Most likely the case. I cannot imagine that she will survive weed out and competition in UMD. All people who know my daughter do not recommend to attend UMD if she wants to even consider medical field.
That soundsâŠ.very sadâŠif her dream is medical school.
I hope it doesnât come to that.
But âŠwhy? Why canât she try for med school at UMD?
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And this is not due to academicsâŠ
Then reallyâŠmaybe relax one of your other requirements like location or good Hillel so that she can go to a school that you can afford and that will let her keep her dream alive if she is motivated to do so.
I hope it will not come to that too⊠But that is reality and I cannot change it. UMD is crazy big and full of magnet kids who are ready to die for it⊠My daughter is not ready to sleep 2 hours a day like her classmates does now in 11th grade. We are living in crazy competitive area.
I also live in a competitive area, so I understand. I just find it sad that your daughterâs dream of applying to medical school might not happen because of the schools she applied to. That doesnât make sense to me. Why not add safety schools where she will thrive?
If your daughter has an unweighted 3.95 with course rigorâŠI am not sure why you feel she canât handle UMD. Her classes will not be huge because she already completed the intro classes. Upper level classes are smaller.
GW is on the list- it will not be easier at GW.
Also remember- medical school classes can be very big.
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But Hillel and location are her requirements, not mine. She will not survive without her Jewish friends. She had them all her life. She is also a big city suburban girl, so she needs places to go at least theoretically. She cannot be in the middle of nowhere with no place to go and few distant friends. That would be a disaster. She is very social kid who needs to interact with positive vibe non-stop. She has so amazing friends that I am not sure how we are even going to survive graduation and everybody moving in different directions 
Rural and suburban schools often have tons of activities on campus. And if she is premed, she may not have much time to go out on the town anyway.
And FaceTime and Skype etc help maintain old friendships.
I think that even if these are her requirements/priorities there is no harm in you insisting that she apply to a few colleges that meet all the other needs and that you can afford and where she can thrive as a pre-med just to keep options open when decision time comes around. Worse that comes of it is that you will have spent a little more in application fees and she may have to write a couple more essaysâŠand then she can reject them next spring if she still feels then the way she feels now.
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Question:
Is your daughter willing to give up her goal of applying to medical school?
Weed out courses will be at every single school. If you donât think she can survive them at UMD, perhaps medical school is not the best career choice for her. Medical school class content and pace will make her UG weed out classes seem like a walk in the park.
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OP- your D sounds amazing.
But reality check- most of med school (and residency) means surviving on a few hours sleep.
There are tons of health fields that do not (hospital administration, public health, biostatistics and epidemiology, genetic counseling) so perhaps closing the door on med school while sheâs still a HS junior is premature. She can grow and learn and become her best self (yes, even at UMD) while sheâs exploring all these other career possibilities. She can major in Psych at UMD and still take her pre-reqâs.
I would take GW and Case off her list if the âsurvivabilityâ of being pre-med is the key concern. Both of those seem like outliers compared to her other schools.
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Many many medical school classes will exceed 45 students.
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Medical school classes can have more than 45 students, and your daughter might not have a choice of schools (if accepted).
Medical school can be very stressful, fast paced with little sleep.
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From the high schoolsâ perspective, I have spent over an hour of my day pulling together the info one local scholarship requires to nominate one student from our high school for a $500 one time scholarship. This is after sending emails requesting internal nominations, coming up with a process to pick one, making sure the kid wants to be nominated and is willing to write an essay about how community service has changed him and what community service he expects to be involved with in the future. And his chances will be one out of 25 or 30 other schools⊠and there are so many more well meaning ones like this, but we just do not have the staff for all of these steps. The ones coordinated through a single community foundation are so much better - they function like the common app.
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I agree. I only considered my childâs time, with no job in the spring semester of senior year. I didnât even think of the school counselorâs time! They wound up getting a 3k one, and a $500 one, both non-renewable. They didnât bother in any subsequent year, and I didnât push them.
This last one got a couple of $500 each awards through the high school. Didnât bother on any others, even the âMy Mom has Cancer!â one, since it was need-based, and I doubted we would qualify. Again, not pushing them to apply for any more. Kid is WAY too swamped with school work.
Oldest had a girlfriend from a poor family. She was very good at applying for stacked scholarships that didnât get counted toward her financial aid, and so was making money going to college. Boy was that kid a go-getter!
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There is something really wrong with the process and selection methodology when someone is willing to âacceptâ defeat of a love or goal due to a school choice.
I hope your daughter is stronger than this.
She may fail in her pursuit of medicine. Most do or will.
But I certainly hope one isnât throwing in the towel based on I want to go to school A but I may have to settle for School B.
No matter where she goes, elite or not, the path will be difficult. But someone with the drive, determination and smarts to get it done canâŠ.and will.
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I can understand the difficulty of applying for multiple local scholarships with needing counselorsâ recommendations, etc, for a small award and how that might be difficult. But Iâve seen several local scholarships where only an essay is required with no other adult participation, and itâs still crickets.
Thank YOU! Your posts definitely helped clear things up for me!
I appreciate all of the clarifications regarding how this employer tuition discount works. Itâs definitely not straightforward! So with the arithmetic youâve done, Rider comes out at $21k. Would this be a school worth investigating to see if your daughter liked it?
Is your daughter interested in being a psychologist? Is this a Plan B that you have suggested to her, or is this one that she came up with?
Also, has she visited College Parkâs campus? If so, what were her impressions?
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The OP wrote this:
â Every time I visit UMD it gives me wrong vibe. DD is OK with it, but only from an angle of saving money for future education.â
I donât see any reason why this student wouldnât have the potential to apply to medical school with an undergrad degree (maybe in psychology) from UMD as long as she takes the required courses for medical school applicants.
The parent is concerned about the size of classes at UMD. I can tell you for sureâŠfirst year and sometimes second year medical school lecture classes can be HUGEâŠsometimes the whole class in one large lecture hall. SoâŠif there are 125 in the classâŠall would be there. Some med schools are a LOT larger and can have close to double that number of students in these lectures.
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That is her plan B. She did not visited College Park yet, but I did many times. Her older sister was also not a big fan of College Park.
Most frosh pre-meds give up before applying to medical school.
Of those who apply to medical school, only about 40% get an admission.
Of those who get an admission, only about 30% get more than one to choose from.
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