<p>Be glad she doesn’t want to be a vet.
I know several people who wanted to be veternarians but medical school was easier to get into :)</p>
<p>( My doctor went to WUSTL- my previous doctor( who doesn’t take my ins anymore 
) went to Stanford but says her sister who is also a doctor recieved * in her opinion* a better education at Pomona)</p>
<p>Be aware that her goal of medicine (or is it your’s) may change before high school is over, and very likely before college is over. That is why she needs to pursue what really interests her, and not channel to tightly at this time.</p>
<p>Spartacus,</p>
<p>You are getting two threads of very good advice:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Top colleges are great and a worthy goal but frankly at this point for all but 2% of the applicants (those who are bonafide and innate prodigies of some sort) it is a crapshoot if you get in. For the remaining 6% of the applicants to top top schools who are accepted it frequently requires a tip factor that is already set in stone, how much money you have, whether your kid is a recruited athlete, whether you are a legacy, etc. And besides, turns out there are lots of schools that used to be second tier that are now full of professors and students who are very very very close in caliber to the people at the top schools, and who frequently have other characteristics like an undamaged spirit or independence or a love of fun that isn’t always found in top schools. So please be sure to focus on some other places with a glad heart.</p></li>
<li><p>Given the above, what course to take with your kid? If your child is not an innate prodigy, and you lack one of the tip factors, but your kid is a very very intelligent and capable kid - do you try to make them look like a prodigy by driving them into activities or do you just figure their true being will shine through in their applications? And if that happens and they still don’t get in to a “top top school”, is their acceptance into a “next level” school better or worse than having turned them into, and I quote a Harvard adcom from the New York Times magazine of several years ago,</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
???</p>
<p>The funny thing is that on a place like cc, devoted to competitive apps, many people who have been through the process once and even have a kid now at HYPS etc, are now in the second camp. Say no to life long boot camps, say yes to encouraging the nature of your kid and setting expectations of performance that are realistic, and then provide guidance through the college process knowing that there are many routes to success and generally being cattle-prodded through life isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>Not to say that’s what you are advocating. Just that this is one of the core themes of cc and I thought I’d summarize for you.</p>
<p>Good summary Alu, and to you Spartacus-I started the same way when I came to the board. Spend some time on the Pre-med board, specifically looking at the combined degree programs. Brown and Northwestern are admirable goals. Unlike some other super selective admissions processes a dedicated interest shown to medicine is a prerequisite EC, if you will, for these programs. It also serves an additional and wonderful purpose of putting your youngster into the medical career “pool” in the shallow end.</p>
<p>I agree completely with what the posters before have said , because I am afraid of them but would add that when it comes specifically to BS/MD programs the rules change again. They are looking for specific contacts with medicine and the provision of medical care. Focus some effort there. Something imaginative will pop up if your kid puts themselves out there and stretches a bit.</p>
<p>In our little hamlet you can’t volunteer at the hospital until 17 , but D is hot after it this summer. She made the connects. Drove herself to the training and is volunteering 4 half days a week (20 hours). She ought to figure out a little from this and some shadowing she will do with a couple of surgeon friends. I am very proud as I had zippo to do with this. She found it. I said it was too much time. She did it anyway.</p>
<p>After conversations with several M.D.s on the board and IRL, D has dropped the combined degree idea as being too tied down and unneccessarily limiting for her (although Brown and NW are not as limiting as others,and Brown’s is especially nice. I mean really,really nice.). She has bought into the “all you need is a 3.6 from a quality school with a good pre-med advisory team in place, and good MCATS” theory of med school admissions-hope it works for her if she still chooses to be a Doc in a few years (and I am certain she will, as certain as we parents can be about these things at this early stage).</p>
<p>Even moreso, Dr. Sedrish (the Pre-Med Superfly Moderator) recites as a mantra whenever anyone asks him about good med schools that every med school in the U.S. is a good med school and will prepare you well to be a practicing physician, and that only those interested in academic medicine need fret about a top med school.</p>
<p>The last thing I will add is that the “sped up” programs, the 6 and seven year programs, which NW and Brown are not, seem to be the opposite of the experience D wants for herself in college. A rushed through college experience? She wants to get her heart broken by some cad, study abroad, do research on some bizarre field she knows nothing about, play intramurals or maybe lower level basketball, work on a float, take classes just for thrills -loads of stuff that will never see an app to grad or professional school. </p>
<p>Stick around the board for a while and I urge you to have an open mind. Some of these folks are pretty smart, and then of course there are those of us who are just here for the cheap eats.</p>
<p>Sorry, Spartacus, I didn’t pick up on your mention of the B.S./M.D. programs, so of course your D wants to get going on ECs earlier than most college students would.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want that for my D (not that she always does what I want). I think 21-23 seems plenty young enough to be starting med school. I heard an interesting feature on “All Things Considered” about first-year med students in anatomy dissecting and how difficult the experience could be…a few more years of maturity would help.</p>
<p>I agree with Curmudgeon that there is so much more to the four undergrad years than just the classes taken.</p>
<p>Spartacus, did you happen to catch on CBS tonight the piece on the horrible singer who found his calling? I mean the dude couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket but he sure thought he could :eek:. He did have what he called an epiphany one day that he could help others (and pay his bills) by writing personalized up-beat jingle songs for children undergoing one of life’s most bitter pills, a childhood of pain and limitation from cancer. I thought it was simple idea but effective and the kids did seem to get a really big kick out of it. One girl played her song almost constantly and there was a light in her eyes as she sang along with her headphones on, rockin’ to the beat and the lyrics all about her. His non-profit has done 7,000 of these so far. 7,000.</p>
<p>Sometimes the most telling things about us don’t have to do with cutting edge publishable research projects or something else as fancy or high-falutin’ (amazed I can spell that aren’t y’all?). Sometimes it’s just seeing a hole and grabbing a shovel. Just a thought.</p>
<p>
Beatings for the crew will continue until morale improves :)</p>