Should I tell my DD to not be pre-med?

[Anonymous]

My DD (a sophomore at a T10 on the pre-med path) came home from college with a series of bad grades (C's and D's) in science courses. She did fine during her freshmen year. I asked her for the reason, she said she "couldn't figure out the class" and that she had gone to every office hour, studied her butt off, and still didn't do well. I'm not sure if there's something I'm missing here (maybe mental health issues?), but I'm debating telling her to quit being pre-med and that she wouldn't make it as a doctor. These grades won't make her competitive at all and it's a long road of studying ahead of her. She's quite clumsy and lacks common sense which wouldn't be good in a medical setting. She didn't always want to be pre-med, but she's been pretty determined once she started her studies at college. For context, my husband and his family are all doctors, and I work in finance.

[Anonymous]

I’d encourage it but it has to be her decision. I was on a pre-med track ay UPenn and switched to public health when I started tanking core courses.

[Anonymous]

She doesn’t have the wit. Tell her to major in psychology

[Anonymous]

I'd encourage her to talk to her academic advisor or other academic counseling resources. It doesn't sound like she's likely to be competitive for medical school, but sometimes things can change. Which science courses is she struggling in (physics? chemistry? biology?)? What's her major?

[Anonymous]

My doctor spouse regrets becoming a doctor.

I do think she should choose another path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd encourage her to talk to her academic advisor or other academic counseling resources. It doesn't sound like she's likely to be competitive for medical school, but sometimes things can change. Which science courses is she struggling in (physics? chemistry? biology?)? What's her major?

OP here.
She was a neuroscience student and ended up with a D in her neuroscience course (which caused her to change her major to public health) and she ended up with a C+ in orgo 1.

[Anonymous]

You basically have to have A's in all the core science courses to have a shot at medical school. I'd suggest she pull out now and maybe try a grad school program (Georgetown has one) that helps people get into medical school.

Getting into medical school is a long, long haul. I'd personally not recommend I unless a student has the science portion nailed 100%.

[Anonymous]

She’s done with those grades unless she goes to Caribbean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You basically have to have A's in all the core science courses to have a shot at medical school. I'd suggest she pull out now and maybe try a grad school program (Georgetown has one) that helps people get into medical school.

Getting into medical school is a long, long haul. I'd personally not recommend I unless a student has the science portion nailed 100%.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Switch to nursing?

[Anonymous]

OP, I say this gently. Not every failure in life is due to "mental health issues." Please don't go there with her. There is no reason to assume that.

She's not keeping up with an extremely hard major at an extremely hard (T10 you said?) school.

College is about figuring out your life. She tried this; it didn't work. She's not cut out to be a doctor. Great - now she knows that. If she is still interested in healthcare in general, there are many options that don't require this level of rigor in the hard sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD (a sophomore at a T10 on the pre-med path) came home from college with a series of bad grades (C's and D's) in science courses. She did fine during her freshmen year. I asked her for the reason, she said she "couldn't figure out the class" and that she had gone to every office hour, studied her butt off, and still didn't do well. I'm not sure if there's something I'm missing here (maybe mental health issues?), but I'm debating telling her to quit being pre-med and that she wouldn't make it as a doctor. These grades won't make her competitive at all and it's a long road of studying ahead of her. She's quite clumsy and lacks common sense which wouldn't be good in a medical setting. She didn't always want to be pre-med, but she's been pretty determined once she started her studies at college. For context, my husband and his family are all doctors, and I work in finance.

Let her figure it out; just tell her that she needs to have an alternative career if medical school does not pan out. Maybe she can contact career services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She doesn’t have the wit. Tell her to major in psychology

This is what my DD at an Ivy did. Went from Cs to As.

[Anonymous]

You don’t know that she couldn’t cut it as a doctor but she’s not going to get the chance to find out with those grades.

What does she say about it? Does she seem depressed? Med school simply isn’t going to happen with a c in organic chemistry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t know that she couldn’t cut it as a doctor but she’s not going to get the chance to find out with those grades.

What does she say about it? Does she seem depressed? Med school simply isn’t going to happen with a c in organic chemistry.

OP here. She was upset about the C but thinks she can do better next semester by pre-studying everything (we'll see how that goes). She seems a little off but I'm not sure if that's because of the grades or something else.