Engineering Grad (may 2009) looking into med school

[elec09]

hello!

 

Im going into my final semester of electrical engineering.

I have always had an interest in medicine and have thought about going into med school a lot lately.

 

My stats:

 

2.7 CGPA

Very little EC and volunteer

Literally no bio/life science background

 

What you be my choices in terms of trying to get into a school right after grad?

 

If not, would it be the better decision to do a bio/life science undergrad to get a better GPA, and do EC on the side?

 

I have just started to look into ways of getting into med school, any help is more the appreciated. Thanks.

[srindogg@hotmail.com]

Hello there, fellow engineer here myself..

 

Realistically with those stats and EC's, chances at North American schools are slim to none. Need at least a 3.6 to be competitive in most Canadian and American schools, not to mention loads of EC's. One option is going internation i.e Carib, Ireland, Australia but go to International Forum to see the pros and cons of such a decision.

 

IMHO, doing a second undergrad is the best bet to increase your chances of admission in North America. While life sciences is relevant to medicine, it does not give you any advantage over say an arts degree. I would pursue interests you and make sure you can score well in the program.

 

Also, start looking into EC's and MCAT examination as these are significant (sometimes = academics magnitude) components of your application.

 

Hope this helps.

[Lingenieur]

hey guys,

 

I have an undergrad degree in engineering as well with a 3.5 Gpa looking to apply for med school... where did you guys apply?

[Guest Day_one]

If you can get a 3.5ish and a 30ish MCAT and some good clinical ex's you can try your luck at Australia. You can probably get into an Irish school with a lower grade.

 

If you get an OK MCAT perhaps you can try for a Caribbean school with those grades, though I'm not 100% sure about this. I would not recommend going to a school which is willing to accept you based on those stats as it says something about the quality of the school itself along with its student population...

 

If you have 2 years above 3.75 and 30+ well rounded MCAT you can try Queens and Western if you brush up on ex's as well.

 

If I were you I would consider starting a second undergraduate degree if you're REALLY serious about medicine. But of course there may be a lot of things to consider in this path based on your situation (i.e. time, money, family, etc.).

[a41]

Med school is not like engineering. It has not been easy for me going from a program in which critical thinking and problem skills are stressed to one in which is almost pure memorization.

 

If you're only starting to think about medicine now, it probably is not for you. It is a HUGE commitment, and with those stats you will almost certainly have to do a second undergrad degree - again huge commitment. Are you certain that medicine is for you if you haven't even done much volunteering? Just think about this, because if you went through all of that and realized that you would rather do electrical engineering, it's a lot of effort and money wasted.

 

Think about how old you are and where you want to be in 5 years (just starting med school?). As an electrical engineering you've got good earning potential so don't let money/salary influence your decision.

 

If you're going for it, consider doing a life sci program as a second degree. It may not give you an advantage for admissions (though I'd probably argue it would, since going from EE to Art History doesn't suggest a transition to medicine) it'll definitely give you an advantage once you get into med school. Plus you'll get used to all those annoying premeds who will inevitably be your colleagues in medicine.

 

Get some real exposure to medicine. Try to shadow someone if possible. Get to know them on a personal basis (once they start telling you how many divorces they've had because of medicine, keep going). You need to know that medicine, while an amazingly fulfilling career, is not necessarily as grand as people make it out to be. Your life isn't going to magically change once you get into med school. It is full of hardwork and sacrifices - just like any other career.

 

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but as a first year med student I would not envy going down the path you'd have to take. Take a good introspective look at who you are, what you value and what your goals are. If I were you, I'd work for a couple years to test out engineering. You might delay med school for a couple of years but you'll have more life experience, and would be able to easily afford your education.

 

tl;dr: Make sure you really want to do medicine first.

[truffle]

Med school is not like engineering. It has not been easy for me going from a program in which critical thinking and problem skills are stressed to one in which is almost pure memorization.

it's not that bad. im in life science and i don't loathe memorizing things because i don't find them that boring. there is problem-solving involved, but you just need MUCH MORE background knowledge to solve the problems than in engineering, hence the heavy memorization.

 

if only humans were built like worms... med school would be so much easier...

 

yeah i agree with finding out if med school really is for your before sending your $$$ to application centres.

[svp2k5]

it's not that bad. im in life science and i don't loathe memorizing things because i don't find them that boring. there is problem-solving involved, but you just need MUCH MORE background knowledge to solve the problems than in engineering, hence the heavy memorization.

 

if only humans were built like worms... med school would be so much easier...

 

yeah i agree with finding out if med school really is for your before sending your $$$ to application centres.

 

I don't think you can compare a Life Sciences Degree to Engineering in this manner. Engineering requires a ton of knowledge as well and the required background knowledge is based in mathematics and physics.

 

I agree with one of the above mentioned posters. Engineering really did stress the problem solving aspect. During my first two years of medicine, it was tough for me to accept that memorization was the way to good grades. Third and fourth year has been much more similar to engineering than the first two years, with the availability of resource materials and the stress of actually synthesizing information into management/diagnosis.