<p>The landscape seems so competitive, it seems like by 11th and 12th year you can already predict who will likely to make it to med school. You could argue that everything was in motion as far back as 8th when a lot of kids jump into advanced HS language, science and math courses, which sets them up for AP courses during 11th and 12th grade. Many students gunning for med school enter freshman year of college with what equates to a full year of college level course work under their belt</p>
<p>Can a student who doesn't take AP courses and enters college a bit unsure of what he or she intends to concentrate on even compete? I would argue it's almost too late by then, as their peers are so far ahead of them.</p>
<p>Sure they can. D1’s med school is about 1/3 non-traditionals who didn’t decide to pursue medical school until after college graduation and in some cases after they had pursued some other career. Her classmates include ministers, engineers, teachers, soldiers, cops, a truck driver and in one case, a former gang member.</p>
<p>In fact, both of my kiddos didn’t decide they were interested in med school until shortly before each graduated from college. D1 had to take some post-bacc coursework because she didn’t have the pre-reqs done. D2 had her pre-reqs but wanted some time off to reflect on her goals before applying.</p>
<p>There are many paths that lead to medical school. Not all of them are direct and straight forward.</p>
<p>“late bloomers” meant someone who doesn’t decide until after undergrad begins. It seems like many of the very gifted are already on course throughout high school. How can someone who doesn’t decide until 19 or 20 yo compete against someone who has been preparing since they were 15 or 16 yo?</p>
<p>Not hard at all. I had no dreams of being a doctor until college. I was always a good student, but I never worked really hard until I got to college and decided to pursue medicine. I earned top grades, participated in 2 summers and 2 years of biology research and took my MCAT at the end of senior year. It helps to take a gap year to build your extracurricular/research activities. Medical schools are typically not interested in what you did in high school so while knowing what you want early can help, as long as you apply yourself and succeed in college you aren’t really behind. However, if you are a poor student in high school (you have trouble getting good grades despite applying yourself, or have poor study habits you don’t fix) you aren’t going to magically ace your college pre-med courses.</p>
<p>because being a physician is really much more about work ethic than intellectual capacity. Clinical medicine is relatively simple conceptually compared to many other academic fields, the difficulty is that you have to actually remember all the different components and recall them quickly under pressure in a way that many other fields don’t require.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>one of my classmates was in a VERY, VERY famous band and lived a very rock and roll, not intellectual life style for years before deciding on medicine. There are several other late medicine bloomers although they were in more intellectual paths (e.g. computer science, law) than rock and roll before medicine.</p>
<p>If anything, I’m more suspicious of all the 13 year old and 15 year old students who already “know” that they want to be doctors. Lots of times, I think that’s actually mom and dad talking and not the child – </p>
<p>And my husband’s family is first generation immigrant. Lots of kids in that family get pushed towards medicine because the kids and often the parents don’t know what else is out there for a kid who is good with math and science. Some of those kids get to college and discover other fields and don’t actually follow through on becoming doctors.</p>
<p>I think it works both ways – Mom who majored in French has a high risk pregnancy and spends a year in the NICU and PICU chilling with her sick baby, makes friends with doctors and nurses and decides she has a calling for pediatrics; kid who has been groomed for pre-med since birth falls in love with video game design or epidemiology while at MIT, etc.</p>
<p>"Lots of kids in that family get pushed towards medicine because the kids and often the parents don’t know what else is out there "
-Or they know that no other field can provide a job security…because all those engineers and IT are loosing jobs several times in their career…so they tell their kids that being out of job is not fun, it is very depressing and not for every person out there. It reguires certain personality to get yourself together and look and be ready again and again to adjust to new everything. learn entirely new environment (many times in completely new industry) at any age… And theh they see this kid who is absolutely capable of everything who will work her ------ off to get the highest grade and who wants to be in everything else and succeed there also…and who is getting there no matter what she tries. And they ask themselves why this kid who is capapble of everything in a world not just for her smarts but also because of her tremendously hard working habits, why in world this kid would not try to reach the sky…she definitely has this ability…while there are no jobs for Marine biologists and many others, there are plenty for MDs.</p>
That’s pretty harmless. On the other hand, a kid at a Podunk state school finding a calling in some obscure major and coming back to live with mom and dad like a boomerang after realizing that his/her degree is worth jack $#%$ in the real world - that’s a huge problem. All this stuff about parents forcing kids into some majors goes only so far as an excuse.</p>
<p>^I am not trying to gang up, but unfortunately I feel exactly the same way as kal123. It is based on my persoanl experience loosing many jobs. I was lucky to have a very supportive husband, but things like this break families very easily. Dreaming is a very nobel thing. However, it is better to dream about Dermatology instead of Marine Biology (sorry for using the same example over and over. As boring as it might seem, it reflects a true life experience). Sometime a bit of very loving and tender push might steer a very unexperienced and naive 16 y o into thinking correctly about her future and what role college education plays in it.</p>
<p>Becoming a medical doctor to the upper-middle and upper class is like becoming a pro athlete to the lower class. It’s the top of the food chain when it comes to status in both academia and social circles. Your child is all but certain of a 6-figure salary. It’s generally seen as noble, versus a soulless lawyer who lies and over bills for a living (most of my Dad’s successful friends hated lawyers and my Dad said he’d disown me if I considered law school). The seats are very limited in med school and residencies, so it’s very exclusive company. Nothing says my kid is a success like “my kid just graduated from medical school.” Some of the silicon valley kids make lots of money but that’s not the be all, end all, especially to millionaire families. Even Mark Zuckerberg recognized the status of an MD, and married one.</p>
<p>I would add that "becoming a medical doctor " is much much more realistic goal for a very hard working student than "becoming a pro athlete " for the very very talented athlete.</p>
<p>No need to take the comparison hyper-literally. All I’m saying is that “My kid is a doctor” holds more status than my kid is a lawyer or my kid works at a bank. There’s actual effort involved. Where as anybody that doesn’t know what to do can go to law school and anyone with a connection can get a job on Wall St. There are tons of privileged kids that can’t hack it, so “My kid is a doctor” automatically means they’re gifted. It’s the ultimate bragging rights in every elite social setting.</p>
<p>Oh, I do not think that anybody can go to a law school, it involves ton of effort, it does not happen all by itself, but I agree that it became much harder to find the job recently, harder than it used to be. I also, do not think that Wall St. would retain somebody who cannot perform despite of connections. At as a third point, I completely disagree that “My kid is a doctor” automatically means they’re gifted", nope, not at all. However, it does mean that the person is extremely hard working, at unimaginable by most levels.</p>
<p>I sure hope so because my school only offers two APs and before this I went to a small private school where everyone took the same classes and there was no “gifted” program. I think I want to be a doctor but to be perfectly honest I’m 15 an have no idea what I’ll end up doing. If you mean late bloomers as in they didn’t know they wanted to be physicians I don’t see why they still wouldn’t work hard in HS to keep their options open. If they didn’t get perfect HS grades t depends on how they apply themselves in college and if they make every opportunity count.</p>