<p>DS just rec'd a letter of invite to apply to a renowned med school in the South. It's been sent by an Admissions Committee member. </p>
<p>Just wondering if anyone else has rec'd similar invitation letters to apply by Adcoms for 2011 admissions cycle? </p>
<p>Is this a standard letter sent out by Adcom members to select candidates? How much weight should someone attribute to such invites? The Adcom member also invites him to apply for a scholarship.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s pretty common for people to get them (in fact, I got them from a couple schools that I had already applied to!). Who they send it to varies on their school, but a lot of schools spam it to anyone above a certain MCAT cut off.</p>
<p>Curious…why doesn’t your “ds” ask this question himself if he’s going to med school? Just curious…seems really strange to me how many parents are on a site like this asking these questions for their kids (even for the UG admissions really, but esp. for med school, grad school, business school, etc.). At what point do you let them soar on their own? (Just saying – I think I’d feel a bit uncomfortable if my parents were going around asking all of these questions about my applications to a bunch of strangers on the internet. Feels kind of “boundaries”-ish to me.)</p>
<p>Depends on the kid, AP, my DD does not ‘do’ forums, but is happy to accept my advice and input. Since her university does not give great advice, we have found CC & SDN to be an extremely valuable resource.</p>
<p>Some kids have better resources than others for advice, if we parents can learn more and be better sounding boards, so much the better for our kids.</p>
<p>I do ask my DDs permission before revealing things that may be too private, but she actually had SDNers proof her PS (via PM) and she also (via my posting) has provided a lot of feedback to HS applicants to her university who were applying for a certain scholarship; she worked in that scholarship office so her info was accurate and helpful, but she would not choose to spend time on forums.</p>
<p>I think on CC, it is a unique group of really good people who came to CC when the kids were in HS (I started in 2000!) and as the kids depart, people enjoyed the respectful postings on the parent cafe, but still want to give back to the newbies and share our hard won knowledge Or maybe we have no lives ;)</p>
<p>I don’t think a parent asking this sort of question is odd. This isn’t SDN, after all, where it’s pretty much dominated by students. Making the decision is one thing, but seeking information for the decision maker (who probably doesn’t frequent CC anymore) or for the parent’s own sense of sanity in this cycle is totally cool. If nothing else, pharm might just want to know how much she can brag about her DS in this case :)</p>
<p>somemom, I wonder if I proofed your D’s PS?</p>
<p>We are all lying about our relationships with our sons and daughters. In fact, we control their every move …like puppetmasters, we make them dance. We come to these boards so that we can show off our puppet-ing skillz to others . It’s a form of parental bragging. </p>
<p>Along the way we hope to be able to score some weed and maybe hit on some disconsolate and disturbed undergraduates. </p>
<p>Thank you for making us look in the mirror. It’s not a pretty sight. </p>
<p>Next!! (As I know there will always be a next. ;))</p>
<p>Somemom, I echo your sentiment. Curm, you are so funny! You made me laugh out loud!</p>
<p>AP, I am one of those folks who got zero direction from my parents wrt my profession and my career choice. My parents’ advice was way too generic “Study hard, apply yourself, and do us proud”. I have looked back retrospectively often and wondered where I would have been today if I had had parents with more knowledge of various health related disciplines and advised me accordingly. (Perhaps at the FDA in a top position!)</p>
<p>This time around however, I have tried to educate myself to help my DS in ways that my parents fell short.</p>
<p>Look around you. Behind every successful man or a woman, you will find a team of mentors, supporters, trainers who helped them succeed. Tiger Woods is the champion he is today because of his Dad’s mentorship. Obama would never have been able to shine if not for his Mother’s devotion and push for his pursuit of excellence. Even behind Ben Carson, his Mother’s faith and efforts channeled him to pursue and become the first African American Head of Pediatric Neurosurgery at JHU. Sonya Sotamayer speaks the same of her Mother’s efforts. Great leaders are not just born… they are moulded with help and mentorship from a team of people!</p>
<p>As parents, it’s our duty to help our next generation, to provide mentorship, encouragement, a nurturing environment, and support the direction they choose. It’s eventually up to our own kids to make their own decisions.</p>
<p>Nope. It’s just a letter asking the student to apply to their school. The scholarship is dangled just to attract the candidate. There are no guarantees I think.</p>
<p>As a disclaimer…hopefully, none of you will find this too offensive. If you do, I apologize! Here are kind of my raw thoughts/response…</p>
<p>I don’t at all doubt that this is true. I am certainly thankful for the support my parents have provided. They have been amazing at nurturing and developing my talents, encouraging development and exploration, and being accepting of whichever direction I choose. I think those are great things and I don’t doubt that a child is much more likely to fail without direction; however, at the same time, I wonder at what point we, as college students, must begin to “fly solo.” At what point should we be expected to do our own research and know our chosen career path? In my case, I have a medical family, so I seek them out for advice but if that were not so, I would (and still, even with a medical family, have proceeded to) find a mentor in medicine from whom to gain guidance. I think finding other mentors and learning to research a career yourself are crucial skills to develop, so I find it curious to see what would appear to be so many college students whose parents are still doing their “homework.” As forums such as SDN show, there is often no one “right answer,” so it is often the process of finding an answer that is so valuable. Having someone give you the “Cliff’s Notes” of the advice or information given to them seems like it would be of far less value.</p>
<p>Additionally, I felt it was curious that some students are “okay” with this. While I appreciate my parents’ help on many things, I think developing one’s own independence is important. As a result, I feel like it would be quite easy to cross some boundaries in one’s child’s life and development. On the other hand, having supportive parents is important. I guess my question is moreso in terms of when “supportive” becomes “overbearing” or “enabling.” I also ask this because, while working in college admissions and student success, I saw many parents who were overbearing and a bit “too helpful” with their child and you could tell the kid just wanted to get away from them and/or performed poorly in school because s/he struggled to be successful without that “helping hand.” In music and other performing arts, we call these “stage mothers.” I’m not really sure what to call them in college admissions.</p>
<p>None at all - you will even hear stories about people whose interviewer has said “you’ll definitely get in - look for the acceptance letter”… and then received a flat rejection.</p>
<p>Apumic- you might view what a parent does here as self-education. The more I know about the process, the better sounding board I can provide when my student asks my advice or input. I may not say half of what I have learned to my kids, but I am taking in so many peoples ideas & processes that I am a much more valuable resource- when asked ;)</p>
<p>Your thoughts are well-written. And, having attended several parent orientations over the past few years, not to mention a gazillion college info sessions, there is no doubt that parents ask “dumb” questions (my word for it.)</p>
<p>However, you are assuming that the OP, a parent, is asking on behalf of her son. Perhaps the parent is just asking for parental information. Plus, it’s entirely possible that the OP, a parent, is also a counselor or counselor-in-training. (Several parents who I have met on this board have turned their knowledge into a PT/FT gig at the local high school or community counseling center.) Thus, the question could have other bases, than the one that you assume. And finally, since you come from a medical family, you have a built-in response mechanism – free.</p>
<p>Some of the ‘information seeking’ behavior we parents indulge in comes from a need for a deeper ‘understanding’ of the career paths our kids have sought. Afterall, we will be paying $50-60,000/year for 4 years for their med school education. We have every right to reserach before investing our hard earned money. </p>
<p>What our kids themselves research, how in depth is their own research, and how much they ‘listen’ to parents etc are issues beyond parental control.</p>