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Career Change From Engineer? Is Medical School Within Reach For Me?


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Hi guys,

 

I wanted to ask for an advice on my situation.

 

I graduated from University of Waterloo with a Computer Engineering degree in 2012, am 26 years old, and have been working in California. When I was in undergrad I wanted to start making money as soon as possible, and medical school wasn't something that I considered. Now that I'm about 2 1/2 years into full time work, I'm starting to realize that I actually don't need this money after all, as my interests don't lie on things that I need a lot of money for. This plus the fact that I had some life events in which I really thought that would've helped if I'd been a doctor got me interested in this career path.

 

Here are my undergrad stats (% converted using omsas gpa, I think I'm burned a little since a lot of my marks are on the border like 89, 84):

 

Year 1 (1A & 1B): 2.80

Year 2 (2A & 2B): 3.20

Year 3 (3A & 3B): 3.78

Year 4 (4A & 4B): 3.96

 

I have a pretty bad average in my first and second year, but luckily I turned it around in 3rd and 4th year a bit. I don't have any ECs other than the Waterloo co-op experiences that are mostly technical (do these even count as ECs?). I also haven't taken any medical school prerequisites. I didn't take a biology course since highschool and the only chemistry course I took in college was in my first year when my average was bad. I am willing to put in the work to score well on the MCATs, but I feel like the lack of ECs will be a disqualify me from the get-go. 

 

From reading the forums I think I have two options if I want to pursue medical school in Canada:

 

1) start racking up ECs now, score well on MCATs, apply to schools that doesn't have pre-reqs.

2) do a second degree plus 1)

 

Honestly I'd much prefer to do 1), but I am not even a resident in Canada anymore at the moment, so I'm not sure if its even worth trying. Do you guys think its best for me to go with route 2)?

 

I'd appreciate any opinions, thanks a lot.

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1) You're not old.

2) Work experience counts towards ECs

3) You don't need a whole new degree, just take the prereqs required by your desired med school(s).  They'll help with the MCAT prep too.  You can do them via correspondence if need be.

4) If this is really what you want to do, go for it.  We only get one shot at this lifetime.

5) Don't let what you read on this forum intimidate you.  Very few people who post are experts at med school selection processes.

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It's a bit of a complex situation you have there...

 

First, med schools all consider co-op work a bit differently. Western, for example, looks at things the way you've laid them out. Queen's, by contrast, only looks at years where you did two full academic terms within the same academic year (starting and ending in the fall), regardless of which term they correspond to in a traditional year. You'll have to check each school to figure out what they consider your GPA to be.

 

What schools consider your GPA to be will determine where you have a realistic chance of applying. From what I can tell, you're probably above the cutoff for Western and that's about it. They don't care about ECs really, so all you'd need is the MCAT to qualify, but you'd need to do quite well on it and you'd be banking on a single school. One school's all you really need, but it does lower your chances significantly.

 

If you were to do a second degree, it might open up a few other schools, and you'd probably only need 2 years to get your GPA up to standards (hard to say for sure at this point though). Queen's would be one, though you'd need a fairly good MCAT as well and strong ECs. If you could get their pre-reqs, Ottawa would be another option - and they don't care about the MCAT. If you had a very strong Verbal scores on the MCAT (or whatever they're calling the new section that it's equivalent to), you might also have an outside shot at McMaster.

 

In situations like this, I generally advise writing the MCAT first. If you do well on it, a second degree isn't that useful - you might only have Western with a realistic shot, but by the time you'd need to complete a second degree, you could probably get in, even if it took more than one admission cycle. If you don't do well on the MCAT, then a second degree is almost required to have any chance. The MCAT takes a lot less time, energy, and money than a second degree, so do that first.

 

However, I do have to ask - why medicine? You don't have ECs related to health care, or much experience with the academic side of health care or biology. Life events might tell you what you don't like about your current path, but that doesn't necessarily mean medicine is the answer. Medicine is a very hard road, particularly for someone who, one way or another, is starting from scratch.  I'm not saying you shouldn't explore this career path - I came from a background similar to your's and am reasonably happy with my decision - but it shouldn't be a decision made without very careful consideration. It's a good career, but it's far from the only one and it's not for everyone.

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Thanks guys for the input. 

 

meddog:

 

I'm not intimidated, but I want to be realistic given my situation =) I will ponder more about either just doing the MCATs, taking the prereqs, or none of the above. 

 

ralk:

 

Your response aligns with what I thought/predicted. Agreed with your MCAT assessment, in fact, I think that a low MCAT will probably disqualify me from all schools. I've thought more about the 2nd degree option though. Since my first and second year marks are bad, even if I get a 4.0 across the two years during the second degree, my cumulative GPA will still be around 3.62, which is still not competitive. Dropping the first year still yields 3.78, which is still not competitive, so I'm leaning towards of ruling this option out. Plus your comment about the me having done a couple cycles of UWO application only augments the reasons to not do a second degree.

 

Having said the that, as you said, this will leave me only with UWO as the option, which I'm still thinking of pursuing. I'll ponder about this a little bit more through some soul searching =)

 

As for why medicine, I could talk about the "life event"s that I had, but I'll leave that for another day. One thing that I do enjoy from my current job is the interaction with users on the macro level, seeing key metrics change as a direct result of my work. Right now this key metric for me are things like "time spent on service" or "number of signups," but I hope that I can change this to something close to people's well being and health. 

 

 

Thanks guys again for the valuable inputs! Please don't hesitate to make additional comments.

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Hi oldengineer, 

 

    Unless things have changed, a 2nd degree is not out of the ruling.  For Ottawa, they look at your 3 newest years of study.  That will wipe out your old scores and bring your GPA significantly higher. If you did 2 years, then I believe they look at your 2 new years + your 4th year of engineering.  You can also think about McGill.  If you start a 2nd degree, you can only apply after x number of credits (either equivalent to finishing 2nd year or in the middle of 3rd year of your new degree).  Again that wipes out your old GPA and effectively puts you on a new slate.  Also, if you do take the 2nd degree route, some schools permit you to apply again to them once you are in the last year of your 2nd degree.  I think Western is like that.  

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  • 4 months later...

Hi guys,

 

I wanted to ask for an advice on my situation.

 

I graduated from University of Waterloo with a Computer Engineering degree in 2012, am 26 years old, and have been working in California. When I was in undergrad I wanted to start making money as soon as possible, and medical school wasn't something that I considered. Now that I'm about 2 1/2 years into full time work, I'm starting to realize that I actually don't need this money after all, as my interests don't lie on things that I need a lot of money for. This plus the fact that I had some life events in which I really thought that would've helped if I'd been a doctor got me interested in this career path.

 

Here are my undergrad stats (% converted using omsas gpa, I think I'm burned a little since a lot of my marks are on the border like 89, 84):

 

Year 1 (1A & 1B): 2.80

Year 2 (2A & 2B): 3.20

Year 3 (3A & 3B): 3.78

Year 4 (4A & 4B): 3.96

 

I have a pretty bad average in my first and second year, but luckily I turned it around in 3rd and 4th year a bit. I don't have any ECs other than the Waterloo co-op experiences that are mostly technical (do these even count as ECs?). I also haven't taken any medical school prerequisites. I didn't take a biology course since highschool and the only chemistry course I took in college was in my first year when my average was bad. I am willing to put in the work to score well on the MCATs, but I feel like the lack of ECs will be a disqualify me from the get-go.

 

From reading the forums I think I have two options if I want to pursue medical school in Canada:

 

1) start racking up ECs now, score well on MCATs, apply to schools that doesn't have pre-reqs.

2) do a second degree plus 1)

 

Honestly I'd much prefer to do 1), but I am not even a resident in Canada anymore at the moment, so I'm not sure if its even worth trying. Do you guys think its best for me to go with route 2)?

 

I'd appreciate any opinions, thanks a lot.

Hi oldengineer,

 

Greetings from a fellow engineer who just got in medical school this year. I know I'm a bit late to the party but I thought I'd add my two cents if it isn't too late.

 

I found myself in a similar situation to yours about 1.5 years ago when I decided to take my chances and apply to medical school. The road has been long, it took a lot of work and effort, but it paid off so it's totally possible!!! I had always thought about applying to medical school during my undergraduate and graduate degree (I have a Masters), and even during my work but I had never really pursued it because I hadn't convinced myself and I guess I was a little bit demoralized seeing other people with better stats than me apply and not get in.

 

So, a little bit about myself. I am currently 28, so you're definitely not old. I did an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering + bioengineering minor at UofT and then did a Masters degree at UofT as well. I have been working for a medical device company as an R&D engineer for the last 2.5 years, and this gave me a lot of exposure into the medical field (this was really the tipping point for me when I decided to apply to medical school).

 

My cumulative GPA isn't that much better than yours (around 3.61 on OMSAS) with my last two undergraduate years averaging out to a 3.8, which was nice. I also didn't have great ECs during undergrad and that was a major source of worry for me. However, I didn't want to pick something that just "looked good" on the application. I wanted to do something that really appealed to me and gave me an insight into what it means to be a doctor. A really good, perspective-changing experience has been volunteering at a hospice for 1 year. That really teaches you about doctor-patient interactions, interacting with vulnerable people, and you get to do a lot of introspection on whether taking care of people in that fashion is really something that you want to do. I highly encourage you to seek out activities that speak to you on a personal level.

 

I agree with ralk in that I think you should focus on taking the MCAT first and making sure that you really nail that one because it can really hamper your application, especially if you're an unconventional applicant with perhaps lower GPA. I can't stress this enough, I think you should do really well on the MCAT. Second is that I don't think you need to pursue a second degree necessarily. What about doing a Masters? Have you thought about that? It's only one/two years and for some schools it puts you into the graduate pool of students, which means that the admission committee will look at your application regardless of your stats.

 

I got into Dalhousie this year after having applied at almost all Ontario schools and a few American ones. I'm not sure if this applies to you, but I wasn't able to apply to Ottawa, UBC, etc because I am missing prerequisites. So, unless you have organic chemistry and biochemistry, you won't be able to apply to those. Having said that, I think that your best shot would be at Dalhousie and Queen's. Queen's looks at the higher of your cumulative GPA or the most recent two full time year GPA. You have a solid 3.87 in your last two years. Dalhousie I believe is similar. In Dalhousie, it would help if you had a Masters because you could select only your last two undergraduate years and include the graduate marks as well.

 

I'm not sure what you decided to do but I would suggest studying really hard for the MCAT, consider doing a 1-2 year Masters program, and start volunteering for some organizations that speak to you on a personal level and you can justify your interest in them honestly on your application.

 

I wish you all the best and good luck!!! If you never try, you'll never know what could have happened. I think it's totally worth it.

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Just as an FYI to the poster above, for UBC specifically you do NOT need pre-reqs done at the time of application. You just need them done June 30th before matriculation.

So for anyone who is missing 1 or even 3 pre-reqs to UBC and is hesitant to apply, i say apply and then in December if you get an interview, register and take the missing pre-reqs in term 2 or even online.

 

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Just as an FYI to the poster above, for UBC specifically you do NOT need pre-reqs done at the time of application. You just need them done June 30th before matriculation.

 

So for anyone who is missing 1 or even 3 pre-reqs to UBC and is hesitant to apply, i say apply and then in December if you get an interview, register and take the missing pre-reqs in term 2 or even online.

 

 

That's great advice. I was looking at the pre reqs and thinking they were a bit onerous. I only have one term of each bio chem and orgo, which is all that my BSc required. I imagine this isn't uncommon.

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Just as an FYI to the poster above, for UBC specifically you do NOT need pre-reqs done at the time of application. You just need them done June 30th before matriculation.

So for anyone who is missing 1 or even 3 pre-reqs to UBC and is hesitant to apply, i say apply and then in December if you get an interview, register and take the missing pre-reqs in term 2 or even online.

 

That's great, Gohan. Thanks for clarifying that! For me, it wasn't an option to enroll in courses at the time of application so I guess I just took it as "don't have prerequisites".

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Hey there. I'm Electrical Engineering 2013 from Waterloo. After I've graduated I worked 2 years in the software industry. I've just been accepted to McMaster MD class of 2018.

 

Timeline wise, med is a commitment of 3-4 years of undergrad MD (depends on where you go), and about 2-7 years of residency after that (I believe). In total, that's about 8-10 working years you'll realign to medicine. I decided it was worth it. But just letting you know of the same.

 

GPA is an important factor at any school. Unfortunately, Waterloo's pretty hard. Your marks are pretty good considering Waterloo (I'd know from personal experience of course). Ideally, you'd want to aim for 3.8+ for all 4 or 5 years in the case of Waterloo, but you can offset that with a good MCAT.

 

Which brings me to my next point: MCAT. Don't underestimate it. My cGPA at Waterloo was 3.95, but I've never taken any bio pre-reqs like you, and I did pretty mediocre on the Biological Sciences (BS section, haha) of the MCAT despite doing really well in engineering. In fact, it was the reason I couldn't apply to UWO - because my biology scores were too low. Hence I'd thought to caution you. If you're banking on UWO, you need really good bio scores.

 

WIth regards to ECs, I volunteered at the local hospital on weekends while working. You may think to do the same. Any ECs is good and of course, full-time work counts.

 

I assume you're not applying this year. Which means you'll apply in 2016, and at earliest (assuming you get into Mac/Calgary), get in in 2017 and be the class of 2020. That being the case, I'd put all your energy towards the MCAT right now. It's changed from when I wrote it and it's harder than ever before. Additionally, get some volunteering experiences pronto. Hospitals usually accept volunteers concurrently with the school terms (i.e. Sept-Dec, May-Aug, etc). Finally, figure out who will be your references half a year in advance.

 

The lack of pre-reqs did hinder my application. I couldn't apply to Ottawa/UofT and other Canadian schools. You can take courses online but that costs money. I didn't feel a Masters was worth it for me so I didn't do it. But if you have plans for an MEng you might as well do that and get in some bio courses too.

 

Either way, if I were in your situation, I'd start studying for the MCAT ASAP. That's your top priority. I don't think you can register an MCAT for this year anymore considering it's already July. That means you'll probably write it next year in early 2016. Considering it'll take several weeks to get the results, that means you can write it in Feb/Mar and decide whether or not to apply in Mar-Apr of 2016 when you get your results back. If it's competitive (i.e. >95%tiles), give it a shot. If not, you can try anyway, or re-write the MCAT again.

 

Nothing in life's certain, so best of luck. Just know that it's entirely possible to get in to med from engineering, and there are examples on this very forum.

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