You've got it totally wrong. They're not scolding you for wanting to specialize in surgery. There's nothing wrong with surgery. It's because they don't like the idea of a premed who is already dead-set on a specific specialty. They want someone who's open-minded to a lot of possible specialties when he/she hits the clinical years.
So when you reapply:
1) Don't tell them that daddy is a surgeon. It really doesn't do that much for you, and as you said, may even lead to questions about your motivation towards medicine.
2) Also, don't volunteer that you want to be a surgeon. Even if it's true, saying that at interviews is counterproductive. They don't expect you to know at this point. And sounding so certain actually hurts you and makes you look naive.
I'm not sure I agree with your comments. I understand your thoughts, but you never know who is interviewing you, so you can't play the guessing game of what is right or not right to say. Honesty is usually the best policy, but you must also be diplomatic with your answers since you don't know who is interviewing you or their interests.
I will give an example. My son's university contacts parents who are medical professionals to interview professional school applicants in a mock interview process.
The first student I interviewed a few years ago (who DID get into medical school) made what I thought were a lot of mistakes in the interview, even though he was brilliant.
I asked him some questions and he said he did not want to practice clinical medicine, but wanted to be a researcher. MISTAKE # 1.
You never know who is interviewing you, and as a GENERAL rule, clinicians don't like researchers and researchers don't like clinicians. The interviewer could be one of those clinicians who doesn't want to give a spot to someone dead set on research. Jeez, maybe the interviewer's ex-wife was a researcher and he can't STAND researchers!!!!
The right answer would be to say "at the present time I'm leaning toward research, but I don't have enough clinical experience at this time, and realize it's much too early to make a definite decision".
The student then started telling me about this esoteric research he was performing. He then mentioned some technical terms and said to me "you know what that is, don't you"? MISTAKE # 2
This could have been disastrous in a real interview. There could have been two bad scenarios. The student, who thought he was an expert, may not have realized that the interviewer is the world's foremost expert on that topic, and as a result, the interviewer could turn the table and start asking technical questions the student couldn't answer, and in essence digging himself into a hole. The second possible bad scenario is if the interviewer knows NOTHING about the topic and is therefore left to feel stupid.
So be careful who you are trying to impress, you may get blown out of the water.
A few minutes into the interview, the student said to me, "so what's YOUR specialty?" MISTAKE # 3. I'll keep this simple......do NOT interview the interviewer. Answer questions and ask pertinent questions, but do not ask anything personal to the interviewer.
My son's friend who got in first try, wants to be a trauma surgeon and made that very clear during his interviews. However, he first gave the reasons for his decision, but did qualify his answer that's what he wants to do NOW, but may change based on his future exposure and experience.
There is no one size fits all answer, but I would always recommend honesty, without being too opinionated. Prove to them that your decision to become a doctor is well thought out and although you may presently have a preference. but you are fully aware that decision may change as your education unfolds.
Good luck.
