Scared of junior year here at brown

RenaissanceMom
Fri, 11 Jul 2014 23:00:50 +0000

Actually, as a different point of reference, my kid at brown has never protected his GPA by taking the easier classes for med/grad school and it has cost him grade wise. But he wouldn’t want it any other way bc the challenge brings him joy. We’ll see what that means to grad/med schools. Honestly, I think the whole med school application process is screwed up bc the emphasis is on GPA and not rigor. All over this website, you’ll see advice about trying to angle for the best GPA by either going to an undergrad where the competition won’t be tough, by repeating AP classes, or taking the easier versions of the math/ science classes required by med schools. For better or worse, even after I discussed what I read here about protecting GPA w my kid who’s interested in a PhD/MD, he opted for the math, physics classes intended for the engineers at brown. He took some grade hits but he’s learned an awful lot and it’s helped in the lab. This is his sixth summer doing research.

He feels you go to college only once, and he wants to make it matter. Without a doubt, he’s taking advantage of the spectacular depts/faculty at brown. Interestingly enough, a brilliant guy, who concentrated in bio in my husband’s class year at brown, didn’t graduate with any honors but went on to win the Nobel in medicine: Craig mello. There’s a brown video of ken miller, a brown bio prof, who discusses how brown is different from other universities and why he loves teaching there. In the video, he mentions Mello and tells how when Mello first began researching in labs, he’d break equipment but man, he went on to win the Nobel. I think risk taking in education, pushing yourself beyond your perceived boundaries, is critical. And it’s a shame that kids are too afraid to do that in order to protect their GPAs for grad school. It’s so limiting, and when the hell are they going to do it if not when they’re young, especially as emerging scientists who have to learn how to deal with failed experiments and then pick themselves up to begin again.