My daughter wants to apply to medical school, again

Doctors get no respect if they need to fly an airplane- they aren’t certified for that. They get zero respect if they try to perform a complicated maintenance task on a car, likely cannot fix a dishwasher, and moreover- try asking a pediatrician to diagnose a brain tumor. And a high school gym teacher is probably a better bet for performing CPR if a stranger collapses on the street than a hematologist or oncologist- the teacher is recertified every year; the doctors haven’t done CPR since their rotations dozens of years ago.

What exactly is your point?

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This is just not true.

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“In the hospital, you can just tell who is who by their face/body language alone. So you can just tell who is a surgeon/specialist. They walk differently, talk differently, etc.”

That is offensive and laughable at the same time to me. My daughter is a surgeon, and to suggest she has some kind of swagger to her walk or tone in her voice is absurd. She could put a candy striper uniform on from when I volunteered as a teen at a hospital, and she would look, walk and talk the same as she does now. Of course the content of a conversation would be different, but the person is the same.

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“Respect: When you apply to med school and say, “my mom/dad is a doctor” they immediately give you respect and attention. many times the interviewee will just give you a good review. First-hand experience here.”

Please share your first hand experience @pudiepie

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My OB/gyno was telling me about how she was recruited to work in one of those Covid tents in NYC during Covid, she just laughed, she’s in her 60’s and said she does not have the skills or experience for that, so many years out of medical school.

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I think you have confused “maximizing prestige” (your comment) with being happy, respected, and fulfilled in a career (which my D is). I only noted D’s experience as a SLP because the OP has started to consider alternative career paths with her D.

Anyway this thread is now veering way off topic

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Let’s stay on topic please.

Cut off your daughter financially; she needs to learn to sink or swim. If she can’t learn to do this on her own, then she’s not even ready to talk about medical school. @Happy1 was giving the OP an option for grad school. Has the OP stopped responding?

As for the insulting comment about speech pathologists not being respected, that’s an opinion and a grossly erred bias.

I had to wear a lab coat when I worked in my hospitals because I often saw people immediately after their surgeries, or their traumatic brain incidents, and sometimes, there were projectiles. Visitors, in the hallways, had no idea whether or not I was a physician and I was often and pulled into rooms, by visitors, asking me to see their families and I would have to explain who I was and that I wasn’t a physician.

I did listen and respond Immediately to their requests by showing them the call buttons, or writing notes and giving them to their floor nursing staffs. Sometimes, the requests were simple and I would show them how to read their “Care” boards (nurse/Dr. on call, vitals). I don’t recall myself carrying a swagger, but I was well respected, both in my hospitals, and later, in my schools.

I wore a lanyard with my name and title. The patient had no idea whether or not I was a physician and I always introduced myself as their speech pathologist and the role I would play in the “recovery” of their family.

I brought my medical illustrations (Netter tear-offs)and explained what had happened during the trauma to the brain, both to the patient and the families, because, often times, the patient was not cognitively aware of what had happened.

The family members often didn’t know what had occurred during an embolism, aneurysm, left hemi/right hemi, etc. I explained, with pictures, what the doctors had previously described to the patient, about the brain, and then, how their family lifestyle would be impacted. I gave them access to my pager, my office lines, my emails. I believe my patients and their families are pretty grateful, as indicated by their referrals of their relatives and friends.

OP if your Daughter is still interested in working with patients, a career in speech pathology is an option. It is not an easy discipline. She’ll be expected to know all the conditions of traumatic brain injury. She’ll have at least a good four years of graduate school, learning about all of the conditions involving the brain, spinal cord, heart, and lungs, larynx, flaccidity and spastic musculature. She will be working the same 12 long hours in the hospital.
She is, and will be, responsible for her charting, and using the “right” codes to be reimbursed by Medicare and all the insurance companies. She will pay liability insurance. She will continue to be professionally “dressed and manicured” to be “presentable” to patients and their families.

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At the very minimum, all pre-reqs need to be completed about 2-3 months before a student starts med school classes. Med schools require a final official transcript that shows all pre-reqs are done before the student is allowed to complete their enrollment process. Med schools get audited randomly by their accrediting body to make sure that they actually follow their own admission requirements**. Failure to adhere to that process means they can lose their accreditation.

Some med schools require all pre-reqs be complete before the application is submitted and will screen out anyone who has pre-req classes pending.

And on a practical note–pre-reqs need to be done before a student takes the MCAT because topics taught in pre-req classes are tested on the MCAT

**This rule came about because a certain Florida med school admitted a student who did not meet their minimum admission requirements because political pressure from a prominent Florida government official.

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I am a speech language pathologist who has worked in many settings over the past 35 years, and I have always been respected. That comment is false.

I was on a cleft palate team, I attended craniofacial team meetings, assisted with swallowing studies, worked in a psychiatric hospital, conducted voice evaluations, presented with physicians etc.

There are other professions out there.

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Agree with everything except to note my D’s grad program (with no background in speech pathology) took 2 1/2 years including two summers (so closer to 3 years).

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Didn’t realize that there was a preference for making the physician profession an inherited aristocracy or upper caste…

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I believe posters have made their points about speech pathologists and respect for other medical professionals.

Please get back to the OP.

Further posts that are off topic will be deleted.

Thank you.

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If there’s no one with any medical experience in the OP’s daughters history it doesn’t seem to matter, so don’t let it be a deterrence. This comes from the UR Class of 2025 link I put on before:

For many of you, medicine is a family business, about 35 of you have
parents that have served in medicine in some capacity. But for a large number of
you, you have had no immediate family in medicine. Your family is in IT, work in
department stores, drive for UBER, are adventure outfitters, business owners, gig
workers, PhD researchers, custodial workers, care assistants, artists, lawyers,
teachers, sales specialists, counselors, and the unsung hero of all jobs – the
homemaker. Some of you have raised yourself alone either physically or
psychologically. As you can see, many of you have had absolutely no family in
which to model your future medical aspirations.

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Your daughter can apply again to medical school, but she needs to up her game to be a competitive applicant. And DO schools are just fine. You have received tons of excellent advice on this thread.

I’m curious…will your daughter take this advice…or not?

@lsyangela

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Thank you very much for the advice. I will convey all these precious advices when it is right time. Currently, she is travellng with her friends and does not want to talk about the future plan. I think we should have cut off the financial support earlier. But, at least she has graduated from college on time without any problems or accidents.
I think she will be all right on her own, now.
Thank you for your time.

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Don’t lose hope. My D majored in English and French. She did not take science classes while at Middlebury, which has a great program. (SMH) She taught Teach for America for 2 years. She returned home and did all of her sciences at our local U. She planned to be a vet. After finishing her classes and working in a vet clinic she changed her mind. She took the MCAT’s twice. She then applied for med schools and was accepted. Our friend applied 3 times and is a physician now. Your D needs to think outside of the box. She needs to retake some classes. Have a professional read her essay’s. Find something notable such as working at a low income medical program. Developing a program teaching teens about STD’s. Good luck to her.

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The job of the parent is to support the kid. Most mammals will die for their kids so why can’t OP support her kid? In many Eastern cultures, the parents will do anything for the kids. OPs daughter wants to pursue a noble profession and OP must support the kid financially, even if that means taking a second job, working overtime, etc.

I have a relative who is from an Eastern culture who lives in a tiny apartment so that he can save money for his daughter’s education. Daughter goes to Ivy school, and has 0 debt; OP must aspire to be like that.

We were very clear with our kids. We fully funded their bachelors degrees and after that they needed to fund any further study.

Medical schools here cost nearly $100,000 a year times 4. Sorry but we would not take loans to support this.

If a student wants to pursue med school here and is a citizen they can take grad plus loans up to the cost of attendance.

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There are a lot of noble professions. The fixation with medicine is unhealthy. It is noble to work in public health, hospital administration, speech therapy, health policy for the kid who is interested in health care; there is cyber security and law enforcement; there is education and social work.

There is a difference between supporting a kid’s interests and passions, and enabling a young adult. " Daughter goes to Ivy school, and has 0 debt; OP must aspire to be like that."

Perhaps the OP knows the D better than a bunch of strangers on the internet…

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