<p>Kristin,
“They are so freaking ugly.”
-That might be the reason for D. not bying them after mentionning it several times. I told her I would pay for them. She stopped complaining about her feet after few days, I guess whatever she did, worked or she just got used to her being on her feet.
“can’t sleep past 8:30am” - on the day off, correct? D. was there at about 5:30am, including Sat. or Sun. She was happy to learn that she had one day off.<br>
D. also loves Sperry, but I am not sure if she wore them to general Surg.<br>
Now is a brand new challenge. She will have to be partially in the hospital and partially at the office. She has to have a nicer clothes in her locker to change from scrubs in a middle of the day.</p>
<p>yep, on days off. Remind her to keep shoes in her locker too! Goodness gracious I would’ve looked ridiculous with running shoes and a dress. (Also: Ann Taylor has 40% off everything on sale online right now, and I keep a dress or two in my locker for days when I wear the wrong thing…)</p>
<p>^We have spent about $500 on the D’s wordrobe last time she visited. She is wearing them now, she is happy. She is going to different places this week - elective surgery. Next week - Anesthesia, these people mainly sit down.
Best wishes to you, Kristin! You, guys are my heros. D. is walking today with (possibly?) broken toe, maybe not since it is getting better.</p>
<p>Son went to a small private high school (about 55 kids in his graduating class). There are 3 high school classmates in his MS1 class. There are a few other older students from his high school in the MS2-4 years. </p>
<p>Thankfully, these are all great kids so lots of “instant med school friends” from the get-go. Son is sharing a condo with one of them.</p>
<p>DS always went to large schools before college. His high school is like 650 kids per class. It is about a half of the class size of his college.</p>
<p>His med school class is small though, like most other med schools.</p>
<p>I always wonder what it would be like if DS went to a small private (and likely better quality?) high school.</p>
<p>There is a downside to the small, elite HS-----</p>
<p>D2’s BFF is a new MS1. BFF and D2 were counting how many of their classmates/kids from the same HS they know are in the med school —and decided it was too depressing to contemplate. All the kids they couldn’t wait to get away from in HS (pushy/whiny/grade-grubbing pre-meds even then…) are now in med school with the BFF.</p>
<p>DS had a couple of close friends from an elite prep school even though he was not from such an elite high school. I heard he mostly had fun activities with them. One of them had almost completed all of his med school prereqs (with good grades – and with the most desirable ethnic group for med school admission too) but decided to pursue a music career instead in junior year. I heard he had study abroad twice in the same country. He knew nothing about that language before that and became quite fluent in that language in that language in just 2 to 3 years. His parents are physicians as I heard.</p>
<p>Another friend from an elite high school was very casual about building his (“money”-ed) career path too. Was admitted to an elite law school and decided against going - chose a charity type job instead. Later, decided to attend a much lower ranked law school and just did not care about which law school to go to. I think he went to a law school in order to better serve his charity organization only.</p>
<p>DS may have intentionally kept a distance from those crazy, ambitious premeds.</p>
<p>We flew out to help DS get settled in his new place (was subletting for the summer research rotation he had) and to attend the White Coat Ceremony. It was a lovely ceremony. We were there during orientation week. I am pleasantly surprised by all the levels of support his program offers to students. Today is his first day of class.</p>
<p>I am pleasantly surprised by all the levels of support his program offers to students</p>
<p>I agree. When I looked over the agenda for the 3 weeks of Orientation, I was surprised to see how the schedule includes so many things to help get the students acclimate to their new situation. Combo of social events, support info, ethics training, etc. </p>
<p>The med school is hosting a Family Dinner and Open House on Saturday and White Coat is on Sunday. Son’s Godparents are flying in from Calif on Friday to participate in the events. We’re all excited.</p>
<p>mimk6 and mom2ck,</p>
<p>Congrats for your S for starting his MS.</p>
<p>Family dinner? I do not know whether DS’s school had one. But we did not attend his White Coat ceremony. A part of his settling down was to request the storage comany to deliver all of his furniture (stored during the summer) to his dorm.</p>
<p>"I always wonder what it would be like if DS went to a small private (and likely better quality?) high school. "
-D. will always have the best memories of her HS years. 33 kids in her class, the whole HS is very close, no looking down on freshmen. The best of this all is close relationship between students and faculty. Couple kids went off to bigger schools - one to private (about 300 kids in class) and another to a big public in very good district. They were back next year, parents made them to stay for whole year to better appreciate what they have left behind. They said that the main reason for coming back was that they missed their teachers at small private and the relationships with them which is only possible in a small place where most classes had about 15 kids (or less sometime) and where teachers were very carefully selected from the huge pool of applicants that apply for postions from all over USA and many of who came even from colleges. I remember at least 3 of my D’s teachers who were college profs before.</p>
<p>My high school was of the uber elite/wealthy type and its interesting to hear you talk about pre-meds in high school since my school was so much more humanities focused. I have one kid from my high school class in my med school class, but out of the 47 of us, only 3 (including myself) are in/went to medical school, with only one other person doing a PhD in a STEM field. Most of my former classmates are either in law, finance, or consulting.</p>
<p>My kids’ Catholic high school is situated in Cummings Research Park so the students are mostly the children of engineers (who of course have high expectations for their kids…lol). Many of the grads have gone onto STEM majors, but each class has had med students, nurses, and some business majors. </p>
<p>The students are very close, many of them have known each other since K. My son has known some of these kids since the 3rd grade (when we moved here.) Whenever one of them needs anything, they can really count on each other for help. </p>
<p>The school has grown in recent years due to new bldg, but it will never be a “big school.” </p>
<p>I know that these pals will be friends for life.</p>
<p>Congrats to sons of Mimk and M2CK!</p>
<p>Do we still call it launching at this level?</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>I received a scholarship offer (largest one offered) at the private high school in the exurb where my parents live. I turned it down and instead went to a large(3,000 student) urban public magnet school. Best decision I’ve ever made. It was a wonderful experience that literally changed my life. There are many things that you can experience only if there is a minimum critical mass of students at your school. And as an added benefit, I can now actually have meaningful discussions about diversity at my interviews. :)</p>
<p>My D. was also on a Merit scholarship (covered 1/3 tuition) at the most expansive private HS in our area with the many families that had at least one MD or lawyer parent (sometime both). Good percentage went to Med. School. Since D. was very close to the next (younger) classes, I know a bit more about them then my D’s classmates. I know about at least one of her classmates is at Med. School, it might be more. I know several of the younger classes who are also in Med. School or must be applying now. But with the high percentage of MD families in school, that was expected. Both science and Hisotry classes and I would say all others were taught at higher level than at other schools. D. has realised it at college. Ended up being picked up for an SI for Gen. Chem (she did not have AP Chem in her school, but was appalled at the low level of background of kids who took it at other schools and who she ended up teaching in her sessions), she placed in 3rd year of Spanish, her score was much higher than the hieghest indicated on the test. She took one semester of Honors English and it was an easy A and waste of her time, learned nothing. College Statistics was also basically “walk in a park”… The very hard classes were Bio / Orgo / Physics though, that definitely went way beyond HS and took most of her time.<br>
The reason that we decided on private HS was that D’s middle school had 3 other kids (4 kids in her 8th grade class). We strongly believed that it would be socially shocking to send a 14 y o from tiny class to a class of several hundreds. No regrets, the best money we have spent.</p>
<p>Do we still call it launching at this level?</p>
<p>lol…yes, I think so. But, they’ll be really launched once they start earning some real money. </p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>my kids’ high school wasn’t expensive at all (current tuition under $8k per year), so it’s affordable for many. It doesn’t even charge non-Catholics more, which is why the school is 30% non-Catholic (including Muslim and Jewish students), so it’s not as if the kids are in some homongenous bubble. </p>
<p>We’ve never regretted spending the money for K-12 private education. They got a very good science and humanities foundation, which served them well during their college years.</p>
<p>Re launching, this was much more of a real launch than college was. He went to college an hour from home and now he will be living full-time, year-round over 2,000 miles away. He moved two months ago with two suitcases and slept on a mattress in a sublet for eight weeks until he found a roommate and a place to move into. This is his real adult life now, where he will be for eight years, and, since he gets a stipend as an MSTP student, he is basically supporting himself. It feels like a big launch into adulthood.</p>
<p>Yes, sounds like he’s launched!!! :)</p>