My ds who is currently a sophomore wants to attend Health career (HC) shared-time program for Junior year. The HC is offered in our County.
He went for a orientation and just loved the school and was deeply impressed with the HC course. He hopes the Health career course will help him gain hands-on experience and will step-up his resume.
So, he will go to Tech school in AM and in PM will attend 4 blocks at his local public school. I’m worried as he can take only 4 blocks and out of which 1 is taken for PE. Leaving just 3 blocks I’m clueless what are the most critical classes he can fill with. So far he has identified,
Junior: AM Tech School, LA III H, Precalc H and Physics.
Freshman: LA I H, Adv. Alg II, Bio H, Elective, Foreign L, World History
Sophomore: LA II H, Geo, Chem H, Elective, Foreign L, American History
And I’m also worried if the course selection will affect his college admission for not meeting the required courses if he wants to become a physician.
Please help.
Has anyone taken the Tech school in US and had gone through the admission process without hassle?
If it has affected, what did you do to meet the college requirements (thinking of premed track)
If your son applies to medical school, the medical schools are not going to look at the courses he took in high school. They are going to look at the courses he took in college.
It sounds like this HC track has the potential to give him some hands on experiences. Is that correct?
What exactly will he be taking in the mornings in the HC program?
I think you are way jumping the gun on the “what if he wants to be a physician” idea. He is a high school student. There are tons of college students who think about becoming physicians and never get to medical school.
I know that in colleges that recalculate grades, they do not add in those courses taken in tech, vocational, etc. schools. While it may be wonderful hands on experience, if he is aiming for a selective school, he will have less time to take more rigorous courses. If he is thinking of going to a college and take higher level math and science classes, it may be more beneficial to take as many math and sciences in high school to prepare him for college level classes. The more selective colleges will also want to see 3-4 yrs of a language, will the schedule allow for that? I agree with @thumper1 , don’t make your decision based upon admission to med school.
@thumper1 - Yes I’m not worried about Med school, but more of undergraduate admission. If he hasn’t taken any courses to be fulfilled required by the college. He will be graduating with requirements needed for HS graduation.
@ECmotherx2 - He will be taking full 7 blocks in senior year (AP Bio, AP US History, AP Calc AB, AP Lang, AP Foreign Lang) in senior year. I assume these will be considered as rigorous. He is planning on taking online Foreign language course or a community college course.
yes, it’s only 1 year program.
Here’s what I found on the tech school site,
This one-year program prepares individuals for entry into specialized training programs or for a variety of
concentrations in the allied health area. The program includes instruction in the basic sciences, research and clinical
procedures and aspects of the subject matter related to various health occupations.
College courses and their grades will be included in GPA calculations for medical schools, even if taken while in high school. But the allied health courses would not be among the subjects that fulfill pre-med course requirements.
@ucbalumnus this poster is not talking about college courses. These are HS courses being taken at a tech school. Let’s not muddy the waters any further for the parent or student.
And I still say…this is a HS sophomore. His goal should be a good courseload and grades in HS to get himself into undergrad school…not medical school.
Since this is a one year thing only, I would suggest that this students time would better be spent volunteering at a place like a skilled care facility, or a day care center, or some place like that. When he is old enough, he can take a EMT course in the summer, or get certified as a CNA, or a lifeguard or something.
This one year HC doesn’t get him anywhere except “prepared” to do the above.
Here’s my extremely inexperienced in college admissions but very experienced in working in a healthcare field: if your son is passionate about this program and it seems like a solid experience with real interaction with different HC fields then by all means let him do it.
I’ve worked with countless college students who started with one goal but half way through the program realized this is not for them whether it’s premed, nursing, pt, etc. In their work at my rehab facility found which profession does interest them oftentimes it’s a field they’d never heard/thought of. It can cost a lot of money and time to make a switch. If he needs to catch up on some rigorous classes could he take a summer class or two? I see on this forum so many posts with very talented students checking all the right boxes but don’t get a real sense that they took a risk outside of the “I must do this to get in that school” box. Good luck to your son, I’m sure he’ll accomplish many wonderful things!
Hi @MistySteel27 - Do you recommend any other rigorous classes that will help him ? This is something that he made up his mind doing it already. So, he is initiating everything from orientation to confirmation to Tech school admission office that he will be attending the HC class in 11th grade.
If he didn’t enroll these were the other classes he had it planned earlier,
LA III H, Precalc H, AP Bio, Physics, AP US History, Foreign Language
Senior: AP Lang, AP Calc AB, AP Chem, Human Anatomy, & Behavior AP Psychology, AP Foreign Lang
Do you think he could be favored by doing these rigorous classes? Is there any class which you think is not listed but could be favorable.
Summer he might do internship/research if not he will finish up on Precalc h and skip to AP Calc AB in Junior year and enroll for AP Calc BC/AP Stats in Senior year
When you say “step up his resume”…what do you mean? It isn’t stepping it up for college. More and challenging academic courses do that.
If he wants hands on Med experience in HS, I would suggest he volunteer at the hospital or take an EMT course and volunteer with the rescue squad.
If his end goal is to become a doctor, this is not the way to do it. Being a doctor is all about doing very well in college, and that is usually because you have prepared in HS.
I suspect the Votech classes are more for people who will be health aides as a job.
@Ramya78 I really can’t answer your question because that’s not where my experience is from. I can only go off of what the high school near me offers which is medical terminology, a and p, nutrition and a class that teaches with shadowing a bunch of different HC fields. These are duel enrollment with the cc and would transfer to all our public colleges. They’re not enough for a premed level science in college. What is good about them is they’re a free/cheap way to see what your son wants out of a career. He may very well hate it and go in another direction which is a great way to figure that out early.
There’s so many HC fields that aren’t on most kids radar like respiratory therapy, physician assistant, nurse anesthetist, occupational or speech therapy, cat scan tech, nuclear medicine, etc. The list is so long, all these fields are a 2-6 year process to completion and pay a solid middle class wage. You don’t need a T20 college to become any of these professionals let alone an MD. One of my husbands ER docs started out as a respiratory therapist, got his bachelors at Rowan University (was Rowan College at the time) and got into UMDNJ.
We lived in a district with a great tech program but it absolutely did not attract the top students. Part of the problem was that the tech courses didn’t have any honors or AP weighting so there was a big impact on GPA, rank, and overall course rigor.
OP- doing tech school courses instead of rigorous college prep courses will not improve his college application. It sounds like this option would be great for many who may want ancillary medical field options for their post HS career and exposure at this level will help them decide the tech school option upon HS graduation.
For medical fields that involve a college degree- including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, PT, OT- it would be best to prepare best with the most rigorous HS classes. Volunteering or other means of exposure would be the way to go to figure which fields most interest him.
I can see why this program is interesting to your son but it also seems as though the program is aimed at tech school, not college level, careers. Sounds excellent for those students. btw- physician here and I do appreciate all of the expertise those without bachelors and beyond training bring to patient care.
There, as mentioned, is plenty of time for him in college to consider if medicine is the path for him instead of many other related fields.
@Ramya78
I agree your son should reconsider the tech school classes if he want to have a rigorous high school record and is aiming for a professional career in the a healthcare field.
He needs a heavy dose of science and mathematics for for pre-med. (Or pre-PA, pre-PT, etc)
He needs honors or above level chemistry, honors or above level in biology, honors or above level physics. Perhaps even anatomy/physiology if his high school offers it.
Most of his competitors/college peers will have had AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Physics in high school. Your son will be competing against these better prepared students in college for the A grades he needs to in order to become a creditable applicant for medical (or PA, PT, OT, AUD, etc) programs. Admission to medical school (and other healthcare professional schools) requires a high GPA. (For med school, the average admitted applicant had a 3.7+ last year.)
The tech program sounds like it will provide exposure to healthcare fields that do not require professional degree/advanced professional training. while he may find the exposure to these field interesting, if he’s interested in pursuing a healthcare career that requires post-graduate training, then he’s probably hurting his preparation.