And to add to worriedmom’s fine post- most kids are WOEFULLY unaware of how deep the talent pool is outside of their own universe. We see this with the Val’s who can’t believe they didn’t get into Dartmouth (do you know how many Val’s Dartmouth rejects every year? It’s a big number). We see this with the kids who are the top tennis, golf, track athlete in their own town who discover that they barely crack the bottom of the “top athletes” regionally or nationally.
And we see it time and time again with med school applications. Kids who have shadowed a physician for a few weeks over the summer discover that their competition has worked as a hospice counselor for two years. (who has had more primary care contact?) Kids who got themselves attached to a lab fact-checking citations which they call “research” (very important, don’t get me wrong) competing with others who actually contributed to an important scientific discovery and have worked for the same PI for four years.
It would be a gross dereliction of duty for pre-med advisors to encourage kids with a low probability (not zero, but low) by NOT helping them identify Plan B.