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Undergraduate degree in Engineering?

seeker

By seeker
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The Law Newbie

The Law

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well im into sports and chess...i'll give it a try.

 

yeah, i'm sure you could play for some recreational sports league. you could also try out for varsity (but huge commitment). Just do things that you like, and things that will diversify your experiences.

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ploughboy Newbie

ploughboy

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If your school is anything like mine was, there are probably lots of cool engineering clubs/projects (solar race cars, concrete toboggan etc) to get involved with, and if you get involved early on you're in a good position to have a significant position/impact within the project once you're in 3rd or 4th year. Those sorts of projects are also good for establishing connections with industry (sponsorship, technical help etc) in case meds doesn't work out for you.

 

Depending on your interests and surroundings, you can sometimes have more impact and fun if you're working and playing with the same people all the time (ie doing stuff within your faculty). On the other hand, there's a whole wide world outside the wall of engineering, and as Kuantum said it's sometimes good to meet new and different people.

 

As somebody else mentioned, student gv't (either within or outside your faculty) is always good for developing leadership, negotiating and schmoozing skills.

 

pb

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jubaitca Newbie

jubaitca

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ya well... right now its pretty late to join much. But, I am for sure gonna try out something next year. And I am in St.George Campus, and there are a lot of clubs around here, just wasn't sure which to join. Actually, I did want to join many things when i went to the clubs fair, but just wanted wait this year out since I didn't know what university was like. Now, I think university isn't that bad...I will for sure go for something next year. Thanks for the advice.

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jubaitca Newbie

jubaitca

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Isn't chess a sport? :P

 

well what i meant by chess as something i do as a hobby (recreational club). And what I mean sports would be competitive sports because I have been in the baseball, badminton, hockey teams. And also was in the chess team.

 

And I currently enrolled into Electrical Engineering. I know electrical engineers have a branch in Medical Imaging, I'll see if that intersts me.

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cary_fan Newbie

cary_fan

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You don't have to restrict yourself to imaging - electrical engineering is one of the most flexible for biomedical-type projects. You'd be amazed at the types of things that clinicians would love engineers to help them with. Your best bet is to try to get in contact clinical personnel for design projects and see if you can do something to make their lives easier - it's a great "in" with them and it's really fun to do something that might actually be useful.

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EngrMD Newbie

EngrMD

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Just my 2 cents...

 

It's been almost 2 years out of schools now, working in signal processing / telecomm, hoping for medicine or biomedical engineering masters. I liked EE very much, and managed to do some projects involved in biomed engr, but it was a very very restricted program. I wanted to do minor in Biology, but couldn't fit my biol courses in passed 1st year. *sigh*

 

It did have some very cool hands on / group work, though. I feel that engineering was a good degree to "grow up" in; it has introduced some different ways of thinking through a problem, and I got to move around and do co-op work terms in different cities.

 

Now I need to crawl back into my hole and freak out about my upcoming interviews now. *freak*

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IWishIWasASpartan Newbie

IWishIWasASpartan

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Interesting to see so many mechanical engineering students. Did anyone work in the industry before they entered med school?

 

I'm also curious as to what you did about pre-req courses. Now not all schools have pre-reqs, but you're limiting yourself if you only apply to those. However, with the rigidity of most engineering programs, you'd have to "overload" a few semesters to get the pre-reqs out of the way. How did you cope with taking some not so birdy courses on top of an already difficult courseload?

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IWishIWasASpartan Newbie

IWishIWasASpartan

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you can always do summer courses, doing 6 or 7 courses in a semester can get tough. Also, If you do a co-op program (or PEY year at UofT) you can do your pre-reqs in that year :)

 

Actually, I am in a co-op program. There is a slight problem...I'm at Waterloo so I don't ever have summers off. There are a few relatively easier semesters where I might be able to get away with taking 7 courses, but doing that I would not be able to grab all my pre-reqs by the time I graduate.

 

Instead, I'm interested in what you meant by "do your pre-reqs during co-op". Do you mean taking distance education courses or be a visiting student during my work terms? If so, do you recommend taking Distance Ed courses from your degree granting school or from other schools?

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w3rd Newbie

w3rd

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Actually, I am in a co-op program. There is a slight problem...I'm at Waterloo so I don't ever have summers off. There are a few relatively easier semesters where I might be able to get away with taking 7 courses, but doing that I would not be able to grab all my pre-reqs by the time I graduate.

 

Instead, I'm interested in what you meant by "do your pre-reqs during co-op". Do you mean taking distance education courses or be a visiting student during my work terms? If so, do you recommend taking Distance Ed courses from your degree granting school or from other schools?

 

you can do any of these things you mentioned. If I were in your place, I'd take distance ED courses. All they want is a credit showing you have the pre-reqs. I know a guy who did his degree in engineering, he then worked for a couple of years before applying to med school. He did all his pre-reqs through athabasca distance courses (or online courses i cant remember) and hes in med school now.

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cary_fan Newbie

cary_fan

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I have good things to say about Ryerson's Continuing Education courses. The courses are offered at night, so for people working in Toronto, it's possible to make it to class once or twice each week in the evenings. The instructors were decent, and the exams were very realistic. Having taken courses at Waterloo and Toronto, I would definitely say that Ryerson's exam emphasis is on comprehension rather than useless details and trick questions. I took these courses while I was doing my master's at UofT, and I actually looked forward to classes where I could just listen without being worried about what was going to be on the exam. I would recommend them for anyone who is just taking the courses for credit (since most schools will not count them in GPA). I took the second year Microbiology (with lab) and Biochem courses. The syllabus was comparable to normal day-school classes, but with a more mature learning atmosphere. Most of the people taking the courses are either trying to gain advanced standing for courses or are changing careers. I met people trying to get in and out of nursing as well as people trying to get into nutrition, dentistry, or medicine. What a refreshing environment compared to being surrounded by hordes of undergrads with a singular focus on what is going to be on the exam!

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