Applying as an Engineering Major

[jae9970]

Hello all,

I am fairly new here, and I was wondering about a few things..

- What schools should I aim for? (and thus apply?) BTW, I live in Pennsylvania..

I'm majoring in mechanical engineering with bioengineering minor. GPA so far is 3.79, and I took the MCAT last August and the score was 30O.

I have volunteering experience with Red Cross, helping out with blood drives, but I know this really doesn't count..

I have done a shadowing, not much but little, with a doctor who's working in the Internal Medicine, specifically Endocrinology. Right now, I feel I need to do a lot more shadowing and other clinically-relevant activities.

So what schools should I be aiming for? Obviously good, top schools are out of my range.. I'm trying to hear from some people if, realistically, I have a chance to get into some medical schools, at all.

Also I'm considering re-taking MCAT to improve my score.. would that be a good idea?

Any other feedback / comments will be greatly appreciated.

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[Wizard of Oz]

What schools should I aim for? (and thus apply?) BTW, I live in Pennsylvania..

I'm majoring in mechanical engineering with bioengineering minor. GPA so far is 3.79, and I took the MCAT last August and the score was 30O.

So what schools should I be aiming for? Obviously good, top schools are out of my range.. I'm trying to hear from some people if, realistically, I have a chance to get into some medical schools, at all.

Also I'm considering re-taking MCAT to improve my score.. would that be a good idea?

Get a copy of the MSAR. It will make your options very clear. Your numbers are probably good enough to get into a state school. I wouldn't get too adventurous beyond that.

 

[jae9970]

MSAR is medical school admission requirement, a book, right? Do I have to order it online somewhere?

 

[MattD]

Get some more clinical experience. I think your MCAT is fine. Your GPA is definitely fine.

 

[bretticus]

I'd guess Penn State, Jefferson, Drexel, and maybe Penn would be obvious choices if you're looking to stay in-state. Otherwise, pick schools that are around your stats (say 28-32 or so MCAT, GPA is fine) and accept plenty of OOS students. These are usually private, but some state schools take a sizeable portion of OOS.

Definitely check out the MSAR for this info. You can pick it up from Amazon or the AAMC, I believe. Wait until the year you're going to apply though for the latest numbers. Prior to that, you can check your school's library (or steal from a friend) for a more dated one. It should still be useful though. Actually I think SDN has a neat little Flash app that can help with school selection as well. It should be somewhere in the menus I think. The wiki is nice too.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

MSAR is medical school admission requirement, a book, right? Do I have to order it online somewhere?

You can get it online (as noted) but honestly your pre-health office ought to have a copy too. There are no osteo or Carribbean schools in there.

Don't de-value your Red Cross experience. Adcoms like to hear about you donating your time.

 

[jae9970]

i guess the answer will be in that book, but if you don't mind answering this question from just the top of your head-

Any med schools that satisfy the following conditions?

- Near Pennsylvania
- Accept out of state applicants

Thanks a lot!

 

[Wizard of Oz]

A while back, I thumbed through the MSAR to try to find some schools that were friendly to oos applicants. This is what I came up with...

I quickly thumbed through my old MSAR. Almost every U.S. public institution was about 80% or greater in-state. Notable exceptions:

North Dakota (I guess because of low population or some kind of agreement with another state)

Michigan--81 residents taken compared to 86 non-residents in 2004-2005 (BTW they require Ivy League numbers)

Ohio State--145 in-state vs. 64 non-resident in 2004-2005 (still near 75%)

Oregon--46 in-state vs. 62 non-resident in 2004-2005 (agreements with Montana and Wyoming)

Penn State--61 in-state vs. 66 non-resident in 2004-2005

Utah--75 in-state vs. 26 non-resident in 2004-2005 (still near 80%)

Vermont--31 in-state vs. 67 non-resident in 2004-2005

all Virginia schools

West Virginia--64 in-state vs. 37 non-resident in 2004-2005

Sometimes schools that are trying to enhance or keep up their prestige are more likely to let others in at the higher tuition rate, but keep in mind that the odds of non-resident admission at all of the above schools were tougher by several fold. By and large, the school of interest takes an MCAT of X for residents and MCAT of X + 5-10 for a non-resident (so you are still a much better shot in your home state).

Of course the level is more even in the Caribbean or U.S. private schools. The more prestigious the private school, typically the higher non-resident portion (though tuition is level save for scholarships). The exception here is Baylor which is really a state school wolf in private school sheep's clothing. Texas is a huge state that can easily stock such a prestigious school with its own residents, and since it is subsidized by the state, they are required to take mostly Texas residents. They must be doing something right, though.

AAMC has a more recent MSAR that you can buy from them for something like $30. It has almost everything you need to know in it as far as statistics are concerned.

It is common for state legislatures to require that state schools take 3/4 to 4/5 residents.

I don't know much about your state's geography, so I'll leave it up to you to figure out if any of the above might be of interest to you. I don't know what private schools are in the region.

Hope this helps.

 

[jae9970]

Thanks a lot!

You are very helpful, and I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling that way.

 

[Hassler]

Hello all,

I am fairly new here, and I was wondering about a few things..

- What schools should I aim for? (and thus apply?) BTW, I live in Pennsylvania..

I'm majoring in mechanical engineering with bioengineering minor. GPA so far is 3.79, and I took the MCAT last August and the score was 30O.

I have volunteering experience with Red Cross, helping out with blood drives, but I know this really doesn't count..

I have done a shadowing, not much but little, with a doctor who's working in the Internal Medicine, specifically Endocrinology. Right now, I feel I need to do a lot more shadowing and other clinically-relevant activities.

So what schools should I be aiming for? Obviously good, top schools are out of my range.. I'm trying to hear from some people if, realistically, I have a chance to get into some medical schools, at all.

Also I'm considering re-taking MCAT to improve my score.. would that be a good idea?

Any other feedback / comments will be greatly appreciated.

Your GPA is pretty good for an engineering major, so I don't think you should give up hopes for "top" schools. Yes, your mcat is average but you never know what happens. A lot of people get into top schools w/ subpar stats because they killed the interview. So ya, realistically top schools would be hard but it's not impossible.

 

[jae9970]

Your GPA is pretty good for an engineering major, so I don't think you should give up hopes for "top" schools. Yes, your mcat is average but you never know what happens. A lot of people get into top schools w/ subpar stats because they killed the interview. So ya, realistically top schools would be hard but it's not impossible.

Thanks! I will try my best

 

[gdk]

i would say to apply to schools you would want to go to... no matter what their average mcat score is. if you can also get a few good letters, write a good essay, have good experiences, etc, you might be surprised who will invite you to an interview. i was surprised to get an interview with duke with a less than stellar mcat score, so you never know

 

[Wizard of Oz]

i would say to apply to schools you would want to go to... no matter what their average mcat score is. if you can also get a few good letters, write a good essay, have good experiences, etc, you might be surprised who will invite you to an interview. i was surprised to get an interview with duke with a less than stellar mcat score, so you never know

This is good advice for someone who has the money to go to many interviews. However, I've been to many interviews that I knew were for show only, i.e. they were interviewing three or four times as many people as they planned to matriculate, so I was really just there to fill their time. At schools with rolling admissions, you can often tell beforehand that they've already accepted their planned total before you even take the interview, so basically you're all just competing for a position on the waitlist at that point.

To me, an interview with no realistic shot of getting in is money wasted.

 

[opus]

Medical schools love engineering . A high rate of engineering graduates get into medical school. Don't know why so many are applying, but it could be the job market. You have a great chance anywhere.

 

[beegeforty4]

Medical schools love engineering . A high rate of engineering graduates get into medical school. Don't know why so many are applying, but it could be the job market. You have a great chance anywhere.

Probably a dead topic but I read the thread and thought I might chime in...

From what I've been told in my adventures with applications is that med schools like engineering majors because our curriculum is very similar in terms of intensity and difficulty as medical school's curriculum. Supposedly (I don't have any stats, so don't yell at me), we have the highest med school retention rate of any major as described to me by an adcom.

Why you don't see too many of us applying though, is for two reasons: 1) we've busted our asses and don't want to do it anymore -- with most engineering students making a pretty penny upon graduating (the ChemE's in my class are projected to average $69,000/year next year), it's stupid to continue when working just as a hard the next 4-8 years in the field can increase wages comparable to most doctors; and 2) and most importantly, most engineers (including myself) are socially inept and are much better fiddling with a machine or process blocks than talking to a human being (which I guess, as it turns out, doctors do a lot)...

...If only engineering students knew what radiologists do.

 

[sirus_virus]

Hello all,

I am fairly new here, and I was wondering about a few things..

- What schools should I aim for? (and thus apply?) BTW, I live in Pennsylvania..

I'm majoring in mechanical engineering with bioengineering minor. GPA so far is 3.79, and I took the MCAT last August and the score was 30O.

I have volunteering experience with Red Cross, helping out with blood drives, but I know this really doesn't count..

I have done a shadowing, not much but little, with a doctor who's working in the Internal Medicine, specifically Endocrinology. Right now, I feel I need to do a lot more shadowing and other clinically-relevant activities.

So what schools should I be aiming for? Obviously good, top schools are out of my range.. I'm trying to hear from some people if, realistically, I have a chance to get into some medical schools, at all.

Also I'm considering re-taking MCAT to improve my score.. would that be a good idea?

Any other feedback / comments will be greatly appreciated.

That is kind of hard to believe, since for some reason I have you avatar permanently implanted in my head. Back to the topic, yes you are good to go. I will not get to adventurous though, aplly to a lot of schools.