<p>I agree that it is certainly time appropriate for your DD to consider medical school. Whether for med school or grad school, a few years of working after UG shows maturity and helps kids clarify their goals. Once in medical school, she may switch to a nonsurgical route. </p>
<p>My son shares NS interest with your dtr, and completed all but one premed requirement while an UG. He chose the PhD route. That will take as long, and future uncertain.</p>
<p>Whatever path your DD chooses, I am sure she will be successful.</p>
<p>OP - many years ago I did the same thing. After a master’s degree in Psychology, I took undergraduate courses to fulfill tye premed requirements, studied for the MCAT with a review course and worked in 2 medically related jobs. It is doable if the person has a fire in their belly to do it. She should consider MD and DO Schools. Med school is costly, usually around 50K these days. It can be funded by military or public health service committments. Future income depends on specialty. Primary care such as peds Family Practice, Internal Medicine generally don’t pay well. It also depends on what her future spouse will contribe. One thing is for sure - that healthcare delivery in this country is uncertain. Ultimately, directly or indirectly, most physicians end up working for an insurance company or the government. Within 20 years there will be a shortage of about 90,000 physicians - so there willbe plenty of work in medicine, you just can’t predict income. One must do the math: 4 years that cost 200K, 3-4 more years at a low income during residency vs. 8 years with no loan and experience at another career at full pay. When I speak to young people about medical school, I always tell them all the reasons they shouldn’t do it. I wait and see their response, how much they think what I’ve said is unacceptable, how much they really want it. IMO, medical school shouldn’t be attempted unless the person would be absolutely miserable for never having tried.</p>
<p>I haven’t read all of the posts but should your daughter opt to work for a hospital or with a group of medical providers, her employment contract would most likely include payment of her medical school loans…this is a standard practice particularly in underserved areas. It is certainly negotiable. </p>
<p>The only concern would be if she did not complete her studies and had the loans to pay without the degree. However, from what I did read about your outstanding daughter, that appears to be highly unlikely.</p>
<p>Alumother- regarding motherhood. In my neck of the woods both my internist and dermatologist have young children. Both of them work only 3 days of the week. It is more difficult to schedule an appointment and I am not sure how working less plays into paying off of the student loans.
Also an older friend of the family told us that her D is an MD who works as an administrator but started out in practice with Kaiser. She said Kaiser has many female providers due to the ability to have more time with their families. Trade offs might also be a lower salary.</p>
<p>Too early to start picking a specialty like Neurosurgery. Get in to med school first. Neurosurgery residency programs are extremely tough to get into. You really have to be at the tippety top of your class or show diligence in the field. and lots of med students hate neuroanatomy a prereq class that you usu have to love to go into NuSu.</p>
<p>Take the prereqs like intro Bio, inorganic Chem, organic Chem, physics first. Check out the MCAT. Have her go back to the College Csg office at Princeton who can help inform her what classes she still needs in order to apply to med school. Get those under her belt and take a good MCAT review course.</p>
<p>Once she’s in, she can worry about how she might pay for it; med schools have 1:1 meetings with all their accepted students and can help you figure out where to get the best loans or if military scholarships are an option.</p>
<p>I posted on the premed board, but in addition to taking the time to get the few remaining courses (she needs 1 year each: bio, chem, calc, physics for most schools, some schools are slightly different, but to apply broadly, you generally go for the broad spectrum) she should also contact her profs from Princeton, those who know her best, her potential, her leadership, etc. Get them to write LORs right away and have them submitted to an Interfolio account, that allows her to reach them now while they might still remember her and to have the letters ready whenever she applies.</p>
<p>Also, begin with medical ECs- think of it as doing the things that help HER decide whether or not medicine is right for her- shadow, volunteer, anything that allows her to work with patients. This shows the adcoms you have done your due diligence and more importantly allows her to more fully explore the commitment before spending all the money on apps, interviews, and then tuition.</p>
<p>Yes, $5-10k is realistic for the cost of applications, from MCAT prep, to the test fees, applications, LORS, transcripts, secondary fees, plus interview costs, ouch! I am pretty sure we spent $4-5k on DDs and she was done in November of her cycle as she got in to her first choice, so only attended 4 interviews and 2 of those were in the same state on one trip. Plus we ate the cancellation fees on the interview scheduled for the next week.</p>
<p>Neurosurgery is the longest residency program of any other specialty. It is a 7 year residency, in addition to the 4 years of medical school. Which means if you start med school immediately after college, and you are about 22 when you graduate college, you will be 33 at least before you can start to make some real money as a neurosurgeon.</p>
<p>I posted on the premed board, but in addition to taking the time to get the few remaining courses (she needs 1 year each: bio, chem, calc, physics for most schools, some schools are slightly different, but to apply broadly, you generally go for the broad spectrum) she should also contact her profs from Princeton, those who know her best, her potential, her leadership, etc. Get them to write LORs right away and have them submitted to an Interfolio account, that allows her to reach them now while they might still remember her and to have the letters ready whenever she applies.</p>
<p>Also, begin with medical ECs- think of it as doing the things that help HER decide whether or not medicine is right for her- shadow, volunteer, anything that allows her to work with patients. This shows the adcoms you have done your due diligence and more importantly allows her to more fully explore the commitment before spending all the money on apps, interviews, and then tuition.</p>
<p>Yes, $5-10k is realistic for the cost of applications, from MCAT prep, to the test fees, applications, LORS, transcripts, secondary fees, plus interview costs, ouch! I am pretty sure we spent $4-5k on DDs and she was done in November of her cycle as she got in to her first choice, so only attended 4 interviews and 2 of those were in the same state on one trip. Plus we ate the cancellation fees on the interview scheduled for the next week.</p>
<p>Thank you again. I think the immediate course of action is now clear. She will go to talk to the Princeton advising staff, and back to talk to her research adviser to see about recommendations, etc. My sense of panic is far fainter. Much appreciated.</p>