College - Part 2

The best laid plans....

I had a long chat with another Boy Scout mom last night.  She worked at one of our local private schools and was a wealth of information about what colleges are looking for and what they aren't.  On top of that, her oldest son just finished his 4 yr degree and applied to Med school.

What she told me is that despite the fact that Med Schools may say that they accept credit for any accredited institution, that in reality, there are so many solid applicants that they choose NOT to accept any students with their pre-requisites at a junior college.  :-(

In addition, she explained that even though her son had received a full-tuition scholarship from the Armed Services to attend medical school, he did NOT get accepted at any of the six to which he applied.  In addition, she explained that most med schools do NOT like to accept anyone younger than 22.  I poked around on a few Med School admissions pages and discovered she is right.  They want an "experienced, mature" candidate.

So, I guess I go back to plan A for JA - which was to work through our Eclectic mix of classes and seriously  consider early admission.  In reality, I like this plan as it leaves our schedules flexible rather than having to conform to the school system.  I also like the flexibility of allowing him to pursue his passions rather than learning from a book.  For example, my plan for him for Biology next year is for him to do a killer science fair project.  He has already picked the topic and I think it is a great one.

As for one comment about really knowing if he'll like being a doctor -  We have that one down.  We have a very good friend who is a surgeon.  JA has been able to shadow him twice already and has watched about six surgeries including laparoscopic and robotic surgeries.  He even has held a gall bladder!  The hospital where he does this is small, so they don't have a neurosurgeon now, but one is coming in the fall.  He is a friend of our friend and we are planning for JA to shadow him some as well.  In addition, he hopes to begin volunteering at one of our local hospitals soon.