Long time lurker in these forums. Bit of background: My daughter is currently finishing up her sophomore year of highschool. She is in a 4 year BS/MD prep program (since grade 9) as that is her ultimate goal. The BS/MD prep program company has locations based in central florida and boston area. As part of her program, they provide a unique 44 hour live SAT course taught by their own staff/faculty. They only offer this course once a yr right now and it is very intimate with less than 10 students and excellent results. The avg. SAT score for the 2016 participants of this course was 1480 (with a range of 1300-1600). This course is included in what we’ve already paid as part of her BS/MD prep program, so it does not cost us anything extra.
Now, the dilemma is we are located 5 hours away from the central fl location and the course lasts 2 weeks. Our options are have my daughter stay somewhere (likely in a hotel for the entire time) or sign up for an SAT course closer to home. If we sign up for an SAT course one closer to home, then the BS/MD prep program will reimburse us for the external course fee so we will not have to pay anything out of pocket.
However, I’m wondering if we would later regret my DS passing up the chance to attend an SAT course that most students would not be able to go to because it’s only open to students in her BS/MD prep program
I feel that any external SAT prep course closer to home might have more unknowns in terms of her results/performance? She wants to go to this course 5 hours away and that is her mentor’s recommendation, but I would not be able to go with her for 2 weeks, so I’m also worried about her being away for that much time.
Depends on the maturity of your high schooler, and how close the facility would be to where she’s staying. If she’s mature and the course were being held in the hotel where she’s staying, I might be more inclined to consider it than if she’s young for her grade and the course were held someplace where she’d need to travel to get to it. Where is this, Tampa, Orlando?
The summer before junior year is an excellent time for your daughter to focus on SAT prep. The prep course you have already paid for sounds great, but that seems like a young age to be on her own in a hotel for two weeks.
If your daughter is self-motivated, she will likely do well in any good program. My (very motivated) son is a National Merit finalist, and did so well simply because we gave him lots of time in August before junior year to spend on Kahn Academy using their free SAT prep on-line. When it came time for the actual SAT/ACT, he used a private tutor to go over the questions he got wrong on practice tests. So if your daughter is willing to put in the time (taking practice exams, going over missed questions), any reputable prep course will lead to excellent results.
Agree, you can get a prep course closer to home and why not, if they are willing to reimburse you. Just ask around as to the quality of the program - and as SueAnne indicated, it will have to do more with what your daughter puts into it. Mature or not, she’s still young/underage and two weeks alone is a long time at a hotel without parental or school supervision, of course it’s a very personal decision but it would make me uncomfortable. My daughter (very mature compared to most of her friends) is trying to talk me into letting her go down the shore overnight with her friends and boyfriend after prom and i said no - she’ll be 18 in a couple of months and going off to college abroad and she tried to use that as leverage - I said, sorry sweetie, you’ll just have to wait until you turn 18! But it’s a personal decision.
Can a high school student even stay in a hotel alone? I thought that for liability reasons hotels have zero interest in having minors (or even under 21s) stay alone.
YMMV, but I would not let my 17yo D stay alone in a hotel for 2 weeks. Not that I don’t trust her, I don’t trust others who would surely notice a young women alone all that time.
Get reimbursed. She can do test prep closer to home. I agree with others that she should not be away in a hotel for two weeks. Plus, wow, test prep for two weeks? Yawnsville. Summer should be about having a little fun.
Wow- never heard of such a program at the HS level. Not sure it is at all desirable. Taking college prep courses at most (including public ) HS’s is all that is needed to prepare for admission to colleges. Getting into medical schools is dependent on one’s college record, and being at a prestigious college is not necessary. Living in Florida your D may want to learn about the programs in Florida for getting the BS then MD. This should be available for free from her HS and the schools that do it.
As far as test prep. Top students merely need the knowledge gained from doing well in HS. But- you can do like others do and likely get just as good, if not better, test prep in a much better environment. I agree- no way would I send my kid to a two week hotel situation! In fact I would be leery of any private company being paid to navigate the HS experience to prepare for the BS/MD programs. I would save my money and not do it for the next two years.
Finally- as a physician I recommend she not be too goal focused. She should explore other facets of herself/interests both in HS and college. She may discover other passions. There is so much out there besides becoming a physician. Be sure her life is not too choreographed for medical school. Let her indulge in HS (and then college) classes that have nothing to do with getting into medical school. She does not need any special classes in HS outside of those that fuel her passion for science. She certainly does not need any special premedical classes outside off the ones needed for admission- they teach what you need to know in medical school.
Above all be sure she enjoys being a teen. She can be a top student with all of the most rigorous classes and still have time for fun. She can also ignore some of the classes and still have a rigorous curriculum. Extracurricular activities are important for being well rounded and enjoying life. Music, other arts, sports, other fun things should be part of her life. If she does go the medical school/physician route she will need stress relievers. Physicians are a diverse lot- so many different paths and things to do while not working.
Addenda. Most physicians will have done the four years of college in a major of their choice. Yes, she can save a year of college and the associated costs with a BS/MD program (if she gets into one). However, she also misses out on other things. There are decades to be a physician while only a short time to have the luxury of being a teen and college student. No need to rush into it.
btw- I’m one of the women who paved the way for those who do not experience the gender discrimination now. We were a 10-20% minority and faced older male physicians, hospital situations once out in practice who made life rough. So different now- only the rigors of medicine without the added obstacles.
I do wish that they offered a room and board option for my DD as I would feel much more comfortable with her going, because she wants to attend.
@bopper all the other students are local. It’s a very small program and so far we only know of them through e-mail and this would actually be the first time all of them meet is through this SAT class.
@donnaleighg the thought crossed my mind but I just assumed that if she did stay, that I would be checking in.
@wis75 appreciate the comments and the work you’ve done for gender disrimination. My spouse is a physician and good friends with Dr. Pat Numann. She was one of the founding members of the Association for Surgical Education and founded the Association for Women Surgeons. She was the first woman elected to the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs and also the first female president of the American College of Surgeons. She’s done a lot for women in medicine to say the least. This is a very unique program our DD is in as I said so I’m not suprised that most on here have never heard of it. It also came with a very hefty price tag ($50K over 4 years). Our goal is not just to get her into college but into a top BS/MD program hence why we’re willing to spend the money. I’m not sure why you would be leary of paying to get a jump start but so far we’ve been very satisfied. Some of the advice has been similar and some has been drastically different from your comments. That’s ok and not a bad thing. As parents, we want her to be balanced and be able to be a kid while still being goal focused. We may end up each taking a week off work so that she can still go to this SAT course a few hours away and not be left by herself.
Have your daughter take a timed practice SAT. If she scores 1400+, I doubt she’ll need to do that fancy program.
If she scores closer to 1000, going to that fancy SAT program 5hrs away will be the least of her problems. She’s going to need to boost that score up much higher.
Getting into Medical school is brutal. But actually surviving and graduating is beyond brutal.
It sounds like this special program wasn’t necessarily intended for students living so far away, otherwise they might have made supervised housing arrangements. It would be odd to send your daughter there to stay by herself and so I would go for the local program.
Long time lurker in these forums. Bit of background: My daughter is currently finishing up her sophomore year of highschool. She is in a 4 year BS/MD prep program (since grade 9) as that is her ultimate goal. The BS/MD prep program company has locations based in central florida and boston area. As part of her program, they provide a unique 44 hour live SAT course taught by their own staff/faculty. They only offer this course once a yr right now and it is very intimate with less than 10 students and excellent results. The avg. SAT score for the 2016 participants of this course was 1480 (with a range of 1300-1600). This course is included in what we’ve already paid as part of her BS/MD prep program, so it does not cost us anything extra.
Now, the dilemma is we are located 5 hours away from the central fl location and the course lasts 2 weeks. Our options are have my daughter stay somewhere (likely in a hotel for the entire time) or sign up for an SAT course closer to home. If we sign up for an SAT course one closer to home, then the BS/MD prep program will reimburse us for the external course fee so we will not have to pay anything out of pocket.
However, I’m wondering if we would later regret my DS passing up the chance to attend an SAT course that most students would not be able to go to because it’s only open to students in her BS/MD prep program
I feel that any external SAT prep closer to home would have more unknowns? She wants to go to this course 5 hours away and that is her mentor’s recommendation, but I would not be able to go with her for 2 weeks, so I’m also worried about her being away for that much time.
Also, always always keep in mind there are many routes to becoming a doctor, and she has not failed if BS/MD does not happen. Is she volunteering in a medical setting? Doing research? or Shadowed a doctor?
I do alumni admissions volunteering at my alma mater and when I asked what the profile of a successful BS/MD applicant is they said:
The test prep course close to home is probably the better bet here.
The high average scores for the prep program’s course are likely at least partially due to the high academic achievement and potential of the students already in the program. In other words, it’s likely these kids would already score very highly on the SAT without any additional preparation (or with a regular test prep course in a different setting).
The level of exclusivity of the prep class is irrelevant. What matters is whether the class actually prepares her for the SAT. She can do that in a class of 10 or a class of 100, as long as it’s high quality.
How much is the course? An alternative is SAT test prep tutoring, if you are really worried. That way she’ll get one-on-one targeted preparation that’s tailored to her strengths and weaknesses. That tends to be significantly more expensive than courses, particularly if you go through one of the test prep companies (hiring a freelancer is probably cheaper).
Before signing up and paying the extra expense, though, I’d have her take a pre-test/practice test. I used to do one-on-one tutoring for one of the test prep giants, and it was my personal opinion based on observations with students that the additional cost for individual tutoring wasn’t worth it if students were already scoring in the 600+ range. If they were already in that range, then a regular class was a better idea and if they were already scoring 700+ I personally thought they should just skip the paid prep altogether, buy a book or two and practice at home. (Ironically, it was the students who really needed individual tutoring who couldn’t really afford it, which is partially why I stopped doing tutoring for pay and started volunteering.)
Because, as wis75 said, these kinds of programs (and BS/MD programs) have the inherent danger of making a student focused on the MD and premedical preparation to the exclusion of all other things, including exploring other careers that may potentially be a better fit. And because it doesn’t seem like they’re necessary, given that (again, as wis75 said) most doctors take the more traditional route into medical school and no special classes or preparation is really needed, even for a BS/MD program. I think wis75 was saying that it’s questionable that this is a “jump start.” But that’s all besides the point, I suppose.
Women physicians are as varied as men physicians. Never heard of the MD you mention, not a surgeon and definitely NOT into organized medicine. Guess what- 99% of the good physicians do not go to the top medical schools. Yet all need to be competent and pass the same exams and get the same licenses and board certifications as those who do go to the prestigious schools.
I think you were scammed out of a lot of money. Please be sure your D has a good childhood. What if she works hard (all of the time as well) for this goal but never achieves it? What if something disastrous happens and her life is changed forever? Will you feel you not only helped her in her future adult life but also gave her an enjoyable childhood? Her present life is irreplaceable, her future as the person she will become has many possible paths. I hope she doesn’t suffer from burnout in the future. I also hope she becomes aware of many other options in life. There is so much more than being a physician. We have said our son is too smart to become a physician.