<p>Are there any areas that are different enough from a parent's or student's perspective that we should take note of? Of course DD isn't experiencing the same level of excitement now as she did when she first left home, and we really don't need to be as worried about the mundane things that we used to be four years ago. For those who've been through this, are there any unique aspects that we should bear in mind? </p>
<p>Other than keeping an eye on the battery of exams to follow over the next several years, are there other long term areas she needs to keep in view - eg. strategies to discover her likes and hates within medicine in a timely manner and what to do to improve her chance in the specialties she fancies.</p>
<p>Shadowing a few docs in med school can be useful. If she is interested in academic medicine, early research experience is useful. If she finds herself interested in a competitive specialty, early research and other relations with her school’s department of whatever specialty is useful.</p>
<p>D. is very easy with her NOs and kind of hard with her YESs so far. She has had several great experiences, her Med. School program (she mentioned that they are different from school to school) also allow her to identify her preferences from academic point of veiw, she “likes” some systems and does not like some others. Her recent trip abroad with group of other Med. Students and doctors, including other USA Med. Schools has helped a lot also as they were doing 2 specialties / day and actually were diagnosing deseases and were part of various procedures. Still her list of YES specialties is very short, her list of NOs is much longer.
My suggestion is to be open to any opportunity at Med. School and be sensitive to your own likes and dislikes while studying various systems of human body. D. still did not have a chance to participate in any research after UG. She was interning in Med. Research lab for 3 years in UG, but shadowing seems to be more beneficial for decision making in regard to her specialty.</p>