engineers into med?

[Guest EchoAngel911]

Hello, I was just wondering if there were any stories about engineers going into med.

 

I realized the med path only in 4th year of my undergrad studies!

[Guest uteng]

Yes. Engineers from many disciplines have entered (mechanical, electrical, computer, biological, chemical, systems design).

[Guest ploughboy]

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Hey,

 

It's entirely possible, and there are a bunch of us around. I'm starting meds in the fall after doing an EE degree a number of years ago. I had to spend the last 18 months getting my pre-reqs and buffing up my GPA, but it was well worth it.

 

I know that a number of my future classmates have engineering backgrounds, including some who are in Western's combined engineering/MD programme.

 

Good luck!

 

pb

 

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[Guest coll18]

Hey,

 

I just finished engineering physics at Queen's and I will be starting medicine in the fall. I was lucky to have decided about medicine in time to get a few prerequisites, but there are a few schools who don't require any. The hardest part of applying as an engineer was trying to put my courses into the online application. The course weights were all different and it told me I had too many classes and must be lying. They reviewed it and everything worked out fine in the end. Good luck, engineer/doctors rock!!

[Guest medeng]

I also did eng phys at queen's, and have since done a MSc in medical physics, and am now going back to queen's for meds, so it definitely is possible.

I finished up my prereqs during the MSc (had bio as part of the MSc, took biochem as an extra course), although it definitely is possible to get most of them done during undergrad, first yr. eng you usually get chem and physics, the humanities requirements are usually also required for eng, so you just need to add a bio and orgo/biochem (for some schools). It would tie up most of your electives, but is definitely doable if you plan ahead!

[Guest EngineeringStud]

Congrats! This is great to hear. Hope to be among your ranks soon!

ERTW!!!

[Guest swedeboy]

Wow,

 

Nice to hear of so many engineers thinking of the med route and then succeeding in getting in. I did engineering physics and an MSc in biomedical engineering here at the U of A before going into med. There's also a mechanical engineer and a systems design engineer in my class and even more in the years above.

 

swedeboy

[Guest wezterndude]

angel, your major is essentially irrelevant ........ your marks, MCAT scores and your soft skills determine whether you get in or not......

[Guest fizzicyst]

I also did Eng Phys at Queen's... seems to be a popular route! I went on to do a PhD in physics after working for a bit in engineering. I decided on med while in grad school and picked up a few courses although it wasn't necessary for all the schools to which I applied. I'm starting med school next week.

 

And yes, entering my undergrad marks into OMSAS was a pain...waaaay too many courses 8o

 

Good luck!

[Guest pyhw]

I also just graduated with a major in electrical engineering, and will be going to the Univ of Toronto for medicine. And I understand that there are also a couple other engineers at Toronto next year.

 

It's definitely do-able - all you really need to know is whether you are committed to the idea of 4 years of medicine and 4 (more or less) years of training in residency instead of making money in your engineering job. (Oh right - you also get to save lives!)

 

And, just like everyone else, you also need to demonstrate that you are medically-inclined, in addition to your interests in engineering. Maybe you are doing engineering research with biological/medical applications. Or volunteered in a specialty that was technology intensive. (Not for everyone to follow in my footsteps - but I shadowed a doctor in radiation oncology, and was able to talk about how the doctor integrated technology with amazing patient interaction. Also, despite the advanced technology, the same basic issues surrounding cancer still existed - how to tell a patient that they have cancer or recurring cancer, that they might die, etc.)

 

Good luck!

 

And - I definitely don't think engineering is a completely useless major for medicine. Sure, you won't be using that advanced calculus you learned in your undergrad to your first year of medicine, but you'll apply all your problem-solving skills in medicine. And, if you're doing any research or hoping to move to some biotech-intensive specialty in the future, your engineering background will be useful. (e.g. mechanical/material science in orthopedics, electrical in pacemakers and diagnostic imaging, chemical in drug delivery/pharma...and the list goes on...)

[Guest little endian]

I graduated from Bioengineering at Guelph and have a master's in Bioengineering and I'm starting at Queen's meds in september. Engineering to medicine is totally possible and an amazingly fulfilling path to take.

[Guest JewelLeigh]

I did Mech Eng at Mac...now 2nd year Dal med. There are 5 or 6 engineers in my class.

 

I second pyhw's comments. I in fact think (from my own biased standpoint, hehe) that engineering is possibly even more applicable then a lot of the more "traditional" undergrad routes to medicine. Engineering takes science and applies it to solve practical problems...sounds pretty darn close to a physician's job to me.

[Guest UTMed07]

Hello, I was just wondering if there were any stories about engineers going into med.

 

I realized the med path only in 4th year of my undergrad studies!

U of T seems to really like 'em engineers. There are something like 8 or 9 'em in my class including yours truly. The first year class is similar... and of 'em formed a club; so, U of T even has a club for former engineering students/engineers-meddies.

 

I think engineers in meds is a good thing. There are a good number of concepts the biology types don't know about... but have some utility in medicine. Also, I'm sure non-techies meds will agree... it's a good thing that at least some meddies know to fix computer.

[Guest EchoAngel911]

hahahha, nice to know the engineers are active at UT

 

 

So here is my situation and maybe you guys can help with this:

 

so I'm currently a 4th year electrical engineering student at the University of Toronto. I have no prereq courses at all.

 

I was trying to decided if I should do a 5th year of just taking all the prereq courses I need (i was thinking 5 credits, 3 credits for bio, org chem, another bio and 2 for social/humanity courses). However, I was also thinking of taking 2 credits in the summer after I graduate and enter masters in engineering. The next summer I will take another 2 credits in the summer. By the time I apply to med, I will have finished my masters and have a max 4 prereq credits.

 

Anyone with similar situations with me?

[Guest medeng]

I'm not in a similar situation, but I can offer a bit of advice... If you do a M.Eng., you will probably be doing research 12 months/yr, and summer is prime time to actually get some work done on your thesis as you are free from classes - so your plan to do 2 classes in the summer during grad school might make it tough to finish in 2 yrs!

That said, I definitely don't want to discourage you from doing a master's, mine was great and I'm definitely glad I did it instead of just picking up prereq's.... I'm not sure what your interests are, but if you want to stay at UofT, you might want to look into the IBBME and MBP departments, they're both really good departments and will give you some medically-related research, as well as possibly some of the prereq's you need (students in MBP do 1.5 bio credits, and most in IBBME do at least 0.5 bio, maybe more...)

[Guest satsumargirl]

Agreed with medeng that undergrad coursework in grad school will create a bit of a challenge to complete your research. And in thesis writing mode....it will consume you and the last thing you will want to worry about is undergrad courses.

 

When I did my grad studies (not in engineering but neurosciences) I took 1 undergrad course as a prereq for a program I was applying to (not meds but SLP). The cons to that was on the day I had my classes (which happened to be in the middle of the day) I could not run any experiements as mine lasted approx 12-15hrs and I had to be in the lab the entire time. So depending on what your research is like taking a class may be a challenge. Also, I required the permission and signature of my supervisor to take it. He was not particularly impressed but did sign it just because he knew how much I wanted a career as an SLP. But that meant sometimes running experiments on the weekends to make up for those missed during the week to demonstrate that nothing had changed in terms of productivity.

 

Also keep in mind that research is fairly unpredictable. You may find yourself cramming experiments and data collection in at the end. Example...my last thesis (SLP) I planned on having all my data collected and analyzed by end of May (since June-Aug I had a full-time clinical placement). But the fMRI magnet caught on fire and I was unable to collect my data by the end of May, and who would have predicted that!! So come June when the magnet was fixed I had to collect my data, analyse it, write my thesis all while doing a full-time clinical placement. So lots of unpredictable things can happen in research.

 

And if you do take those prereqs in that last summer before starting school will med schools consider them? I am just throwing that out as a consideration, I don't know when prereqs need to be done by.

 

Can you just go full-time the summer before you start grad school and take all 4 and just get them over with?

 

As for engineers turning physician. I have a friend who did just that and is very happy with his choice. He did computer engineering including an MSc and worked a bit and decided it wasn't his thing. So just to add to the already posted replies that engineering to meds works!

[Guest Shaunabelle]

Just wanted to add that the only thing i found that was tough about applying to Med schools after going through Aerospace Engineering was that in some of my interviews - not all of them but a couple- i had to really fight to explain my switch in career choice - just make sure that you can fully explain why you want to go into medicine (especially if you decided later on!) and how your engineering skills will assist you in becoming the best doctor you can be.

 

Shauna

[Guest hickfromsticks]

Let it be known that Queen's Eng also has a different conversion scale from which GPA is calculated for OMSAS... a 75 gets you a 3.7, which could account for the seemingly high number of Queen's eng physies in med!

[Guest EchoAngel911]

i had no idea queen's engineering had an advantage!

 

hey satsumargirl,

 

i believe ut only allows a max of 2 credits for summer. In addition, I'm trying to figure out when to take the mcat since i will be graduating 1 year from now.

[Guest dayne67]

I didn't realize that I wanted to go into medicine until the end of my second year in engineering (electrical). Actually, it was always in the back of my mind, but I did not fully want to become a physician until then.

 

During my third year, I applied to the Life Sciences program at the University of Toronto. After finishing my third year of engineering, I took pre-requisite courses for meds at UofT for one full year. I then came back to finish the final year of my engineering degree. I rewrote the MCAT this past August (low verbal) and I am now applying this year to UW, UofT, MAC, and Queens for meds. In the mean time, I am looking for an engineering job.

 

Engineering, itself, is a nice undergraduate program, but I found it way too rigorous. The last year, especially, totally drained me out. There was just so much work that I did not have time for anything else. Moreover, my sleeping cycle was always screwed up because of constant sleepless nights spent in the labs finishing up design projects.