Any actual doctors in the house (especially med school docs)?

I have some med school questions.

 

Thanks.

First question. Should an applicant visit the school?

Second, if the applicant is looking at internal medicine or obstetrics, what are your most critical suggestions?

 

Do you have any feel for how to gauge an applicant's chances? For elite undergraduate schools, white and Asian kids need to have SAT scores that are at least in the top 25% if not top 10% of the school's incoming class distribution. So much of their classes are filled by URMs, recruited athletes and wealthy legacies that there is little room left for everyone else. And most of those precious spots are filled by unicorns who are the best in the country or world at something or have already published in a journal, gotten a patent or started a business.

It feels like med school admissions is a bit more about stats. At least, recruited athletes aren't a factor. And I am not sure playing piano at Carnegie hall is either. So, let's say an applicant's GPA and MCAT scores are above a school's median. Is that good enough to be in the running or should an applicant only apply to schools where they have more of a cushion if they haven't been published or anything crazy?

 

He just took the MCAT and will be applying in the next cycle which, I believe, starts in May.

 

Yes, he has advisors at school but I don't fully trust them. Do you have a consultant you would suggest?

 

They wouldn't have traded which thing? Going into medicine?

 

Stony Brook. His undergrad application experience was a disaster. He had a 1570 on his SAT, was valedictorian, was student council president and was a three sport athlete. Definitely should have gotten into one of his top choices buy maybe it was for the best. From what we have gathered, his essay topic choices killed him. His guidance counselors were useless. Don't want to rely on school resources again.

 

I hear you about connections. Unfortunately, there is some luck involved there. As for research, he is involved in a project but who knows if or when it will get published. His GPA is 3.95 and that is with a rough first semester where got a severe case of mono. We will see what the MCAT score ends up being but he was scoring really high on the practice tests. He has a good story about shadowing and his clinical experience and volunteering is very strong. Would love to see the kid get a win. He has earned it.

 

I will pass this along to him. While I would love to see him get a win and get into a highly ranked school, this is an important message. Thanks.

 

Actually, he hates the idea of going to a consultant. He is very independent. I offered to pay for an MCAT course or targeted tutoring but he resisted. I backed off and waited to see what his test scores were. When I saw what he was getting I let him keep doing what he was doing because his study plan was working. But when it comes to crafting a story and to prepare for interviews, I am simply not going to give into his stubborn independence.

 

First off, thanks a ton for the advice. This is great and I really appreciate it. What you are saying brings up more questions.

The best way to describe my son is that he is a great teammate. It is one of the reasons why I think he would make a great doctor. But, like many of us, he does tend to overthink things. It causes him to hold back when he doesn't know people well. He is overly concerned about saying the "right" thing. Part of that is my fault and especially with his undergrad applications. Suffice it to say, the advice we (I) got was bad advice. A consultant could have helped with that. I really think just being himself in his essays and in interviews is the right thing for him. But he won't believe it coming from me. He needs to hear it from someone he trusts in these matters. Let me give you an example.

When he was in his junior year of high school I asked him if he had any ideas what things he would like to do for a career because that would help narrow down the schools for him to apply to. He game me the usual physics and math type answers. Now, I know the kid is good at math but I also know that it would have bored him to death. And he didn't really have a love for physics. And you really have to love physics to major in it. I also know that he takes after his mother more than me. I am an engineer and she actually wanted to be a doctor but was talked out of it by her parents. I know he takes after her because he has many of the same strengths and interests. When he was very young he would often be the first one up in the house. We would come down stairs to find him watching Dr. G or a surgery. Remembering that, I said to him, what about Medicine? He was hesitant. After some prodding I got him to tell us why. First, he felt like he had no idea what it would really be like. Fair enough. Second, he was afraid of killing someone. Again, good reason. So, I suggested to him to shadow a doctor. At this time, he happened to be dating a girl whose father was a surgeon. I asked him if he would be willing to have my son shadow him and he jumped at the chance. He really liked him. One of the first things he did was bring my son into a surgery where he was removing a large cancerous tumor. He brought my son into the OR and had him stand right next to him. I would have fainted. He loved it. He also loved the banter of the doctors and staff. Later we would find out how oddly realistic the show Scrubs was. One of the next things he did was bring my son into one of those reviews where mistakes are discussed (it was a teaching hospital). He saw how the young residents and older, experienced, doctors handled being human. His two concerns were addressed and he was hooked. This doctor also set up other shadowing opportunities for him with other specialists so he could see what those were like too.

Now, this is a story he would be hesitant to tell in an interview because it doesn't feel serious enough to him. In my mind, I think it is a great example of exactly why someone should shadow. So many kids are told to be doctors. They shadow because they want to be a doctor. My son wants to be a doctor because he shadowed. What is your opinion on this example?