Does anyone else have painfully naive parents?

[Latteandaprayer]

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We’re immigrants and my dad became a dentist overseas (but he went to medical school for the first few years since dentistry and medicine at the time took the same classes). Anyway, they’re convinced that because I’m “a good student,” I’ll get in. My mom asks me every weekend “you’re still volunteering there?? You need to relax!”

Every time I try explaining to them what it’s like, they tell me they’re confident I’ll get into Michigan’s medical school, by magic I guess?? It’s frustrating because they don’t speak English too well so showing them threads and statistics is like pulling teeth. “516 average? You can get 520 easily.”

Sorry if this is inappropriate lol, I just needed to vent a little. They were just asking me why I’m not gonna apply to Harvard next year... yes, let me just waste time and money applying to a school I have 0 chance at. I don’t even have an MCAT score yet!

 

[RNtoMD87]

Tell me about it. Everyone I know says "oh youre a combat veteran. I talked to so and so doctor who went to medschool 50 years ago and they say youll get in for sure"

I wish lol.

 

[freedoctor17]

My mom loves to give me every piece of news she fears from other people about the programs their kids are doing or how this school or that school has a two year program. At one point she started trying to explain that DO was only 2 years lol. Pretty sure she meant PA. It's a bit frustrating because she doesn't really know what's going on and English isn't her first language so she doesn't really follow what others are saying and just gives me the pieces and parts. But I know she's just trying to help lol. I will say I'm glad my parents are getting slightly more involved since before hand they would just leave everything to me. At least now they're showing some interest which makes it easier to talk about with them now on things like where I'm applying.

 

[The Unburnt]

My parents were the same way at the beginning of last cycle. It didn't help that the process for becoming a doctor in our home country is totally different (you go straight to "medical school" out of high school and it's a 6 year program).

I know it's very frustrating at first because you feel like you can't realistically talk to them about your chances and how stressed you are, and even after I sat down and showed them the statistics they always thought I was special and would definitely get in. It was frustrating at first for me but as the cycle went on and I got stressed and started to doubt myself, it was nice to have them still believe in me. As the process went on and they started talking to their coworkers about where I was interviewing and whatever, other people telling them how hard it was/how great some of the schools I interviewed at were was really when they started understanding more. (when I called my mom to tell her I had gotten an interview at Yale, she didn't know what Yale was LOL just to give you some idea of my situation). Give them time to adjust to the new process and talk to their adult friends about it and they might start to get it a little bit more, and still believe in you like nobody else which is really nice when the stress starts to overcome you!

 

[Goro]

We’re immigrants and my dad became a dentist overseas (but he went to medical school for the first few years since dentistry and medicine at the time took the same classes). Anyway, they’re convinced that because I’m “a good student,” I’ll get in. My mom asks me every weekend “you’re still volunteering there?? You need to relax!”

Every time I try explaining to them what it’s like, they tell me they’re confident I’ll get into Michigan’s medical school, by magic I guess?? It’s frustrating because they don’t speak English too well so showing them threads and statistics is like pulling teeth. “516 average? You can get 520 easily.”

Sorry if this is inappropriate lol, I just needed to vent a little. They were just asking me why I’m not gonna apply to Harvard next year... yes, let me just waste time and money applying to a school I have 0 chance at. I don’t even have an MCAT score yet!

Ahhh, parents. Doing their best out of love and ignorance to destroy your medical career. Get them accounts on SDN and we'll set them straight.

 

[chaim123]

Ahhh, parents. Doing thier best out of love and ignorance to destroy your medical career. Get them accounts on SDN and we'll set them straight.

Mine told me to stop worrying because she has "a sense"......a sense....

 

[ekmf27050]

My mom (after literally 0 med school research) told me I applied to too many schools despite widespread recommendations that I do so because of a low GPA.

Ironically (terrifyingly) the schools I had considered cutting where the ones that showed me love, and the ones that I thought were good shots rejected me early. Thank god I left my list a little long- I'll trade extra app fees for acceptances all day long.

 

[trobinsonmd]

We’re immigrants and my dad became a dentist overseas (but he went to medical school for the first few years since dentistry and medicine at the time took the same classes). Anyway, they’re convinced that because I’m “a good student,” I’ll get in. My mom asks me every weekend “you’re still volunteering there?? You need to relax!”

Every time I try explaining to them what it’s like, they tell me they’re confident I’ll get into Michigan’s medical school, by magic I guess?? It’s frustrating because they don’t speak English too well so showing them threads and statistics is like pulling teeth. “516 average? You can get 520 easily.”

Sorry if this is inappropriate lol, I just needed to vent a little. They were just asking me why I’m not gonna apply to Harvard next year... yes, let me just waste time and money applying to a school I have 0 chance at. I don’t even have an MCAT score yet!

This is totally my parents (also immigrant) 4-5 years ago when I was applying... I got into NYU and Duke and at the end of the day, they were upset I didn't get into UCSF or Stanford... I think it's because in a lot of other countries, they don't have 80+ M.D. schools, so there are only a few options for medical school (depending on the country obvi) and people go to one of the few options... I don't wanna make generalizations, but getting into a top medical school in like a Middle Eastern country or many European countries is way easier than getting into a top American medical school... if they didn't go to school here, they have no clue how hard getting into an MD program can be

 

[Oso]

This is exactly why, at 5 years old, I just stopped listening to my parents entirely.

 

[Latteandaprayer]

This is totally my parents (also immigrant) 4-5 years ago when I was applying... I got into NYU and Duke and at the end of the day, they were upset I didn't get into UCSF or Stanford... I think it's because in a lot of other countries, they don't have 80+ M.D. schools, so there are only a few options for medical school (depending on the country obvi) and people go to one of the few options... I don't wanna make generalizations, but getting into a top medical school in like a Middle Eastern country or many European countries is way easier than getting into a top American medical school... if they didn't go to school here, they have no clue how hard getting into an MD program can be

Congrats! We’re middle eastern and they totally think the middle eastern education system is a lot harder, and thus med school is harder to get into.

 

[ciestar]

My parents fall into the undereducated naive group...but i always got “why wouldn’t you get into med school? You’re so smart!”

Yeah, everyone in med school is smart.
Those days of being at the top of the class are over

 

[Latteandaprayer]

Ahhh, parents. Doing their best out of love and ignorance to destroy your medical career. Get them accounts on SDN and we'll set them straight.

They don’t really speak English or I would

 

[ekmf27050]

This is exactly why, at 5 years old, I just stopped listening to my parents entirely.

Terrible twos ---> Freedom fives??