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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transfer to UMD from Hopkins. Let her do public policy. It is insane to pay $70K per year for Hopkins for public policy.

It’s fine to say that to a high school student who’s choosing colleges.

If the OP is suffering from severe financial problems and can’t afford to keep paying for Johns Hopkins, and Hopkins won’t provide more aid, then of course the daughter will have to change schools, or find more cash.

If the OP can actually still afford Hopkins, the OP just thinks the kid’s ROI will be poor, and the parent will be disrupting the kid’s two jobs, disrupting the kid’s friendships, and probably adding a year or two to the kid’s time in college, then the OP might be saving about $60,000 or $70,000 on junior and senior college bills, but probably adding at least $35,000 in fifth-year public university bills.

The OP is also probably costing the daughter $30,000 in first-year-after-college income; maybe $10,000 in income and resume fuel due to the loss of the two jobs the daughter already has; and maybe friendships and networking opportunities with a financial alum of at least $10,000.

So, the OP is cutting spending by about $35,000, over two years. Maybe the OP could invest the $35,000 and end up with $70,000. But the OP would be cutting the daughter’s well-being by at least $50,000 in two years. And I think the OP would really be cutting the daughter’s lifetime earnings by something like $500,000 to $10 million, because a social justice warrior with a public health bachelor’s from UMd, UVAor UMd might earn an average of $100,000 per year running a department at a small hospital, whereas a public health specialist with a degree from Johns Hopkins could easily end up getting a good MPH or MBA and earning $1 million per year running a whole hospital, or $10 million per year running CareFirst. So, the OP is being a bad investor as well as a mean parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transfer to UMD from Hopkins. Let her do public policy. It is insane to pay $70K per year for Hopkins for public policy.

It’s fine to say that to a high school student who’s choosing colleges.

If the OP is suffering from severe financial problems and can’t afford to keep paying for Johns Hopkins, and Hopkins won’t provide more aid, then of course the daughter will have to change schools, or find more cash.

If the OP can actually still afford Hopkins, the OP just thinks the kid’s ROI will be poor, and the parent will be disrupting the kid’s two jobs, disrupting the kid’s friendships, and probably adding a year or two to the kid’s time in college, then the OP might be saving about $60,000 or $70,000 on junior and senior college bills, but probably adding at least $35,000 in fifth-year public university bills.

The OP is also probably costing the daughter $30,000 in first-year-after-college income; maybe $10,000 in income and resume fuel due to the loss of the two jobs the daughter already has; and maybe friendships and networking opportunities with a financial alum of at least $10,000.

So, the OP is cutting spending by about $35,000, over two years. Maybe the OP could invest the $35,000 and end up with $70,000. But the OP would be cutting the daughter’s well-being by at least $50,000 in two years. And I think the OP would really be cutting the daughter’s lifetime earnings by something like $500,000 to $10 million, because a social justice warrior with a public health bachelor’s from UMd, UVAor UMd might earn an average of $100,000 per year running a department at a small hospital, whereas a public health specialist with a degree from Johns Hopkins could easily end up getting a good MPH or MBA and earning $1 million per year running a whole hospital, or $10 million per year running CareFirst. So, the OP is being a bad investor as well as a mean parent.

All garbage stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, it is. I work in medical school admissions. It's not going to happen in this day and age.

After we attack dogs get done with the OP, maybe we should chew on medical school admissions.

The OP is threatening to ruin one child’s life.

U.S. medical schools have hurt all of us by helping to create a population of doctors who simply memorize what they need to know; mostly aren’t actually interested in science; are way too likely to be anti-vaxxers; rarely believe that any kind of hard-to-diagnose, hard-to-treat sources of chronic pain exist; don’t especially want to help any people with chronic conditions; get their diagnoses from the group practice diagnosis flowchart system; and crumble like potato chips when a pandemic starts.

People like you saddled us with doctors who are as cold and blinkered as the OP, and that’s why we’re stuck with hoping Dr. Google will have some ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes, it is. I work in medical school admissions. It's not going to happen in this day and age.

After we attack dogs get done with the OP, maybe we should chew on medical school admissions.

The OP is threatening to ruin one child’s life.

U.S. medical schools have hurt all of us by helping to create a population of doctors who simply memorize what they need to know; mostly aren’t actually interested in science; are way too likely to be anti-vaxxers; rarely believe that any kind of hard-to-diagnose, hard-to-treat sources of chronic pain exist; don’t especially want to help any people with chronic conditions; get their diagnoses from the group practice diagnosis flowchart system; and crumble like potato chips when a pandemic starts.

People like you saddled us with doctors who are as cold and blinkered as the OP, and that’s why we’re stuck with hoping Dr. Google will have some ideas.

Your nastiness is off the chart. It must be exhausting to live like that.

[Anonymous]

She won't get into med school with those grades. Even kids at MKT are expected to have close to a 4.0

[Anonymous]

What decent school will take a transfer with CS (multiple). UMD-CP? Doubt it.

[Anonymous]

OP, I don't know how much Hopkins name matters. My kid who went to a state U is currently in a med school. DC's classmates are from all over the places - from Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Brown,... to some no name state Unis. What surprised me the most is state Uni kids perform as well as kids from top tier Univs. What matters more is GPA, MCAT, research, clinical exp, volunteer exp... Applicants really need to check all the boxes. Competition is unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes, it is. I work in medical school admissions. It's not going to happen in this day and age.

After we attack dogs get done with the OP, maybe we should chew on medical school admissions.

The OP is threatening to ruin one child’s life.

U.S. medical schools have hurt all of us by helping to create a population of doctors who simply memorize what they need to know; mostly aren’t actually interested in science; [b]are way too likely to be anti-vaxxers[b]

Doctors are probably the most vaccinated group against COVID. It's more than 98%.

rarely believe that any kind of hard-to-diagnose, hard-to-treat sources of chronic pain exist;

Hmm. I'll leave it at that, and that I hope you find answers for what you need help with. Sincerely.

don’t especially want to help any people with chronic conditions; get their diagnoses from the group practice diagnosis flowchart system; and crumble like potato chips when a pandemic starts.

The ones who have been dealing with this, day in and day out, for 2 years? Really? I'm curious as to what you've been doing during the pandemic. I've been seeing patients. I'm going back in on-call right now to admit two more.

People like you saddled us with doctors who are as cold and blinkered as the OP, and that’s why we’re stuck with hoping Dr. Google will have some ideas.

I suspect there's some bias here, but you are entitled to your opinion, same as anyone.

[Anonymous]

Your DD seems like a wonderful young adult with a good head on her shoulders. Shouldn't you be proud of her for trying to change the world? She must be reasonably smart and driven to get into Hopkins. Give her a chance to figure this out.

[Anonymous]

If you force your daughter to transfer to a cheaper school because you don’t approved of her major, you better invest that money to give to her later for therapy. Great job messing up your child! She’d be better off to get loans and drop you from her life.

[Anonymous]

I work in executive search and you can make $300k + in public health especially with a Hopkins degree, course she’ll need to go onto grad school but it’s not like she’s gonna make $50k forever and live in a hovel.

[Anonymous]

- Yes, she can't get in a med-school.

- Stay away from public health
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1023334.page

- Close the thread

[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.

Honestly I would let her come to the decision and she might do it. Perhaps you can indirectly tell her that there is no pressure from you or dh that she become a doctor. Perhaps she thought that's what you wanted

[Anonymous]

OP, your DC has a difficult decision to make. This sounds like the first time she has struggled academically and is likely really struggling to comprehend what this means for her future. You made plans to pay JH tuition. Please remove finances from this process and just be there for her while she sorts this out. All families and cultures etc have their own expectations and definitions of success. However, she sounds like a hard working and contentious person (two jobs, activism, rigorous major at a rigorous school) Who knows what impact she can have on the world? What about the quality of her life? The quality of your relationship with her? Please, OP. This is the time to communicate with your DC, see her for who she is and help her reset her idea of the future. You mentioned she seems off, please be there for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Is that it in terms of the c’s and d’s? If so, I wouldn’t discourage her. Her grades could trend upwards. Has she been doing any extracurriculars for medical school, eg, research, clinical internships, emt type stuff? There are post bac. programs for kids with not so stellar grades she can do if med school is truly what she wants.