what the culture at Wake Forest is like.</p>
<p>/\ssassin - Beginning in 2009, Schreyer’s Honors College at Penn State is offering a Junior Year Abroad program at Oxford. That ought to satisfy your parents’ need for status!</p>