High school students are getting a chance at a head start in competitive programs for medicine, dentistry and engineering - all they have to do is commit the next seven to nine years of their lives.
Universities across the country have created specialized programs for high school students and college underclassmen putting them on a direct path towards a future profession.
Early acceptance programs dangle the carrot of giving students two degrees in fewer semesters than are ordinarily necessary.
Boston University offers prospective high school applicants the "opportunity to combine undergraduate studies with medical school courses" in its seven-year combined degree program, according to its Web site on early selection programs.
Obtaining an undergraduate degree and a doctorate of medicine would normally take eight years.
Tufts' early acceptance programs require an even greater time commitment. The University's Engineering Medical Degrees (EMD) program accepts students into a nine year program that awards graduates receive joint medical and engineering degrees.
Nearly all participants in the EMD program and the Engineering Dentistry Degrees (EDD) program were accepted immediately after high school. "We do also occasionally invite a sophomore to apply to enter the program," said Carol Baffi-Dugan, program director for health professions advising. "Thus far we have only had two."
Baffi-Dugan said accepting students out of high school is necessary for the EMD and EDD programs. "Medicine and dentistry in general require a lot more planning than other professions because of the specific number of courses required by the professional schools," she said.
But some observers have expressed concern that the EMD and EDD programs recruit adolescents who are too young to determine the next nine years of their life. The program attempts to take this into account by making acceptance extremely selective and only admitting students with demonstrable maturity and focus.
"[Our programs] are extremely competitive because they require not only excellent academic, especially science, ability, but also some level of maturity and focus based on knowledge of a profession," Baffi-Dugan said. "We have only about three to four EMD students in each class and even fewer in the EDD program."
Professor of Child Development David Elkind says some adolescents are prepared to make important decisions affecting their future, and others are not.
"[High school and college] is a time of identity formation and often young people are in a state of moratorium, exploring different career paths before making a commitment to any one," Elkind said.
Like Baffi-Dugan, Elkind said the EMD and EDD programs are only for a certain type of person. "For some young people who have known what they wanted to do from childhood, such a program makes sense," he said. "But for most young people a period of exploration is healthy."
Elkin agreed some uncertainty is healthy. "I often tell my students that if we as a faculty haven't changed their minds about what they want to do, we haven't really done our jobs," he said.
Tufts also has combined degree programs with the New England Conservatory of Music and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and early acceptance programs to the Tufts Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Schools.
