FMGP8P said:
Some of you may not see any obvious advantage of having a parent that is a physician. However, it is important to consider the less noticeable benefits that educated parents, especially physicians, provide.
Children raised by physicians will speak, think, and behave more like physicians than children raised by uneducated parents. This has obvious benefits in the classroom as our school system favors students of higher social class such as that of a physician. Our school system rewards children of physicians more than those of uneducated parents because these children conform to the standards that our school system expects. In addition, children of physicians are more likely to recognize teaching styles that our schools employ.
An additional benefit of being a child of a physician is networking skills. Students of educated parents better understand networking which leads to superior letters of recommendations and a wider selection of ECs.
And last but not least, a student whose parents are physicians is more likely to articulate his/her words, organize their speech, and possess a demeanor similar to other physicians. This has an advantage during the interview as the interviewers will most likely find that behavior appealing.
I don't think this is true in it's entirety, but certainly the children of physicians have some advantages over the rest of us. Just survey your fellow premeds to get an idea of how many premeds are the children of physicians. I can honestly say that there is not a single person I know that is a premed here who does not have at least one parent who is a physician. It's almost assumed that your parent is a doctor of some kind; conversations I've had with my fellow premeds have often included the question: "so what type of medicine do your parents practice?" I think it's funny to tell them that my mom is an "airport radiologist"--she's one of those people in the white uniforms at the airport that x-ray your baggage
I'd say that in general, most premeds are the children of physicians and that the premeds at ivy league schools are almost exclusively the children of doctors. This makes sense, as physicians (mostly) are (1) financially capable of sending their children to the most expensive private schools, and, (2) they are aware of the value of higher education.
I think that medicine is a hard field for the masses to break into. For one thing, the competition is fierce, and the children of physicians (and other highly educated professionals) will always have an educational advantage over the rest of us. For example, one surgeon,who I do research with, tutors her colleague's high-school kids in biology and physics (for $200/hr!). I never had a vascular surgeon come to my house to tutor me when I was in 10th grade, nor do many other children of uneducated parents. This better education, at an early age, coupled with more emphasis on education in general (and the expectation of a college education), gives the children of physicians and highly educated professionals an edge throughout college and into the application cycle.
Additionally, the children of doctors have the added benefits of (1) Shadowing their parents for 18-26 years, (2) having the opportunity to work and/or volunteer at their parents' hospital or clinic as often as necessary, at their convenience, (3) having access to their parents' high-ranked colleagues who can write impressive letters of recommendation; that letter from the Chief of Surgery at Cornell, might just help you get into their medschool (you never know)!
Neither of my parents finished high school, let alone college. Nobody in my family has ever gone to college. My dad still spells college with a silent "d."
Nevertheless, I don't think that makes me any better or worse applicant to medschool than my fellow premeds with their all-star educations and exposure to medicine at an early age. I'm sure that when I am a doctor someday, I will make the education of my children paramount, so I don't begrudge those who can do it now.
I remember when I was in high school, I knew someone (the son of a physician) who would shadow his father all around the world to conferences related to his dad's surgical specialty (evidently the man was an all-star in the field). He'd go to conferences in Vienna, London, etc. and see his dad give presentations about advances in his specialty and listen to lectures about advancements in the field. Shadowing my dad, at the other end of the spectrum, consisted of goint to a nightclub, getting drunk, smoking, then getting into a fight with the owner over money. I don't "blame" my parents for my lousy performance in highschool, but I do believe that the atomosphere that one is raised in does influence their dreams and ambitions. I can honestly say that I never dreamed of being a doctor. At that point in my life, such a dream would have seemed ridiculous to me, as I didn't even believe I was going to go to college, let alone go into medicine, which I knew nothing about.
Needless to say, my friend graduated in the top of my class; I graduated (barely) in the bottom. Many people think that we're all the same, and that the geniuses rise to the top while the chaff gets left at the bottom. I don't think that's the case at all, many many children get left behind. I would have been left behind myself if it hadn't been for standardized testing. It was the SAT which allowed me--with practically no education, barely passing grades, no famous surgeon parent, etc--get into a top college.
Some of you might say that this is just an example of "class warfare," or that those of us who really want it bad enough will overcome any obstacles that stand in our way and still be successful. The sad truth is that that more often than not, the genius daughter of a violent alcoholic ends up working at McDonalds, not on a full scholarship to Havard. That's just what happens. Those of us who do climb out of the lower-classes do it mostly by sheer luck--if I hadn't been able to afford to take the SAT or had just decided that I would fail it like everything else I had done; if a good college hadn't accepted me just to simply raise their average SAT scores for their USNEWS ranking; or if I had accepted that I could never *climb* out becuse nobody else had done it before in my family, I'd be working in fast food or retail right now instead of on the road to a career in medicine.
Look at the percentage of the children who are the offspring of doctors who go to college in the first place--it's hovering, I believe, near 95% or so. Look at the percentage of children who are the offspring of high school dropouts--far, far less; it is somewhere in the range of 10%. The real advantage that the children of doctors have is not in the way they speak, or their backdoor connections--it's that they have a shot in the first place, while so many of the rest of us do not. It's that simple.
*Note: The same advantage applies to the children of all highly educated professionals. This includes, but is not limited to, physicians, lawyers, college professors, teachers, researchers, CEOs, CFOs, accountants, politicians, et. al.
