<p>So I'm one of the best students at my school and I don't really know anyone gunning to become a doctor. BUT over the summer I did two camps and it seemed like everyone was already positioning themselves to be pre-med and go to medical school. They even knew what specialties they'd pursue, e.g. derm, ortho. Where does this come from? I'm terrified of blood and didn't even know I could work in a hospital as a teenager. Many of these kids already had 100s of hours at the local hospital, witnessed surgeries, etc. I have to assume parents are molding these pre-pre-meds? Would you say your child turning into a doctor is the tippy top tier of parental achievement? And the money isn't so bad either.</p>
<p>Someone ought to do a correlation study between what’s popular on TV and what kids say they are going to do after college that are teenagers during those popular shows. Lawyer shows were hugely popular during my teen years and the law schools were groaning at the seams. Doctor and Nurse shows have been prevalent during this current decade but I don’t know the statistics to med schools. I haven’t heard of any friends who have kids who wanted to go to med school that didn’t get accepted somewhere if they stuck with that as a goal through undergrad. I have one friend with a D who has an engineering degree from an Ivy and is now in med school down south. So that kiddo must have changed their mind from engineering. </p>
<p>@GullLake: I know you’re 17 or so, but why do you always have to sound so painfully immature?</p>
<p>Lol @PurpleTitan that was unnecessary. </p>
<p>You can major in anything and go to med school. Many top colleges do not have any “premed” major.</p>
<p>A lot of the teens who want to be doctors change their minds in college.</p>
<p>I completely agree. Note how almost every student on CC says, I plan on becoming a doctor, and am premed so I need financial aid.<br>
I’ve worked in hospitals alongside medical professionals, and seeing it in a book versus seeing it in “true life” adversely impacts many students. I have friends who are physicians. Along with the blood, bile and urine, they see people with burns, scrapes, missing limbs, peeled skin, dermatological anomalies and everything you couldn’t even conceive or fathom. You also see med students with lack of sleep, stress, depression, and anxieties.<br>
Money, what money? Liability insurance will cost you. Budgeting for office staff and mundane business expenses/items affects you too. Current doctors have to contend with PPO’s, HMO’s, Medicare billings, and limits on what they can and can’t RX because of the insurance companies affects your bottom line
Each student that says, I’m going into premed and then thinks they are unique. I’d like to tell students that at your high school, you might think you are the best in the country/ top dog; come down to earth a little and take some college courses before you select your major; then see if you’re still premed. </p>
<p>Going on various college tours we have many people who say “I started as a pre-med…” I think many people have that in mind but change their minds/don’t do as well as they hoped and change to another major. My daughter has wanted to be a doctor since 4th grade and she is volunteering in a hospital…partly to see if she is really interested in medicine and partly for community service.</p>
<p>@ribbonroad224:
True, though I daresay most parents don’t think of whatever profession their kid goes in to as their achievement.</p>
<p>People who actually do become doctors usually decided on their path pretty early on. Its not a profession that one just stumbles into; it takes a lot of dedication & commitment. </p>
<p>This is annoying on multiple levels. Just because you don’t like blood doesn’t mean these other kids aren’t genuinely motivated to pursue the path towards the medical profession on their own. I know a wonderful kid who spent hours in a biomedical research lab of her own volition, excited by the idea that their work could change lives.</p>
<p>And actually, the tippy, tippy tier of parental achievement will be when my daughter thanks me in her Oscar, Emmy or Tony speech. Hahahahaa!</p>
<p>@scholarme:</p>
<p>Yes, <em>they</em> decided. Usually not their parents. Also, you really don’t have to decide or be dedicated to anything before entering college.</p>
<p>Some people truly love medicine. My H knew he wanted to be a doctor ever since he was little - he never wanted to be anything else – and it’s a calling for him. It’s genuine, in his soul. It’s like breathing to him. Those are the rewards, not the money (although certainly the money is decent).</p>
<p>Other people think of being a doctor as a way to get some “prestige” (which is kind of laughable, no one bows to doctors any more) and / or a way to have an assured income because everyone needs doctors.</p>
<p>You have no idea whether the other students you saw are genuinely interested in medicine, <em>think</em> they’re interested in medicine but they really aren’t, or have been pushed that way by overeager parents. But why does it matter to you? It’s not your business.</p>
<p>As for the “tippy top tier of parental achievement,” I don’t think like that. I want my kids to be healthy, happy, productive and self-supporting. What field they go into is completely irrelevant to that. I certainly don’t think of being a doctor as any “better” than any one of dozens of other careers. People have different interests, so the idea that it’s “parental achievement” to push a kid who doesn’t want to be a doctor into being a doctor – well, such people don’t impress me at all.</p>
<p>The other thing is that hs students don’t really know about a lot of careers out there. But doctor is one that they do know, because everyone’s been to a doctor and we know what they do. So it’s not surprising a lot of kids want to be, or think they want to be, one. </p>
<p>My father’s a doctor. It’s an incredibly meaningful job but not as glamorous as people think. A lot of people who were the top students beforehand end up burning out as residents because they realize this.</p>
<p>There is a lot of stress and emotional hardship involved. When you work in a hospital and regularly see patients die, you become desensitized to it because you have to. Physicians have one of if not the highest suicide rate of all professions. </p>
<p>I’ve told my teenagers that my “tippy top tier” of parental achievement will be if at least one of them ends up close enough to home that they might let me come out of my coaching retirement and help them with a rec soccer team for my grandkids. But I’m joking – mostly. </p>
<p>Lots of people wanted to be doctors back in the '70’s when I was in college. Several of them did. OTOH, I was a bio major and knew a lot of people who were bio/pre med who changed their majors after some of the “weed out” classes. I don’t think that this has changed.</p>
<p>Lots of hs kids want to be doctors the same way that lots of grade-schoolers want to be astronauts. It’s a job they can wrap their heads around because they’ve seen it. </p>
<p>I simply wanted my kids to be happy, educated, and productive people. If being a doctor was something that they wanted, then it would have been OK with me. I have two friends whose kids are doctors. Neither one “groomed” her kid to follow that path. My mother, who believed doctors walked on water, wanted my brother to be a doctor. He got into medical school and washed out–quit within a few months of starting and eventually went on to get a doctorate in biology. I know my mother was disappointed, but, to her credit, she supported my brother when he quit. My brother is 57–so this was back in the day when people didn’t “groom” kids for anything at least not in my immigrant, working-class family. </p>
<p>“making your kid a doctor”? “molding these pre-pre-meds”? Really?</p>
<p>In my group of friends and parents, no one has successfully molded or made their kids do anything! Parenting is a lot like herding cats (even though many have made the analogy to pruning a tree). Most parents I know are thrilled if their child is happy, emotionally and physically healthy, and employed - the holy trifecta. In my little circle, there’s no difference if that child is a employed as a mechanic or a surgeon, as long as that child is happy and whole. Maybe I live in Shangri-la.</p>
<p>The kids I know who did become doctors were driven towards that profession at an early age. They shadowed physicians and volunteered in hospitals while in high school. They were not “forced” to do so by their parents but chose it for themselves.</p>
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<p>Or the Nobel Prize speech in Oslo. Hey, if you’re going to “make” or “mold” - mold big!</p>
<p>I know I wanted to be a doctor, an astronaut, and a scientist when I was little. So when my kids were little I asked them if they wanted to be a doctor. No! was the very firm answer. Astronaut? Mom, I don’t even like to go on rollercoasters. Mad scientist that takes over the world? Hmmmm…maybe.</p>
<p>Our neighbor’s kid told me she was going to be an osteopathic surgeon back when she was 10. I already made a verbal contract with her for my future hip replacement. Just 3 years later she doesn’t want to be a doctor anymore.</p>