17 year old med student?

[scrub-jay]

I finished on time easily but I attribute that to going to a small private college - I never had issues getting into the classes I needed. I know others who struggled to graduate because the school was so impacted that they simply couldn't get into the classes!! I think there are too many factors at play to generalize traits of people based upon how long it took them to graduate.

[SoonerTexan]

And I think there is some validity to it WHEN kids are being fully funded by their parents and are just screwing around / exploring educational passions as a way to avoid adulthood for as long as they can. Then there are the (ever growing) groups of students who take a non-traditional/longer route largely BECAUSE they're carrying an adult load and paying their own way.

I'm sorry--this is what I was thinking of. Of course I don't believe everyone who doesn't graduate in 4 years is a failure. I was specifically thinking of a few who say...failed the same class 3 times or generally just screwed around for 2 years before getting busy. It has become enough of a problem in recent years (at least where we went) that they have implemented specific programs to try and get people out earlier.

[Auspicious]

This week's NYT Magazine article about unsettled twentysomethings, for those who haven't seen it: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/ma...er=rss&emc=rss

These issues are surprisingly on my mind here in my mid-30s because this fellowship year is reminding me (in a mostly good way) of certain years in my unsettled 20s. I guess there are more people than I thought who have a different idea than I do of which "hallmarks of adulthood" are the definitive ones.

[SoonerTexan]

Julie--that's a really interesting article! Thanks for posting it.

I guess what I find interesting about "my" generation is that many of them are taking a different/longer path than their parents took, but still expect to end up in the same place (mostly financial success) at the same time their parents did, or faster.

[NYCHoosier]

17 year old med student?

Julie--that's a really interesting article! Thanks for posting it.

I guess what I find interesting about "my" generation is that many of them are taking a different/longer path than their parents took, but still expect to end up in the same place (mostly financial success) at the same time their parents did, or faster.

Meh. My mom didn't finish her schooling until she was 30 (she earned a BA, MLS, BM and MFA); had kids in her mid-30s. I expect to be the same if I get into law school for next fall (except I'll only have 3 degrees to her 4. Drat ).
Funny, though, DH and I already make roughly the same as my parents in a city with only slightly higher COL. I was out-earning my mother with my first job out of college (she's a director of a library). Of course, our net-worth is negative due to student loans (if we split it up, though, I have positive net-worth and make roughly half of my parents combined).
So, I'm not sure it's all that bad us crazy gen-y'ers have high ambition. The problem comes when people expect to not have to "pay their dues". Your first job, at best, is bound to have some less glamorous aspects to it.

I clearly disagree with needing to have one's career chosen by 14. I would feel so unfulfilled as a concert flautist (the direction I was headed 12 years ago).

[NYCHoosier]

17 year old med student?

Oh - I do think mooching off your parents for an extended amount of time is often pathetic. There are special cases, sure (esp now), but I personally LOVED being able to pay my own bills at 22...in Manhattan at that.

My even bigger issue is the kids who CAN pay their own bills, but STILL live with mom and dad to mooch. If you're doing it (with their blessing) to save for a down payment or pay off school loans, that's one thing, but there are LOTS to go live la vida loca with their paycheck while Mom and Dad foot the bill for "life".

[Chrisada]

I wonder how many of us actually knew what we wanted to do at 17 and stuck with it? I just knew I wanted to be a lawyer, DH knew he wanted to be a physicist. DH even pursued a Ph.D in physics for a year and realized he hated every minute of it. Then he taught HS for two years while he figured out what he wanted to do permanently. I realized a week before law school orientation that I did not want to be a lawyer, and pursued something completely different. I don't know, I think it's ok for our early 20's to be a time to figure out what we want. Of course not to the degree of living in your parents basement and not working. But when is a better time to figure it out than when you are young and unmarried, which was our case. I don't think DH was any less mature because he did not have his career figured out until he was about 23 or 24. He wanted to be sure that he would be happy with what he finally chose for the rest of his life. Here we are at 29, which is still pretty young, with an MD on the wall. Everyone's path is different.

[v-girl]

What did I want to do when I was 17? Umm...marry a doctor. I'm not kidding. I also have always loved secretarial work and that is just what I did until residency started.

[oceanchild]

I often wonder that too. My husband has wanted to be a pediatrician since forever. I'm still, at nearly 28, too indecisive to commit to a true career goal (although I've found much more clarity since college than I had at 17 for sure). I've always been impressed by people who are able to make up their mind and stick to it. More power to you.

[moonlight]

The scarry thing was that I thought I knew what I wanted to do. Being so SURE derailed me for a couple of years in college!

[NYCHoosier]

17 year old med student?

I often wonder that too. My husband has wanted to be a pediatrician since forever. I'm still, at nearly 28, too indecisive to commit to a true career goal (although I've found much more clarity since college than I had at 17 for sure). I've always been impressed by people who are able to make up their mind and stick to it. More power to you.

More power to them, but I still prefer my way.
Assuming this law thing happens, I'm glad I've spent these past few years working in M&A, both from the banking side and the legal side, learning what it really means and takes to be a lawyer, producing an off-broadway play, getting married, earning a degree in fashion merchandising and working in the fashion industry. It's the less traditional route and will definitely make the logistics of baby making difficult, but ultimately I think it will only make me a better attorney. And it's been fun, too. Count me among the overgrown adolescents?

[GrayMatterWife]

ITA.

ITA with HouseElf and Rapunzel. But then, I've been out of my parents' home since I was 17. And I never called home for money. Why? BECAUSE I WAS A GROWN UP. Whether I made it through college, or made it at all was MY problem to solve, not theirs.

I once worked with a girl ("girl"!...she was 26!!) who was crying because she couldn't get a second dog to keep her first dog company. Why not? I asked. She said that her father forbade it--he wouldn't fly her home for the holidays if she bought a second dog, because HE didn't think it was a good idea. Uh, first: why the heck are you even consulting your dad about this? And second: fine, then pay for your own plane ticket. The source of the problem? Daddy had bought her all her home furnishings, and helped pay her rent, and felt that gave him "say" into how she lived. And she was so used to getting his "ok" on everything, she couldn't do anything without him. And she was so in debt that she couldn't pay her own plane tickets.

She'll be completely screwed when she wants to get married, or have kids, or buy a house, or choose a career path...how do you do these things intelligently if you haven't had practice...such as deciding what pets you can manage?

My parents haven't bought me plane tickets to ANYWHERE in twenty years. Why? BECAUSE I AM A GROWN UP.

[DCJenn]

Thinking back to 17 makes my 43 year old self cringe/laugh/cry. One thing I did know though was that the last thing I wanted to do when I graduated from college was go back and live with my parents. I actually did go back and live with them for about a year before I went back to grad school full-time. Mostly though it was because I worked night shift at a homeless shelter and the dumbass I worked for thought night differential meant that you paid people LESS (because you could theoretically sleep) so that made the whole income thing a wee bit screwed up. At one point I made less than I did as a PT cashier at the department store- the job while I was in high school. (The hourly wage? $3.15/hr when the minimum wage was $5.15)

BUT- guess what? I did my externship during my senior year of college (age 20) and I've been in the same field for the last 23 years. So, it's certainly a possibility that you can find what fills your soul at a relatively young age. and some people never find it in a career but hopefully find it in other aspects of their lives.

Jenn

My parents haven't bought me plane tickets to ANYWHERE in twenty years. Why? BECAUSE I AM A GROWN UP.

If having your parents buy you plane tickets every once and awhile disqualifies you from being a grown-up I guess you can just count me out of that club. My husband and I take care of ourselves but that doesn't mean we can't accept a generous offer from my parents to fly us home on occasion. It's not like those offers come with any strings attached, i.e. instructions as to how we must live our lives.
I always wanted to be a lawyer but it took me awhile to accept it (I come from a family full of em') and I did quite a few other things on my road to law school. I'm glad I did. But I wouldn't be all that unhappy if I had stuck with what I wanted to do when I was 17, which was become a history professor.