No, not scared, just frustrated that I can’t get the answer to the question I asked and am instead getting answers to questions I didn’t ask and didn’t ask on purpose. We are nowhere near the point of DS making a decision; rather, we are at the point of gathering data concerning what options are even available. It is not my decision to make or even influence.
I was ROTC in undergrad - while I'm sure it's changed some, I do have an idea as to what he would be getting himself into. I was not interested in grad school at that point so this is something I didn't look into and, even if I had, things change over time.
I also am very familiar with life in the military and where they can send you. I am a Navy brat and moved around a lot. My sister also went to the Academy and was a pilot during the 1st gulf war so Hussein was actively trying to kill her on a regular basis. I come from a family with a lot of military - father, sister, grandfathers, great grandfather, many aunts, uncles and cousins - mostly Navy but a couple Army and Marines thrown in there as well. And, no, not every family member speaks glowingly about life in the military – they have all been very straightforward with DS.
We are simply trying to figure out his options so he can pick the path that works for him. He will need to consider the pros and cons of each path and figure out which one is the right one for him. While some kids change their minds over time (I was one of them - I never considered going to law school until a year before going), others don't (DH knew he wanted to be an aerospace engineer from a very early age and now has a PhD in it and is a NASA engineer). DS is a determined kid. I will honestly be surprised if he doesn't stick to this path.
And, no, my uncle is not in his sixties, he's barely older than I am. My mom was the oldest and the only child of her dad who was killed in WWII after graduating from the Academy. My uncle is one of the younger kids from my grandmother's second marriage to a Naval aviator, a retired rear admiral.
DS is interested in Johns Hopkins because it has the highest ranked biomedical engineering program in the country. We are well aware that a student's GPA is more important than the prestige of the undergrad school with respect to med school admissions and some people even recommend going to a school and selecting a major that will allow the student to earn a high GPA. If he were only interested in med school, Hopkins isn’t necessarily the best plan, but with the desire for a PhD in BME as well, the school will matter more. And, it’s not my decision to make, it is his decision. I'm still keeping VCU in front of him - they have great merit scholarships and a guaranteed admission program for med school so he could get an admission to med school before he graduates high school.
We are also well aware of the merit scholarships available; however biomedical engineering is not a major offered at a lot of schools. Some of the options on his list are the Presidential Scholarship at Ga Tech, the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA and the Presidential Scholarship at VCU but none of these are guaranteed. Competition for all of these is stiff. While he is a very accomplished kid, is he top 30 in the country to get the Jefferson or top 50 in the country to get the Ga Tech scholarship? I really don’t know and no one could count on those odds. Yes, Hopkins gives out merit scholarships in the engineering school – a whopping 2 of them. The competition at Hopkins, since they are the #1 biomedical engineering program, will be even stiffer. As spectacular of a kid as I think he is, I really don’t think he’s one of the top 2 students that will apply to JHU’s engineering school this fall.
In case anyone is interested in the answer to the question I asked, whether an educational delay can be granted for a 7-8 yr MD / PhD program, DS emailed a few ROTC recruiters at the schools he's interested in yesterday evening and has already heard back from the AFROTC guy at Ga Tech. While he understandably and expectedly said that he can't guarantee such a delay would be granted, he did say that the MD / PhD program DS described would be within the scope of an educational delay granted by the Air Force to ROTC grads.
I was ROTC in undergrad - while I'm sure it's changed some, I do have an idea as to what he would be getting himself into. I was not interested in grad school at that point so this is something I didn't look into and, even if I had, things change over time.
I also am very familiar with life in the military and where they can send you. I am a Navy brat and moved around a lot. My sister also went to the Academy and was a pilot during the 1st gulf war so Hussein was actively trying to kill her on a regular basis. I come from a family with a lot of military - father, sister, grandfathers, great grandfather, many aunts, uncles and cousins - mostly Navy but a couple Army and Marines thrown in there as well. And, no, not every family member speaks glowingly about life in the military – they have all been very straightforward with DS.
We are simply trying to figure out his options so he can pick the path that works for him. He will need to consider the pros and cons of each path and figure out which one is the right one for him. While some kids change their minds over time (I was one of them - I never considered going to law school until a year before going), others don't (DH knew he wanted to be an aerospace engineer from a very early age and now has a PhD in it and is a NASA engineer). DS is a determined kid. I will honestly be surprised if he doesn't stick to this path.
And, no, my uncle is not in his sixties, he's barely older than I am. My mom was the oldest and the only child of her dad who was killed in WWII after graduating from the Academy. My uncle is one of the younger kids from my grandmother's second marriage to a Naval aviator, a retired rear admiral.
DS is interested in Johns Hopkins because it has the highest ranked biomedical engineering program in the country. We are well aware that a student's GPA is more important than the prestige of the undergrad school with respect to med school admissions and some people even recommend going to a school and selecting a major that will allow the student to earn a high GPA. If he were only interested in med school, Hopkins isn’t necessarily the best plan, but with the desire for a PhD in BME as well, the school will matter more. And, it’s not my decision to make, it is his decision. I'm still keeping VCU in front of him - they have great merit scholarships and a guaranteed admission program for med school so he could get an admission to med school before he graduates high school.
We are also well aware of the merit scholarships available; however biomedical engineering is not a major offered at a lot of schools. Some of the options on his list are the Presidential Scholarship at Ga Tech, the Jefferson Scholarship at UVA and the Presidential Scholarship at VCU but none of these are guaranteed. Competition for all of these is stiff. While he is a very accomplished kid, is he top 30 in the country to get the Jefferson or top 50 in the country to get the Ga Tech scholarship? I really don’t know and no one could count on those odds. Yes, Hopkins gives out merit scholarships in the engineering school – a whopping 2 of them. The competition at Hopkins, since they are the #1 biomedical engineering program, will be even stiffer. As spectacular of a kid as I think he is, I really don’t think he’s one of the top 2 students that will apply to JHU’s engineering school this fall.
In case anyone is interested in the answer to the question I asked, whether an educational delay can be granted for a 7-8 yr MD / PhD program, DS emailed a few ROTC recruiters at the schools he's interested in yesterday evening and has already heard back from the AFROTC guy at Ga Tech. While he understandably and expectedly said that he can't guarantee such a delay would be granted, he did say that the MD / PhD program DS described would be within the scope of an educational delay granted by the Air Force to ROTC grads.
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