<p>mimk6,
My D. went in opposite direction. She moved closer to home (only 2 hours away) and we started paying tuition (she was on full tuition Merit award at UG).<br>
The real launch will occur in 2 years when she starts her residency. But it seems to be ages away, we do not discuss it much. The 3rd year of Med. School is the hardest one, taking one day at a time…</p>
<p>Mimk6, congrats for your S to reach another milestone.</p>
<p>DS is/was thousands of miles away both times. Wait…he’s further away this time because we have moved! I am envious of those parents whose loved ones are nearby.</p>
<p>Hmm…is it about the time to arrange his flight back home during the winter break?! But I am not sure of his schedule in December as of this moment.</p>
<p>Mom2ck, I always think that, to increase of chance of being good premeds, the “game” really starts before college - even though what they did back in high school are not officially in the record of med school application except for the college courses taken in high school. (And to a less extent, APs.)</p>
<p>mcat2 - mimk’s D and your son might have overlapped in undergrad at the same school.</p>
<p>Mom2ck, I always think that, to increase of chance of being good premeds, the “game” really starts before college - even though what they did back in high school are not officially in the record of med school application except for the college courses taken in high school. (And to a less extent, APs.)</p>
<p>I agree. If their high school was too easy (little studying, easy A’s, weak instruction), then those students don’t have the foundation or study habits needed for college, and often stumble. </p>
<p>I think the best success at K-12 begins prior to that. I taught both of my boys to read before they went to pre-school. When kids are very young, they actually can learn to read very quickly. Once they know how to read, they can just take off. They have such a head-start.</p>
<p>^I also agree. Selecting HS was more difficult with more consequences than selecting UG in my D’s case. She made the right choices in both, but needed a little push to get her in a right direction with the HS (many thanks from her afterwards)</p>
<p>…btw, reading was NEVER important in our family. D. has read before HS, HS turned her off reading for the rest of her life (I imagine). She seems to be as bored as I am when reading novels, neither can finish the book, so we quit starting. I taught her how to read before 1st grade, but it was not needed at all. Her 1st grade teacher told us that all of them read after the 1st grade. Needless to say that Verbal has always been the lowest scored section on all of D’s standardized test, while English / writing has been always highest. She has always been a very strong writer, the skill that served her well in all of her classes. She is also capable writing papers in her head while doing something else (skill developed during sport practices). That makes it even faster putting it on paper when she has a chance.<br>
Thank goodness, there is no Verbal seciton on Step 1 exam, that made it more even with her grades.</p>
<p>My DD’s high school had very weak science program. The only AP science course she took was AP chemistry. I was very worried when she started a highly prestigious bioengineering program. At first, it was challenging since she was in competition with kids who already had prior knowledge of the material. But once the playing field got leveled over time, it didn’t matter that she had a late start. She now has ~3.9 cGPA while taking 18+ credit hours each semester. I believe that this experience made her a stronger student and hopefully, this will make her a competitive student at the MS - her TMDSAS application was transmitted late but so far has two II (very excited and grateful).</p>
<p>This past weekend was White Coat and it was a lovely weekend. </p>
<p>Saturday night was a Family Dinner hosted by the SOM’s Alumni group. Afterwards, there was an Open House so we got to see the inside of the SOM. We also walked thru the new additions to the univ hospital and the new Children’s Hospital (amazing how child-friendly these places can be…and they pull kids in cute wagons). </p>
<p>Sunday was White Coat.</p>
<p>The speakers were very interesting and there were two awards given to two alum physicians who have done amazing volunteer work in this country and abroad. The award is named after a physician who was murdered with 3 other doctors while doing volunteer work in Yemen. Very sad. </p>
<p>Now the classes really get going. :)</p>
<p>I’m so glad that son’s roommates (sharing a 3 bedroom) are all MS1. They drive in together and keep each other on their toes.</p>
<p>The other day, son’s alarm didn’t go off, and so he almost overslept too much. But, a knock on his door from a roomie woke him up. They have each other’s backs. :)</p>
<p>White coats! Only 4 more years to an income! :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We’ve started checking on that and when you look at the cost of living in a city it is not much, I’m afraid. 
</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those getting their white coats though!</p>
<p>Adding more CONGRATULATIONS! to all receiving their white coats. And congratulations to the proud parents, too.
D would say, “Only four more years to income based payments.” In reality, she is doing fine with her resident’s salary. I’m glad she didn’t match in a really expensive city.</p>
<p>Residency pays enough. Just not enough for the big cities!</p>
<p>We attended the White Coat on the 16th- the guest speaker told us that “today you will see your children the happiest they will be for the next four years” congrats to all the parents</p>
<p>^White Coat is fun…but I’d say vacations, breaks, great nights with friends, finding out you did great on (boards/exams/rotations), etc are equally (if not more!) fun. So it’s not like it’s all worse from here on out!</p>
<p>m2ck… for you in case you didnt see it…posted on uab website today</p>
<p>[White</a> Coat Ceremony 2013 on Vimeo](<a href=“http://vimeo.com/73786553]White”>White Coat Ceremony 2013 on Vimeo)</p>
<p>Wait a minute. How’d you do that? Since when could we do that? Did I know that we could do that?</p>
<p>lol curm, now that they let us post you tube stuff, i figured they probably wouldnt block vimeo…so gave it a shot</p>
<p>Parent56…</p>
<p>thanks…I now have it shared on my Facebook.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I did not realize white coat ceremony required professors’ help in putting on the coats. :p</p>
<p>Curm - are you being held back from sharing something interesting because you could not share videos…</p>