Reply to Can you remind me why my DC will not get into the same schools I did?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ll help you OP. It’s a freaking arms race of affluent parents making sure their kids are getting the BEST enrichments, tutoring, mentoring, internships, etc. I occasionally interview for my alma mater and times have CHANGED!

I participated in an engineering program at a local college for girls interested in STEM where we built balsa bridges and went on a tour of the water treatment plant. I have interviewed kids who placed at the Westinghouse science competition or have patents. Patents! 
I worked at k-mart and Subway. I babysat. These kids intern at companies in the field they are pursuing. 
I was president of the French club and 1st chair trumpet in concert band. These kids are establishing their own charity or leading the advocacy for some pet issue with their city/county/state government.

I was smart and hard working. I was the Tracy Flick of my HS - all the APs, all As, all the sports and clubs. Kids “these days” are accomplishing things at 15-17 that upperclassmen at my selective university were not doing when I was there. If kindergarten is the new 1st grade, I’d wager that 16 is the new 21. I always come away from interviews wondering - how the heck did I ever get in, how the heck will my kids ever have a chance. [/quote]

DH is a physician currently doing interviews for residency. Every year he says how these applicants are amazing and how he wouldn’t even get an interview now. There are so many students with perfect everything. Perfect test scores. Perfect extracurriculars. Perfect research.[/quote]

I have a niece that finished her residency at Hopkins Med and has been working there for a few years.  I constantly hear from her and other doctors I know that the batch of students coming out of med school these days are ridiculously unqualified.  They are not the brightest.  I have heard the same thing form professors.  Kids in the last 5 years may have more stuff on their college apps and resumes that seem to look impressive, but the meat isn't there.

[/quote]

Same observation here at a NYC academic hospital.
The kids look 10x better than I did on paper - they have stellar credentials and are so accomplished by age 22. But, then they just refuse to do the grunt work that makes someone a good doctor once they start residency. It’s terrifying. With the boomers retiring en masse, it feels like all of us suckers in Gen X are propping up a house of cards.

Not sure if it’s that:
1) medicine is falling apart, and the kids figure “why bother?” since their salaries won’t keep pace with inflation, they will just be abused by administrators/insurance companies/patients. A lot of them are biding their time before going into business/pharma, since medicine is such a cluster right now
Or:
2) the kids killed themselves buffing up their college and med school apps, and are already completely burnt out by their early 20s
[/quote]

Third possibility, they were only paper tigers to begin with due to rampant grade  inflation, resume puffery, etc. . . [/quote]

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