<p>Those sound like interesting jobs. But I think you could do almost all of them without ever coming within a mile of an animal other than a human.I got the impressionk the D was more hands on.</p>
<p>Perhaps your daughter would be interested in Moorpark College with it’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program - the graduates can then go on to the UC Davis Vet program. It is a long way around perhaps and it is not easy to get in to. She could start with taking CC classes at Moorpark college and then go on from there. My D. does specifically does not want to be a vet - but she wants to work with Big Cats in zoos and wild life parks. She filled all her required college courses in Florida, where we live, and applied for the first time last year. It is unfortunately a lottery system - and despite her 3.9 GPA she did not get in. She applied again for this year (they only admit one class a year of 52 students in August.) She used the year to finish her Psychology degree at UCF (she graduates this summer) and is an intern at a wild life rescue park. Sometimes there is no direct way to go from here to there. The pressure on kids to decide on one thing or another at the end of high school is ridicules - let her explore more of her options and take the opinions of your other kids for what they are; pesky, like all siblings.</p>
<p>Loved Blossom’s post! And PizzaGirl is absolutely right: at the tender age of 22, 23, no one knows enough to give advice to someone else about real life that is based on reality.</p>
<p>Blossom, nothing that an active imagination won’t solve - and you are right!</p>
<p>Ask K1 and K2 if they really want to be responsible for killing K3’s dream? Ask K1 how she would have felt if someone had told her, “Forget medical school. It’s too hard and you’ll never get in.” Would she have listened? Would she spend her days thinking, “What if?” How would K2 have felt if someone said, “Nope. Not engineering. Do something else.”</p>
<p>It may be trite, but there is truth in the saying that you regret more the things you didn’t do than the things you did. Do you really want K3 to regret not trying?</p>
<p>“Aerodynamically, the hummingbird cannot fly. The hummingbird, not knowing aerodynamics, flies anyway.” Tell K1 and K2 to back off.</p>
<p>I also think there is little good in K1 and K2 knowing so much about and focusing on K3’s stats. They should be primarily thinking of their younger sister in terms of who she is as a person and how much they love her and wish her well, and frankly her ACT score should have gone in one ear and out the other as far as they are concerned. I sense that each kid “wears” his/her stats around his neck, so to speak. The only reason my kids even were aware of one another’s stats was because they were twins and test scores came back at the same time – even so, we deliberately cultivated the “in one ear and out the other” approach when it came to anyone’s stats except their own.</p>
<p>I want to defend the OP’s K1 and K2 a little bit here–they may be wrong, but they may be right. It could be that K3 needs a reality check that she isn’t getting from anybody else. That’s why my advice is to get some advice from somebody who can really evaluate K3’s chances of successfully pursuing her dream. I’ve known a few kids with dreams that were really completely unrealistic, and nobody should have encouraged them to pursue those dreams. I’m not saying at all that K3 is like that–but it makes sense to get a real understanding of what the odds are.</p>
<p>Hunt- we’re not talking about the star forward of his junior HS basketball team planning to join the NFL. Or the girl who played Auntie Mame to great acclaim in her HS fall musical who thinks she’s heading to Broadway. Or even your town’s violin teacher telling you that your kid is the most gifted player she has ever taught in 15 years and he should apply to Curtis and Julliard. In those cases, when the stakes are so high and the odds are so low and the personal sacrifices required are so astronomical not to mention the financial investment in training etc… then yeah, get an independent opinion about your kids innate talent, drive, potential…</p>
<p>But being a vet? when every town in America has a vet practice or animal hospital? Really- the kid can’t become a vet? That’s an unattainable dream for this kid?</p>
<p>All of a sudden this is akin to being a prima ballerina?</p>
<p>I agree with all the well-spoken posters re d’s potential and the need for sibs to recognize this “golden opportunity to keep their mouths shut”. The working life of a pharmacist is so vastly different than that of a vet, I don’t think makes sense as an alternative. Pharmacy would be torture for someone without a strong interest. Best of luck to the daughter. She sounds like a lovely (and accomplished) kid.
BTW, veterinary medicine was my first childhood ambition. Eventually I became a pediatric nurse practitioner - similar in that lots of my patients can’t speak.</p>
<p>
Do you know how difficult it is to become a veterinarian? How many vet schools are there, and how selective are they? What grades and scores are actually needed to gain admittance? My understanding is that it’s very difficult–I’ve heard it’s more difficult than getting into medical school. But I don’t really know. My point is that this kid should talk to somebody who does know.</p>
<p>Here’s a prior discussion about this:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-vet-veterinary-medicine/669215-why-vet-school-harder-get-into-than-medical-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-vet-veterinary-medicine/669215-why-vet-school-harder-get-into-than-medical-school.html</a></p>
<p>I agree with why does she have to decide at 18! Way back when (23 years ago), when I was in Pharmacy School 50% of the class had a bachelors degree prior to entering pharmacy school. I think it is even more now. Since the curriculum for pre-Vet and pre-Pharm are so similar, I don’t see why she has to choose now. In my experience, and the experience of a lot of the pharmacists that I work with, the students from the direct admit program (so 2 years pre-pharm) were much weaker in pharmacy school (and some are actually weaker pharmacists) then the ones that had degrees. And a lot of Pharmacy schools are doing 7 or 8 year direct admit programs rather than 6. And yes, I imagine vet school is very hard to get into, but maybe she will change her mind 5 more times in the next couple of years.</p>
<p>I do agree that vet school is harder to get into that medical school - but anything can happen in college, so to take that dream off the table seems inappropriate to me. And let’s face it – I’m not really sure that every single vet I’ve ever seen was Brilliance McBrilliant academically, which suggests to me that a lot of people find their way into being a vet without having been super-duper geniuses from an early age.</p>
<p>
Yes, it could be. But not, under any circumstances, from K1 and K2. That’s simply inappropriate, particularly since K1 and K2 are still wet behind the ears and are about as far from “reality” as K3 may be.</p>
<p>Yes, getting into vet school is hard. Harder than med school. But a lot can happen in college, and no decision that she makes now is irreversible. And IMO, pharmacy isn’t all that much more “practical” than vet school. It’s not an easy row to hoe either.</p>
<p>Her first two semesters will likely determine whether he should continue…heavy weeding goes on in bio and chem classes…if she does well, she moves on to Orgo, if she doesn’t then she adjusts her dream.</p>