Parent income level and med school admission rate.. Pretty shocking..

[Dr Wiley]

It's so hard to focus on your dreams when you were scared of taking a beating after school by your dad. I never did my homework in high school, not even once. I used to come home and listen at the door to find out if it was safe to go in.

Yeah, my parent's are blue-collar and neither went to college. I have 5 brothers and sisters and I am the only one attending college thanks to the Army. Goals in life don't come until you are stable enough to imagine them. Once I finally had a little money in the bank, I began to feel secure enough to dream. All I wanted was to be earn a degree. In a large family, I would be the first and only one with a degree. Now, I am dreaming about medical school.

Seeing the statistics feels bittersweet.

One of the wisest things ever posted on these forums, in regards to the subject matter.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Just want to throw this out there. A good proportion of kid's who go into medical students have at least one parent who is a doctor. Maybe IQ is a function of genetics.

not srs, no one get too butthurt.

Edit: Have you guys ever worked in a rural or poor school? Tons of lower class families don't see the value in education, not because they think it takes too much work, but they don't understand what it can do for a person. That's a gross generalization, but it is somewhat true that lower income families don't push education on their kids like the rich ones do.

 

[blizzah]

Well no ****....

Makes intuitive sense that having a strong financial support system enables someone to focus on the different things needed for med school (grades, research, volunteering).

Plus the fact that most in the profession won't see a meaningful cheque until they are 30 or 30+ eliminates many.

 

[Qrxn]

Not surprising considering the opportunities that money can create.

Still, I grew up in rich white suburbia and half the kids were unbelievable tools. Take comfort in knowing you may not be rich, but at least you're not a douche.

 

[ppfizenm]

Maybe we should help these not-so-smart kids by having them clean toilets?

Apparently Newt Gingrich has invaded our forum

 

[pkwraith]

I don't see how this means the "end of the American dream."

The American dream is not just about achieving for yourself, but for your kids. That's the prime directive of many immigrants seeking the American dream. Work hard, achieve enough to provide better opportunity for your kids and your family.

Why would they work hard and obtain a high salary just to have the same opportunity for their kids as if they hadn't worked as hard.

The "American dream" is a boiled down meritocracy. You may or may not agree with the idea of meritocracy in general, but the linked result doesn't contradict the American dream at all.

 

[NickNaylor]

I don't see how this means the "end of the American dream."

The American dream is not just about achieving for yourself, but for your kids. That's the prime directive of many immigrants seeking the American dream. Work hard, achieve enough to provide better opportunity for your kids and your family.

Why would they work hard and obtain a high salary just to have the same opportunity for their kids as if they hadn't worked as hard.

The "American dream" is a boiled down meritocracy. You may or may not agree with the idea of meritocracy in general, but the linked result doesn't contradict the American dream at all.

Though I agree with you somewhat (and by going down this road we are inherently getting political), you seem to support the fact that the position of a child in life is due to the merits of his/her parents - both the good AND the bad. It's easy to say that the child that was born to successful parents and, as a result, has an advantage in many aspects of life should rightfully take advantage of those opportunities. I think you start running into issues when you begin to argue that children of less successful parents (and, consequently, those that have significantly fewer advantages and perhaps even many disadvantages) rightfully inherit the legacy of their parents' "merit."

Sure, it's a meritocracy in the strictest sense, but it's more of a collective meritocracy (collective in the sense that it deals with the merits of your family) versus an individual meritocracy. I think the real "American dream" is more closely the latter rather than the former, and when individuals begin to becomes slaves to their legacy of their families, the idea of a meritocracy flies out the window.

 

[SellerAl]

Maybe it has something to do with the work ethic of the parents and how much they instill it into their children.

seems possible

 

[IMSingular]

Gentics is small part of the equation, once we confine to a particular specie.

1. Genetics determines the possible limit on size of the brain.
2. Nutrition actually determines how well the brain may grow.
3. Brain is very flexible tool. That is a great advantage, and that is why we can learn almost any language. If brain structure was genetically decided this would have been a problem.
4. Neural connections, that is network, is mostly determined by stimulations a person gets.
5. 3 & 4 above implies that brain structure is highly dependent on "memes" rather than "genes".
6. Good nutrition and intellectual simulations brain gets is higly detremined by parental resources, that is wealth.
7. IQ measurement, that is qusetions in IQ tests, are highly biased towards vocabulary of the wealthy. If IQ tests were constructed in ghetto language many well off kids won't do as well.
8. In medicine students population is dominated by kids of physician and that wil bias towards higher parental income.
9. If look at UG students and MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, Yale etc best students go to science, engineering and math.
10. Richard Feynman's IQ was lower than his sister's. He got the Nobel while she didn't.

 

[sha15]

Yea this is no surprise. Society is not out to screw anyone on this one.

 

[BHaus9]

Can you point me to some of these studies? Because, everything I've seen says IQ is highly genetically inherited and thus having intelligent parents directly increases your chances of getting into med school (there is definitely an IQ and Mcat score correlation).

I don't think the question is whether intellect and drive are heritable, but rather whether two people of equal ability and ambition, but from different socioeconomic backgrounds, will have equal opportunity to succeed in life. In most cases, I think the answer is no, and it's the inequity of being able to purchase success -- manifest in high-dollar education, professional connections/nepotism, etc. -- that's a bit outrageous. It's not that "anyone can do anything if they set their mind to it." It's that doors are sometimes closed to people irrespective of their abilities.

 

[SellerAl]

Just want to throw this out there. A good proportion of kid's who go into medical students have at least one parent who is a doctor. Maybe IQ is a function of genetics.

not srs, no one get too butthurt.

Edit: Have you guys ever worked in a rural or poor school? Tons of lower class families don't see the value in education, not because they think it takes too much work, but they don't understand what it can do for a person. That's a gross generalization, but it is somewhat true that lower income families don't push education on their kids like the rich ones do.

hmmph

 

[WorldChanger36]

Parent SES do have a strong correlation to success of offspring. The reasons for this should be obvious, Food insecurity, education opportunities, police profiling/high arrest rates, external social motivation, and test prep opportunities.
Be careful with IQ tests try have been shown to shift as high as 30 percent with education and minorities have been shown to answer question in unique ways that outside of the test situation would be shown to be correct or even innovative. Psychology is finding that things like intelligence is much more environmental then was thought before. You can bet that if those janitors were given the same level of attention and education that people scoring in the 120s are given you would see similar scores. IQ test are really only useful if you are comparing people across similar educational and cultural backgrounds, in order to find learning disabilities.

 

[indonacious]

This is unsurprising. I'm sure this effect exists in all sorts of professional schooling (law school, MBA programs, even graduate programs) - not saying that its ok or good but merely that such an effect is probably widespread and entrenched in our society.

With respect to medical school, many physician's children also enter the medical field...and having only 1 physician parent would put you over the 100k threshold.

 

[Metallica1936]

Not ALL the time, but a lot of the time, wealth = intelligence and/or responsibility. Therefore, a lot of the time these parents who make good money emphasize the merits of hard work and responsibility to their kids. This shouldn't really shock anybody. I am NOT saying that all those without wealth are ignorant and/or lazy (I am on FAP for crying out loud). However, it makes logical sense that the less intelligent somebody is, the least likely they are to make a lot of money and the more likely they are to not make the best decisions. It's the facts of life and no sugar coating that can change it. Sure some people have less "access" to good teachers, etc etc. However, in my experiences hard work can overcome darn near anything. Some of you are really undermining the massive role parents have in shaping children. Less intelligent people are most often those that make poor choices in life, and this unfortunately includes not raising children properly. If parents don't know how to work hard and make it into a great career, there is a good possibility they won't teach their kids how to either. Our public education system fails children time and time again, so parents are the key here.

 

[whatbout2morrow]

It's so hard to focus on your dreams when you were scared of taking a beating after school by your dad. I never did my homework in high school, not even once. I used to come home and listen at the door to find out if it was safe to go in.

Yeah, my parent's are blue-collar and neither went to college. I have 5 brothers and sisters and I am the only one attending college thanks to the Army. Goals in life don't come until you are stable enough to imagine them. Once I finally had a little money in the bank, I began to feel secure enough to dream. All I wanted was to be earn a degree. In a large family, I would be the first and only one with a degree. Now, I am dreaming about medical school.

Seeing the statistics feels bittersweet.

I don't understand how people who have never had to work a single day while in college can describe themselves as being smarter and having a better work ethic than others who maintained similar grades and got involved in the same extracurricular activities while working full-time jobs to put food on the table.

 

[JHU 2010]

i'm not surprised by this fact at all. having parents that make more money means that the student can spend less time working in high school and college and more time studying. pretty straightforward

 

[kautionwirez]

I am the 2.6%

 

[ppfizenm]

Gentics is small part of the equation, once we confine to a particular specie.

1. Genetics determines the possible limit on size of the brain.
2. Nutrition actually determines how well the brain may grow.
3. Brain is very flexible tool. That is a great advantage, and that is why we can learn almost any language. If brain structure was genetically decided this would have been a problem.
4. Neural connections, that is network, is mostly determined by stimulations a person gets.
5. 3 & 4 above implies that brain structure is highly dependent on "memes" rather than "genes".
6. Good nutrition and intellectual simulations brain gets is higly detremined by parental resources, that is wealth.
7. IQ measurement, that is qusetions in IQ tests, are highly biased towards vocabulary of the wealthy. If IQ tests were constructed in ghetto language many well off kids won't do as well.
8. In medicine students population is dominated by kids of physician and that wil bias towards higher parental income.
9. If look at UG students and MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, Yale etc best students go to science, engineering and math.
10. Richard Feynman's IQ was lower than his sister's. He got the Nobel while she didn't.

Ehh, some if this is true. The size of the brain has very little to do with intelligence. Between people of higher IQ's and those with lower, researchers have actually found that more intelligent individuals tend to have thinner prefrontal cortexs. They theorize that it isn't the number of connections made in these areas but the streamlining of those connections. More efficient signalling resulting from the formation of more desirable connections and the atrophy of those connections that do not help us.

Language is something different entirely. We have areas of our brains that learn language very early on; later comes the reading/writing. The language itself doesn't matter. Just that the infant is around one. Adults can learn languages later in life but these languages are learned differently than our primary language and are housed in different areas of our brains.

Neural connections are determined by stimulations but also so many other influences go into making these connections.

I

 

[Metallica1936]

I don't understand how people who have never had to work a single day while in college can describe themselves as being smarter and having a better work ethic than others who maintained similar grades and got involved in the same extracurricular activities while working full-time jobs to put food on the table.

1) How many sensible people do you know that would conclude that?

2) How many medical schools do you know of that wouldn't highly regard an individual who worked throughout college and place them higher than a fellow applicant that didn't (all else being relatively equal)?

I think you're reaching.

 

[ppfizenm]

Here's an interesting one for everybody. On average, women tend to be more intelligent than men however the most intelligent individuals tend to be men.

 

[BHaus9]

Since when is financial success even a measure of work ethic? The fact that a given profession requires more specialized knowledge does not mean it is more taxing/laborious, and the existence of a student is, by and large, much cozier than that of a day laborer. It's a sad reality in this country that many, many people get paid more to do less.

 

[Metallica1936]

Here's an interesting one for everybody. On average, women tend to be more intelligent than men however the most intelligent individuals tend to be men.

Hmmm... interesting. Define intelligence in this context. Does this take into account drive to become #1? A recent study was released showing that men, on average, are more domineering than women. Also, the most competitive and ambitious people I know typically are men.

 

[Metallica1936]

Since when is financial success even a measure of work ethic? The fact that a given profession requires more specialized knowledge does not mean it is more taxing/laborious, and the existence of a student is, by and large, much cozier than that of a day laborer. It's a sad reality in this country that many, many people get paid more to do less.

You aren't taking into account how much hard work is required to get into said profession. Also, I think generally harder working people make more money. Harder working doesn't necessarily mean more physical labor.

 

[ppfizenm]

Hmmm... interesting. Define intelligence in this context. Does this take into account drive to become #1? A recent study was released showing that men, on average, are more domineering than women. Also, the most competitive people I know tend to be men.

It was a straight intelligence test based on what i can remember. Drive is something completely separate from intelligence. I've met some of the most gung-ho driven people who are applying to med school but lack the intelligence to back it up. Kind of like that slow kid in "million dollar baby" who wanted to be the welter weight champion.

 

[boggvir]

Can someone even define what 'g' means? I mean before you can argue about intelligence, it would be nice if someone could define what it is, and why Flynn effect is happening if the tests are indeed measuring something that's genetic.

 

[Metallica1936]

It was a straight intelligence test based on what i can remember. Drive is something completely separate from intelligence. I've met some of the most gung-ho driven people who are applying to med school but lack the intelligence to back it up. Kind of like that slow kid in "million dollar baby" who wanted to be the welter weight champion.

That is very interesting. Maybe the median intelligence of females is higher than males, but the extremes of intelligence, at least on the higher IQ end, lie with men? Maybe ambition synergizes with intelligence? Who knows. Intriguing topic though.

 

[BHaus9]

You aren't taking into account how much hard work is required to get into said profession. Also, I think generally harder working people make more money. Harder working doesn't necessarily mean more physical labor.

No, "hard work" does not necessarily entail physical labor, but a fair assessment of what constitutes "hard work" would not dismiss physical labor as a factor. Hence, your world's ballin'est hotel maid might have just as much intrinsic drive and put in as much time as your average physician.

It's true that financial success will depend in part on how much effort you give (world's ballin'est maid will probably get a raise before her peers), but it is also largely contingent on WHERE you apply your effort, and certain avenues are more or less closed to people who can't afford the buy-in fee. Thus, putting in the same amount of individual effort will, on the average, get you better places if you have richer parents. This is particularly true in the highest-paying professions, for reasons mentioned previously.

 

[Metallica1936]

.

 

[45408]

Though I may agree that the work ethic of the parents may have something to do with this, you are beyond stupid to make the above unfortunate statement. How does your logic even make sense?

He's saying that people who are unmotivated to pursue higher education and do drugs are more likely to raise children who aren't as smart. When you consider "smart" to include inborn intelligence as well as educational level, he's right.

How does having a great work ethic ensure that you will make good money? And how does having higher income mean that you're smarter? Being smart or having a good work ethic might make making good money seem more likely, but no, there are too many factors to say that as a sure statement.

Nobody said it's a sure statement. There's a definitive correlation though.

I don't think the media gives good exposure to fields outside the entertainment industry whether it's music, sports, or movies. So aspiring dreams are most of the time limited to 'becoming a movie star or professional basketball player' rather than a CEO of a successful start-up company or a doctor...

It's not really the job of the media to be career guidance counselors.

The prospect of medical school is a lot more appealing when your parents can help you with loans. That's a big part of it. Some of these other posts really make me lol.

No, it happens way before that. The "benefits" come from parents who reinforce education and can live in a decent enough place to have good schools (or pay for private schools). I went to a small, cheap (by private school standards) Baptist school that had much more rigorous academics for everyone than my suburban district public school, which was still far ahead of the local major city's school system.

 

[45408]

please don't ever become a doctor. If you ever get your md, don't practice medicine. If you're already a doctor, the admissions process needs to be changed. It's not like you're the only person who thinks this way because many have similar views...it's that you lack the decency to be mindful of what you say/write...and you are so blatantly ignorant. I shudder.

I would normally ignore an ignorant comment like this one but i took it personally...

But, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

 

[ppfizenm]

That is very interesting. Maybe the median intelligence of females is higher than males, but the extremes of intelligence, at least on the higher IQ end, lie with men? Maybe ambition synergizes with intelligence? Who knows. Intriguing topic though.

Yea that's basically what I said.

Again though, ambition won't earn you points on an intelligence test; at least not outside a standard deviation.

 

[BHaus9]

Nobody said it's a sure statement. There's a definitive correlation though.

Agree with this, but it seems like there's loads more variability between professions than there is within professions, and certain professions are unattainable to many people due to a) ability, and b) circumstance. Correlation, yes, but the coefficient on that one is probably low.

 

[MiracleforMD]

This shouldn't really surprise anyone. The advantages of wealth are abundant, everything from better resources, less stress about finances which might lead to more time to do succeed academically, more opportunities for those "super" ECs that are so highly prized, among others. The AAMC and institutions attempt to address this via fee waivers, but the entire process and basis of admissions decisions gives preference to the wealthy.

Replace this phrase with "life" but otherwise perfect post.

 

[Metallica1936]

He's saying that people who are unmotivated to pursue higher education and do drugs are more likely to raise children who aren't as smart. When you consider "smart" to include inborn intelligence as well as educational level, he's right.


Nobody said it's a sure statement. There's a definitive correlation though.


It's not really the job of the media to be career guidance counselors.


No, it happens way before that. The "benefits" come from parents who reinforce education and can live in a decent enough place to have good schools (or pay for private schools). I went to a small, cheap (by private school standards) Baptist school that had much more rigorous academics for everyone than my suburban district public school, which was still far ahead of the local major city's school system.

+1

 

[dreamweaver1988]

Maybe it has something to do with the work ethic of the parents and how much they instill it into their children.

This shouldn't really surprise anyone. The advantages of wealth are abundant, everything from better resources, less stress about finances which might lead to more time to do succeed academically, more opportunities for those "super" ECs that are so highly prized, among others. The AAMC and institutions attempt to address this via fee waivers, but the entire process and basis of admissions decisions gives preference to the wealthy.

Definitely true, but this is not limited to the wealthy. An upper-middle class like mine, even with four kids, can live relatively comfortably.

One of the other important things, and you hinted at it, is the pool of resoures (especially personal connections) to which we have access. Mom/dad/aunt/uncle is a doc and can get us a shadowing gig, family friend can get us a volunteer gig at the hospital, etc.

 

[HoltMD]

This shouldn't really surprise anyone. The advantages of wealth are abundant, everything from better resources, less stress about finances which might lead to more time to do succeed academically, more opportunities for those "super" ECs that are so highly prized, among others. The AAMC and institutions attempt to address this via fee waivers, but the entire process and basis of admissions decisions gives preference to the wealthy.

NickNaylor,

Very well said. You are a very smart man indeed. Thanks for restoring my faith in SDN.

Unlike some of the other comments about "rich people instill good work ethic." What a crock??? I've been working since I was 14 and I'm NOT from a rich family. Have you heard of trust fund babies???

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Oh come on this is sociology 101 stuff guys. Poorer families tend to socialize their kids with different ideal sets and skills that they believe will better prepare them for life. Kids from poorer families are socialized to think in the box and to rigidly follow commands, they are also conditioned to believe that education may not be the greatest pay out. Kids from more affluent families are socialized and conditioned with a completely different mentality and approach to even the simplest situations.

This is not a debate about how poorer people are genetically less intelligent, that is notion from a discredited philosophy, Social Darwinism.

Also another few reasons we can attribute to this phenomenon is that children are afraid sometimes of exceeding their families intellectual level, that their families will dislike them for the perceived notion that they are better than them. There is also the problem with money, college graduates ( 20% of the US) are mainly from the upper middle class, and as this representation of upper middle class earning is not at all surprising.

 

[BHaus9]

Oh come on this is sociology 101 stuff guys. Poorer families tend to socialize their kids with different ideal sets and skills that they believe will better prepare them for life. Kids from poorer families are socialized to think in the box and to rigidly follow commands, they are also conditioned to believe that education may not be the greatest pay out. Kids from more affluent families are socialized and conditioned with a completely different mentality and approach to even the simplest situations.

There's a difference between not having access to quality educational resources and not wanting access to quality educational resources. Resources are as much a factor as mentality.

 

[druggeek]

Gentics is small part of the equation, once we confine to a particular specie.

1. Genetics determines the possible limit on size of the brain.
2. Nutrition actually determines how well the brain may grow.
3. Brain is very flexible tool. That is a great advantage, and that is why we can learn almost any language. If brain structure was genetically decided this would have been a problem.
4. Neural connections, that is network, is mostly determined by stimulations a person gets.
5. 3 & 4 above implies that brain structure is highly dependent on "memes" rather than "genes".
6. Good nutrition and intellectual simulations brain gets is higly detremined by parental resources, that is wealth.
7. IQ measurement, that is qusetions in IQ tests, are highly biased towards vocabulary of the wealthy. If IQ tests were constructed in ghetto language many well off kids won't do as well.
8. In medicine students population is dominated by kids of physician and that wil bias towards higher parental income.
9. If look at UG students and MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, Yale etc best students go to science, engineering and math.
10. Richard Feynman's IQ was lower than his sister's. He got the Nobel while she didn't.

IQ isn't a fully comprehensive way of knowing how intelligent someone is. By that I mean IQ tests. It is just as close as we can get to knowing.

 

[High Roller]

Oh come on this is sociology 101 stuff guys. Poorer families tend to socialize their kids with different ideal sets and skills that they believe will better prepare them for life. Kids from poorer families are socialized to think in the box and to rigidly follow commands, they are also conditioned to believe that education may not be the greatest pay out. Kids from more affluent families are socialized and conditioned with a completely different mentality and approach to even the simplest situations.

This is not a debate about how poorer people are genetically less intelligent, that is notion from a discredited philosophy, Social Darwinism.

Also another few reasons we can attribute to this phenomenon is that children are afraid sometimes of exceeding their families intellectual level, that their families will dislike them for the perceived notion that they are better than them. There is also the problem with money, college graduates ( 20% of the US) are mainly from the upper middle class, and as this representation of upper middle class earning is not at all surprising.

Wait...are we talking about families with lower incomes....or a dog breed? God I'm so confused.

I swear with each post this thread gets more and more ridiculous with stereotypes. Maybe kids with richer parents are more likely to go to med school because:

1- They have better resources and support growing up (ie- less BS to deal with).
2- They have more pressure from their parents to choose a higher paying, prestigious career.

Could it be that simple? Or did my middle class upbringing make me think too much in the box?

 

[druggeek]

Parent SES do have a strong correlation to success of offspring. The reasons for this should be obvious, Food insecurity, education opportunities, police profiling/high arrest rates, external social motivation, and test prep opportunities.
Be careful with IQ tests try have been shown to shift as high as 30 percent with education and minorities have been shown to answer question in unique ways that outside of the test situation would be shown to be correct or even innovative. Psychology is finding that things like intelligence is much more environmental then was thought before. You can bet that if those janitors were given the same level of attention and education that people scoring in the 120s are given you would see similar scores. IQ test are really only useful if you are comparing people across similar educational and cultural backgrounds, in order to find learning disabilities.

Agree with all of that, except how janitors can score higher if exposed to as much education. That's basically saying that you can teach someone who sucks horribly at grade 9 and 10 math to do advanced differential equations. No matter how much education you give them, they'll never get it. In the meantime a more intelligent person will easily progress to learning that.

Here's an interesting one for everybody. On average, women tend to be more intelligent than men however the most intelligent individuals tend to be men.

Source? If I recall correctly, all research into this has shown that men and women are virtually equal in intelligence. Though one study showed that men are marginally smarter (basically no difference).
On top of that, yes men are the most succesful in every field (just look up anything....)

 

[45408]

Source? If I recall correctly, all research into this has shown that men and women are virtually equal in intelligence. Though one study showed that men are marginally smarter (basically no difference).
On top of that, yes men are the most succesful in every field (just look up anything....)

I'm not sure I believe it either, but I think it's close. The statistics I've heard are that women generally have better grades than men in college, as well as the fact that there are more women in college and men are more likely to drop out. However, men make a resurgence at the very top.

 

[IMSingular]

IQ isn't a fully comprehensive way of knowing how intelligent someone is. By that I mean IQ tests. It is just as close as we can get to knowing.

That was the point of #10 on my list.

Desire is more important than ability; that is the way Feynman put it.

I don't think we know how to measure raw intelligence.

 

[Wilf]

Maybe it has something to do with the work ethic of the parents and how much they instill it into their children.

You're close. It's the intelligence that they pass on to their kids genetically.

 

[whatbout2morrow]

1) How many sensible people do you know that would conclude that?

2) How many medical schools do you know of that wouldn't highly regard an individual who worked throughout college and place them higher than a fellow applicant that didn't (all else being relatively equal)?

I think you're reaching.

I was simply replying to the notion spread earlier on in this thread that being poor = bad work ethic and low intelligence.

 

[timonski]

Wait...are we talking about families with lower incomes....or a dog breed? God I'm so confused.

I swear with each post this thread gets more and more ridiculous with stereotypes. Maybe kids with richer parents are more likely to go to med school because:

1- They have better resources and support growing up (ie- less BS to deal with).
2- They have more pressure from their parents to choose a higher paying, prestigious career.

Could it be that simple? Or did my middle class upbringing make me think too much in the box?

It's more than just the presentation of resources/opportunities. Upbringing plays a large factor, with pressure often being part of it.

Going back to the previous post, I think he's referencing an idea from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. The idea is that parents raise their children according to their own ideas and experiences of what leads to success. This differs between parents of high and low SES. What I remembered was that high SES parents taught their children from an early age to take charge of their own lives, and that it was entirely okay to question figures of authority for answers (such as having the child ask the physician questions about personal health). This wasn't the case as presented in the book for low SES parents. This is a generalization, and so consider it as such. Indeed, if children are repeatedly inculcated that the world is theirs to act upon and that they should assert themselves within it, one can imagine how this could lead to a more "successful" life.

Knowing is half the battle - understand that the world belongs to all of us, wealthy or poor.

 

[timonski]

IQ isn't a fully comprehensive way of knowing how intelligent someone is. By that I mean IQ tests. It is just as close as we can get to knowing.

If I recall correctly, IQ tests were originally intended as a test for mental ******ation. I don't believe it was meant to measure beyond the bounds of it's original intent. Sure, there appears to be correlation beyond it, but it's validity as a measure of intelligence is without a doubt questionable at best. Since there doesn't appear to be anything better (at least to my knowledge), we seem to be stuck with this flawed measure of intelligence.

 

[High Roller]

It's more than just the presentation of resources/opportunities. Upbringing plays a large factor, with pressure often being part of it.

Going back to the previous post, I think he's referencing an idea from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. The idea is that parents raise their children according to their own ideas and experiences of what leads to success. This differs between parents of high and low SES. What I remembered was that high SES parents taught their children from an early age to take charge of their own lives, and that it was entirely okay to question figures of authority for answers (such as having the child ask the physician questions about personal health). This wasn't the case as presented in the book for low SES parents. This is a generalization, and so consider it as such. Indeed, if children are repeatedly inculcated that the world is theirs to act upon and that they should assert themselves within it, one can imagine how this could lead to a more "successful" life.

Knowing is half the battle - understand that the world belongs to all of us, wealthy or poor.

Thanks for the clarification. Sometimes I'm not the sharpest tool in the shack!

 

[HatWobble]

With respect to medical school, many physician's children also enter the medical field...and having only 1 physician parent would put you over the 100k threshold.

I was surprised nobody brought this up until now.

Regardless of career, I would imagine that there is a bias towards children choosing their parents' careers. The data makes sense in light of the fact that physicians have high incomes.