<p>@BrownParent, good point, she should look into the vibrancy of the Women in Science programs at the schools…</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus, I think she wants to major in biochemistry or biophysics or something close to those majors. She wants to pursue a MD/PhD because she’s interested in conducting clinical research of some kind. (I’m out of my league here discussing careers in the medical profession!) We’ve definitely considered using the savings account to help fund med school. We told our daughter that if she thinks she wants to go to med school and pursue the medical scientist program, then she should consider that she’s on an eight+ year funding plan vs. a four year funding plan. Money saved in UG is money that can be used to help fund med or grad school. That’s why the state flagship offer looks like such a great option for her.</p>
<p>I started the initial post about academics because of talks with other parents about some of their kids (coming from top private schools in the area) losing confidence in their academic abilities and struggling at the Ivies because of the “small fish in the big pond” syndrome. YMMV. One parent told me to read a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “David and Goliath” (seemed to be generally panned in book reviews). The chapter is titled “Caroline Sacks (fictional name) If I’d gone to the University of Maryland, I’d still be in science.” In the chapter he discusses the Big Fish-Little Pond effect. His insight offered is “the more elite an educational institution is, the worse students feel about their own academic abilities. Students who would be at the top of their class at a good school can easily fall to the bottom of a really good school. Students who would feel they have mastered a subject at a good school can have the feeling they are falling farther and farther behind in a really good school…How you feel about your abilities–your academic ‘self-concept’–in the context of your classroom shapes your willingness to tackle challenges and finish difficult tasks. It’s a crucial element in your motivation and confidence.” </p>
<p>Gladwell also says “what happened to Caroline Sacks is all too common…more than half of all American students who start out in STEM drop out after their first or second year.” Some anecdotal evidence he offers is that Caroline Sacks entered Brown as a STEM student, struggled academically, especially in organic chemistry, and the "experience of comparing herself to all the other brilliant brilliant fish in the pond shattered her confidence. It made her feel stupid, even though she isn’t stupid at all. She felt that ‘… other people are mastering this, even people who were as clueless as I was in the beginning, and I just can’t seem to learn to think in this manner.’ " He goes on to say that the students in her class were very competitive and quotes Caroline saying …"They didn’t want to share their study habits with me. They didn’t want to talk about ways to better understand the stuff that we were learning, because that might give me a leg up.’ "</p>
<p>Wow. I was taken aback by his statement that more than half of all American students who start out in a STEM subject drop out after their first or second year. Is this phenomenon as prevalent as Mr. Gladwell states at the Ivies or top public and private universities? Is the academic environment that toxic for STEM students?</p>