Chemical Engineering Pre med?

[collegerer]

Hey Everyone I'm new to these forums and I'm going to enter university next year as a ChemE on the pre med track. Most of the classes that ChemEs take fall in line with pre med reqs and I know its going to be a lot of work and I'm ready. I'm very math and science oriented and like to know that in case med school doesn't work out I have a career to fall back on.

Has there been any successful ChemE majors to Medical Schools?
I read somewhere that Med schools do in fact take the rigor of your major into account, is this true or false?


Any other opinions on my major are greatly appreciated. Thank you

-Future MD.

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[trino]

Hey Everyone I'm new to these forums and I'm going to enter university next year as a ChemE on the pre med track. Most of the classes that ChemEs take fall in line with pre med reqs and I know its going to be a lot of work and I'm ready. I'm very math and science oriented and like to know that in case med school doesn't work out I have a career to fall back on.

Has there been any successful ChemE majors to Medical Schools?
I read somewhere that Med schools do in fact take the rigor of your major into account, is this true or false?


Any other opinions on my major are greatly appreciated. Thank you

-Future MD.

In my opinion, mostly false. The rigor of your major will never make up for a bad GPA. Say you make a 3.3 in ChemE, which to my understanding is respectable at some schools. Chances are you will still have to do a post-bacc

I don't mean to scare you off from ChemE. You can come out of it with a great gpa, which will only help you. But be prepared to work your butt off. Maybe some engineering majors can weigh in here. I know they're around this forum

EDIT: to answer your first question, there are plenty of chemE majors in medicine. You can do it and it gives you a great fallback!

 

[listener23]

Major in biology, get a high GPA, take the mcat, get into Medical school, become a great doctor..... There.

 

[kevinus]

I did biomedical engineering, taking a few courses in the chem eng department. My graduating GPA was >3.9. Do not let anyone tell you that engineering is more difficult than bio, neuroscience, or whatever. If you are like me and love mathematical modeling and making things, you will succeed.

That being said, the "difficulty" of your major will not be taken into account.

 

[Lucca]

It's school and person dependent. One thing that is probably true is that the "volume" of work in the Eng. disciplines is larger since the courses are more application based, team based, project-based, etc. and the major is usually "longer" (as in an Eng. degree might be 137 hours vs. a 120 hr. Bio degree, that's 1 more semester for most people).

The key is to enjoy what you are doing and be good at it. I'm friends with lots of engineers and the successful ones are just very good at managing their time. It is a lot easier to manage your time in a Bio major since you are taking less and easier courses most of the time.

If you want to play the game, major in Biology or an easy liberal art and take the pre-reqs. If you really enjoy math and building things, definitely do engineering.

Personally, I would've done engineering if I simply didn't like other things more.

 

[collegerer]

Thanks for all the replies folks! I think I could do Chemical Engineering its right up my niche. Although I've never really built anything in high school it certainly sounds very interesting!

 

[ChEMD]

If you can be get a good GPA in engineering, I think it will definitely boost your application strength. Chem E may not make up for a low GPA, but it definitely differentiates you from the thousands of biology and chemistry majors out there. Being successful in chem e shows that you have very strong critical thinking skills (something bio majors may or may not have) which is an important part to being successful in medicine. So if you enjoy it and can do well, then go for it!

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

Thanks for all the replies folks! I think I could do Chemical Engineering its right up my niche. Although I've never really built anything in high school it certainly sounds very interesting!

Do it. If you have the math aptitude and can handle working problems for homework constantly, it's a great degree to have. Much more valuable and useful than a Bio degree.
If you want to "build" stuff though, you should look into MechE. ChemE is more about chemical processing.

 

[ChemEngMD]

Don't do it, dog. It's just not worth it.

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

Don't do it, dog. It's just not worth it.

Taking into account that the OP is looking for a degree that they can fall back on, why would you say it's not worth it? It's one of the few degrees that is actually worth something right now.

 

[ChemEngMD]

Taking into account that the OP is looking for a degree that they can fall back on, why would you say it's not worth it? It's one of the few degrees that is actually worth something right now.

I have that degree...it's not all it's worked up to be.

I look at it like this:

You can do ChemE and be pre-med (do all of the necessary additional classes and get in all of your obligatory ECs: (research, volunteering, clinical, leadership, etc.)) OR

You can do ChemE and train to be a ChemE (do your co-op, join relevant ECs like AIChE, etc.).

Trying to do both AND keep your GPA up is madness - very few people can pull this off. It's a good "fall back" degree, but you will know within a couple semesters if it is really what you want to do. As soon as I stepped into my co-op, I knew it wasn't for me and I needed to find something else.

When you go to apply for ChemE jobs they aren't going to care about your service work or your clinical experiences...they'll want someone who had a badass co-op and has great recommendations from it and maybe some leadership ECs.

I just think you are setting yourself up. Being a great pre-med is tough, being a great ChemE is tough -- trying to do both is asking for trouble.

Just my $0.02

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

I have that degree...it's not all it's worked up to be.

I look at it like this:

You can do ChemE and be pre-med (do all of the necessary additional classes and get in all of your obligatory ECs: (research, volunteering, clinical, leadership, etc.)) OR

You can do ChemE and train to be a ChemE (do your co-op, join relevant ECs like AIChE, etc.).

Trying to do both AND keep your GPA up is madness - very few people can pull this off. It's a good "fall back" degree, but you will know within a couple semesters if it is really what you want to do. As soon as I stepped into my co-op, I knew it wasn't for me and I needed to find something else.

When you go to apply for ChemE jobs they aren't going to care about your service work or your clinical experiences...they'll want someone who had a badass co-op and has great recommendations from it and maybe some leadership ECs.

I just think you are setting yourself up. Being a great pre-med is tough, being a great ChemE is tough -- trying to do both is asking for trouble.

Just my $0.02

Did you ever work as a ChemE? Most of the "work up" has to do with the high paying career that it leads to. And it is, undeniably, all that it's "worked up" to be in that regard.

I agree with the rest of what you've said in terms of splitting the time/effort to do both well. However, the OP may decide after a semester of shadowing and volunteering that medicine just isn't that great of a gig for them. There are 2 sides to this coin.

For big oil, typically 1 internship with them or a co-op is sufficient with the requisite 3.2-3.4+ gpa.

 

[touchpause13]

I wouldn’t suggest it unless you are positive you can get excellent grades. For most ppl they are just trying to stay above a 3.0 honestly. ChemE is so so much work and I agree with ChemEngMD that prepping for a career as a ChemE requires a whole different track of ECs than premed does. Mr. Tp did a coop, 2 summer internships, was a finalist in the car thing (I'm assuming at least some of you know what I'm talking about with that) There is just no way he would have had time to do Premed ECs on top of it. If you really think you can pull it off, more power to you, i just don't know why anyone would want to

 

[ChemEngMD]

Did you ever work as a ChemE? Most of the "work up" has to do with the high paying career that it leads to. And it is, undeniably, all that it's "worked up" to do be in that regard.

I agree with the rest of what you've said in terms of splitting the time/effort to do both well. However, the OP may decide after a semester of shadowing and volunteering that medicine just isn't that great of a gig for them. There are 2 sides to this coin.

For big oil, typically 1 internship with them or a co-op is sufficient with the requisite 3.2-3.4+ gpa.

Sufficient yes, but things are getting much more competitive in ChemE as they are in all fields. You might make the cut for an interview with a co-op and a 3.2, but you'll need some quality ECs (leadership, potentially relevant research, etc.) to land a position, because these kids are starting to do more to be competitive.

And no I never worked beyond my co-op - I did my co-op (total for 8 months), was offered a position and decided I could not do that with my life.

 

[collegerer]

I'm sorry but any other major in my opinion isn't worth having. Being a bio major is useless, being a chem major is useless. You will not get employment unless you do further studies (masters and phd). I could easily be a chemistry major and do very well in it but what if med school doesn't happen? then what? I don't want to do anything with chemistry its my favorite subject however. I just enjoy studying it. I think its possible to be a ChemE premed but ChemEngMD is really saying to put all your chips into either being both a doctor and a chemical engineer. I think that's foolish because theres always a chance of failure. 60 percent of applicants are rejected from medical school. If I Am part of that 60 percent I want a fallback career which I wouldn't mind. Engineering majors ARE accepted to medical school. If engineering majors are not the best idea then how come you don't see a medical school class full of chemistry majors and bio majors? I mean they have the easiest time to get closest to a 4.0. Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

 

[ChemEngMD]

I'm sorry but any other major in my opinion isn't worth having. Being a bio major is useless, being a chem major is useless. You will not get employment unless you do further studies (masters and phd). I could easily be a chemistry major and do very well in it but what if med school doesn't happen? then what? I don't want to do anything with chemistry its my favorite subject however. I just enjoy studying it. I think its possible to be a ChemE premed but ChemEngMD is really saying to put all your chips into either being both a doctor and a chemical engineer. I think that's foolish because theres always a chance of failure. 60 percent of applicants are rejected from medical school. If I Am part of that 60 percent I want a fallback career which I wouldn't mind. Engineering majors ARE accepted to medical school. If engineering majors are not the best idea then how come you don't see a medical school class full of chemistry majors and bio majors? I mean they have the easiest time to get closest to a 4.0. Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

You do know that I have 2 engineering degrees and have been accepted to medical school right?

It is much better to be great at one thing than mediocre at multiple.

Just the words of an old non-trad trying to help you from falling down the same holes I did. I wanted to be a physician - parents thought that Chem or Bio degree would be useless, so I was pushed into ChemE and quickly realized that this is not the best way into med school.

If you want medical school bad enough, you'll get it. You'll do all of the ECs, you'll bust your ass for your GPA and MCAT and you will make getting in a priority. If not the first time then the second or the third. Get a degree in English Lit if that is what you love. Just do something you'll be happy with and you can keep your GPA up with.

Go for it man - but don't be surprised when the engineering thing doesn't make you stand out as much as you thought. I was at a second look event yesterday and in a room of 15 of us - 5 of us had engineering degrees lol (most were BME though so that is a bit more directly applicable to medicine).

 

[HopefulReapp]

The only way it could really benefit you is if you have a good answer to how the engineering background will allow you to excel in the medical setting. Beyond that, I somewhat regret my engineering major with where I ended up (medical school.) I would have had more time to dedicate to classes, extracurriculars, and the MCAT had I just been a biology major. I would have been bored, though.

 

[HopefulReapp]

You do know that I have 2 engineering degrees and have been accepted to medical school right?

It is much better to be great at one thing than mediocre at multiple.

Just the words of an old non-trad trying to help you from falling down the same holes I did. I wanted to be a physician - parents thought that Chem or Bio degree would be useless, so I was pushed into ChemE and quickly realized that this is not the best way into med school.

If you want medical school bad enough, you'll get it. You'll do all of the ECs, you'll bust your ass for your GPA and MCAT and you will make getting in a priority. If not the first time then the second or the third. Get a degree in English Lit if that is what you love. Just do something you'll be happy with and you can keep your GPA up with.

Go for it man - but don't be surprised when the engineering thing doesn't make you stand out as much as you thought. I was at a second look event yesterday and in a room of 15 of us - 5 of us had engineering degrees lol (most were BME though so that is a bit more directly applicable to medicine).

I had to fit an extra 32 credits on top of my already full schedule in four years to take all of the medical school prereqs. YMMV based off of the school!

 

[collegerer]

ChemEngMD, I know you are trying to help me and I truly respect that. I apologize if I sound like I totally disagree with because you make valid points. I know it's not the easiest route but did you switch out of your cheme major or you stuck with it?

 

[kittykattat]

ChemEngMD, I know you are trying to help me and I truly respect that. I apologize if I sound like I totally disagree with because you make valid points. I know it's not the easiest route but did you switch out of your cheme major or you stuck with it?

Considering he just said he has two engineering degrees I think its safe for you to assume he stuck with it...

 

[Aerus]

Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

Social Science majors have a higher rate of acceptance into medical school than STEM majors. Yes, there is a lot of self-selection, which leads me to believe that major doesn't really make as much of a difference as you say it does. Yes, a 3.9+ in an engineering field will definitely wow people, but your 3.2 GPA in ChemEng isn't going to be equated with a 3.6+ other major just because it's engineering.

 

[dechristine]

I'm sorry but any other major in my opinion isn't worth having. Being a bio major is useless, being a chem major is useless. You will not get employment unless you do further studies (masters and phd). I could easily be a chemistry major and do very well in it but what if med school doesn't happen? then what? I don't want to do anything with chemistry its my favorite subject however. I just enjoy studying it. I think its possible to be a ChemE premed but ChemEngMD is really saying to put all your chips into either being both a doctor and a chemical engineer. I think that's foolish because theres always a chance of failure. 60 percent of applicants are rejected from medical school. If I Am part of that 60 percent I want a fallback career which I wouldn't mind. Engineering majors ARE accepted to medical school. If engineering majors are not the best idea then how come you don't see a medical school class full of chemistry majors and bio majors? I mean they have the easiest time to get closest to a 4.0. Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

If you're looking for a major with a good fallback plan, you should also consider mathematics or physics. At my school, there's also a biomedical physics major, which obviously has more premed requirements built in to the major as well as interesting upperclass medical physics classes. Both mathematics and physics majors can usually enter industry jobs after graduating and I think that mathematics majors in particular are paid well in finance jobs. I'm not sure how particularly interested you'd be in that, though.

Also random anecdote, I have a chemie friend who wanted to be premed but after taking Organic Chemistry, now wants to work in the pharmaceutical industry. You never know!

 

[State27]

Current sophomore in ChemE. Just get one B a semester and you'll hold a 3.75+.

A friend of mine just finished medical school and he was a ChemE and told me he was accepted at 7 schools 4 years ago.

The hardest thing to come to terms with, at least at my school, is that classes get mucher harder towards junior and senior year so it can become difficult to show an upward trend in GPA.

 

[Contr0lz]

Current sophomore in ChemE. Just get one B a semester and you'll hold a 3.75+.

A friend of mine just finished medical school and he was a ChemE and told me he was accepted at 7 schools 4 years ago.

The hardest thing to come to terms with, at least at my school, is that classes get mucher harder towards junior and senior year so it can become difficult to show an upward trend in GPA.

QFT. Make sure you overload and finish all your pre-med reqs/math classes (Diff Eq, Linear Algebra) by the end of your sophomore year. Take it real easy the last two years of college (~15 credits avg.) and you'll do just fine! Just don't be a lunatic and start taking 21 credits during your junior/senior year. I'm just a freshman ChE, but I have been told by numerous upperclassmen that this is the trick to doing well in an engineering/premed curriculum.

 

[Mel Belle]

I'm sorry but any other major in my opinion isn't worth having. Being a bio major is useless, being a chem major is useless. You will not get employment unless you do further studies (masters and phd). I could easily be a chemistry major and do very well in it but what if med school doesn't happen? then what? I don't want to do anything with chemistry its my favorite subject however. I just enjoy studying it. I think its possible to be a ChemE premed but ChemEngMD is really saying to put all your chips into either being both a doctor and a chemical engineer. I think that's foolish because theres always a chance of failure. 60 percent of applicants are rejected from medical school. If I Am part of that 60 percent I want a fallback career which I wouldn't mind. Engineering majors ARE accepted to medical school. If engineering majors are not the best idea then how come you don't see a medical school class full of chemistry majors and bio majors? I mean they have the easiest time to get closest to a 4.0. Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

These majors that you're bashing right now you know absolutely nothing about. Biology is the typical route. Okay, great. But chemistry and biochemistry have their own difficult higher-level classes AND chemistry/biochemistry also do quite a lot to up your critical thinking skills. A 4.0 isn't as "easy" as you like to think it is in chemistry. There's absolutely no need to go bashing other majors just because you don't want to pursue them. You act as though ChemE is the golden ticket into medical school. You're not any more special than the rest of us.

 

[ChEMD]

These majors that you're bashing right now you know absolutely nothing about. Biology is the typical route. Okay, great. But chemistry and biochemistry have their own difficult higher-level classes AND chemistry/biochemistry also do quite a lot to up your critical thinking skills. A 4.0 isn't as "easy" as you like to think it is in chemistry. There's absolutely no need to go bashing other majors just because you don't want to pursue them. You act as though ChemE is the golden ticket into medical school. You're not any more special than the rest of us.

If you read what he said, you'll notice he did not say chemistry was super easy and didn't use critical thinking skills. What he did say was it is very difficult to get a job (outside of teaching) with an undergraduate chemistry/biology degree, which is true. As a chem e major who had to take most of the chemistry major classes and ChE classes, I'll tell you first hand that the chemistry classes were easier on a whole. Were they easy? No, of course not. Easier? Yes.

OP, if you want to major in chem e, go for it. It's not going to be easy to maintain a good GPA, but it is definitely doable. And earlier in the thread it was definitely overstated as to what it takes to get a job out college with a chem e degree. All you really need is a summer internship and to do well in your classes. You'll have ample time to do all of the volunteering and whatever else you want to do, plus the internship will look good on med school apps anyways as something different than the traditional pre-med ECs (not everything you do has to be related to medicine). Most of the people in this thread did not major in chem e, and honestly are probably threatened by the idea that adcoms really do consider your major when you are applying. Now a degree in chem e won't make up for a really low GPA, but it will make you different than most of the other applicants. Bottom line: if you are genuinely interested in chem e and think you can do well in it, go for it. It will be a nice fallback if you decide not to go to medical school. Also, if you decide that you don't like chem e, it's probably much easier to change to being a chemistry major than vice versa.

 

[Mel Belle]

If you read what he said, you'll notice he did not say chemistry was super easy and didn't use critical thinking skills. What he did say was it is very difficult to get a job (outside of teaching) with an undergraduate chemistry/biology degree, which is true. As a chem e major who had to take most of the chemistry major classes and ChE classes, me'll tell you first hand that the chemistry classes were easeir on a whole. Were they easy? No, of course not. Easeir? Yes.

I have a feeling that you completely looked over the fact that he was saying how much easier it is to get a 4.0 in those classes. Also, if you look at my post again, I didn't use the term "super easy" anywhere.

As a side note, this AF's word swapping crap is really annoying.

 

[moisne]

Hey Everyone I'm new to these forums and I'm going to enter university next year as a ChemE on the pre med track. Most of the classes that ChemEs take fall in line with pre med reqs and I know its going to be a lot of work and I'm ready. I'm very math and science oriented and like to know that in case med school doesn't work out I have a career to fall back on.

Has there been any successful ChemE majors to Medical Schools?
I read somewhere that Med schools do in fact take the rigor of your major into account, is this true or false?


Any other opinions on my major are greatly appreciated. Thank you

-Future MD.

I was exactly like you. I did chem E because I was strong in math and science but I hated chemE. It's not really "chemistry" like I imagined from AP chem. my degree GPA was way more than overall GPA (apparently I suck at English and can't even remember my own birth day half of the time so that tells you how I did in history classes).

I was offered a starting salary of some crazy amount, I didn't like what I was doing so I quit and entered academia. I was just accepted to Med school. I will be super sad to leave academia.

Med schools didn't care too much about the rigor. They cared more about why I went into academia after working for an oil company.

If you are truly good at math and science - chem E will be you best bet at getting a good GPA and job security.

 

[ChEMD]

I was exactly like you. I did chem E because I was strong in math and science but I hated chemE. It's not really "chemistry" like I imagined from AP chem. my degree GPA was way more than overall GPA (apparently I suck at English and can't even remember my own birth day half of the time so that tells you how I did in history classes).

I was offered a starting salary of some crazy amount, I didn't like what I was doing so I quit and entered academia. I was just accepted to Med school. I will be super sad to leave academia.

Med schools didn't care too much about the rigor. They cared more about why I went into academia after working for an oil company.

If you are truly good at math and science - chem E will be you best bet at getting a good GPA and job security.

This is right on the money. Chem e was definitely much different than I expected coming out of high school. It's much more math than I expected and way too many ways to calculate how stuff flows through pipes lol.

 

[Lucca]

I'm sorry but any other major in my opinion isn't worth having. Being a bio major is useless, being a chem major is useless. You will not get employment unless you do further studies (masters and phd). I could easily be a chemistry major and do very well in it but what if med school doesn't happen? then what? I don't want to do anything with chemistry its my favorite subject however. I just enjoy studying it. I think its possible to be a ChemE premed but ChemEngMD is really saying to put all your chips into either being both a doctor and a chemical engineer. I think that's foolish because theres always a chance of failure. 60 percent of applicants are rejected from medical school. If I Am part of that 60 percent I want a fallback career which I wouldn't mind. Engineering majors ARE accepted to medical school. If engineering majors are not the best idea then how come you don't see a medical school class full of chemistry majors and bio majors? I mean they have the easiest time to get closest to a 4.0. Even though med schools say they don't care about the major I believe that's partly false since there IS diversity into choosing medical students based on their major.

I see you went to the rifle school of asking questions you've already answered to yourself.

 

[Nihsel101]

Hey Everyone I'm new to these forums and I'm going to enter university next year as a ChemE on the pre med track. Most of the classes that ChemEs take fall in line with pre med reqs and I know its going to be a lot of work and I'm ready. I'm very math and science oriented and like to know that in case med school doesn't work out I have a career to fall back on.

Has there been any successful ChemE majors to Medical Schools?
I read somewhere that Med schools do in fact take the rigor of your major into account, is this true or false?


Any other opinions on my major are greatly appreciated. Thank you

-Future MD.

It would be ok as long you get the core, pre-med required, class down. Plus Engineer major that wants to go to medical school is unique and some schools like in Florida like that because they want people of different backgrounds.

I am a chem major with a math minor and staying a year back to take more chem classes for the heck of it and boost my gpa little more after my sophomore shenanigans and being ill too much.

 

[collegerer]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

[moisne]

Here:
1. Get a 3.7+ GPA
2. During school year, do hospital volunteering
3. During school year, do research - research is applicable to both chemE and med school
4. During summers do internships (probably starting after you complete sophomore year)

Then apply to med school, if you don't get in - work for industry for a few years and then apply again :3

 

[touchpause13]

Here:
1. Get a 3.7+ GPA
2. During school year, do hospital volunteering
3. During school year, do research - research is applicable to both chemE and med school
4. During summers do internships (probably starting after you complete sophomore year)

Then apply to med school, if you don't get in - work for industry for a few years and then apply again :3

Lolwut

 

[moisne]

Lolwut

It covers both engineering experience and medical experience. :3

 

[Himmelblau]

Has there been any successful ChemE majors to Medical Schools?

I did ChemE, worked in the oil and gas industry for 4 years and am now in med school.

I found chemical engineering quite enjoyable – particularly the mathematical modelling component (although actually working as an engineer for a large company was not my thing). If you think you’ll like it too this will help you maintain a good GPA.

ChemE is also a good major because while at first glance a lot of the material does not seem relevant to medicine, much of it actually is and you’ll bring a unique insight to a lot of the pre-clinical med school course-work in this sense – especially in physiology. Eg. having an understanding of Non-Newtonian flow/rheology is useful for understanding the flow behaviour of blood, mass transfer underpins transport across biological membranes and lung and renal physiology, fluid dynamics is essential for understanding haemodynamics and CVS physiology, process control theory and heat transfer - homeostasis, thermodynamics – metabolism, kinetics & reactor theory is useful in pharmacokinetics (ADME).

Plus much of modern medical technology was created by or at least developed with the assistance of chemical engineers or ChE principles eg. haemodialysis, apheresis machines, cardio-pulmonary bypass machines, PCR, high performance liquid chromatography (used in diagnostics).

If you want to get a good idea of what ChE is like you should watch Channing Robertson’s (famous chemical engineering professor at Stanford) lecture videos on YouTube. There are a few lectures when he looks in detail at applications of chemical engineering to medicine – eg. design of an artificial kidney.

If you can keep on top of the coursework I would highly recommend it. Apart from biomedical engineering (which has poor job prospects if med school doesn’t work out for you) it’s probably the best pre-med engineering degree you could do. Good luck.

 

[DokterMom]

Your thought process is logical and makes a lot of sense. I think what the other posters are saying though is that at some point, probably much sooner than you think, you'll have to choose either the pre-med or professional engineering path and devote your time and energy into succeeding on that path. That it's certainly possible to switch course, but that trying to do both well at the same time is not realistic.

So go ahead and start out as a ChemE major. If you like it and get excellent grades, do some research, some shadowing, an engineering internship -- hedge your bets so long as your grades don't start to fall. But the second they do, choose one path - Med or Eng - and ruthlessly focus your efforts on succeeding in that one discipline.

 

[Himmelblau]

at some point, probably much sooner than you think, you'll have to choose either the pre-med or professional engineering path and devote your time and energy into succeeding on that path. That it's certainly possible to switch course, but that trying to do both well at the same time is not realistic.

I agree. Bear in mind though that you should be able to finish a ChE degree with all the pre-med requirements and still be able to land a decent job in industry if things don’t work out. Companies don’t really care if you did pre-med – they’ll still hire you so long as you have the piece of paper that says engineering degree.

Although doing all the volunteering, shadowing, research and other things needed for med school application will eat up a lot of your time and could be a bit of waste. But if you keep your grades up you shouldn’t have any problem getting an engineering job and transitioning back to a professional engineering career path should med school not work out for you.

But yes keeping your GPA up is the key.

 

[911 Turbo]

Why not do petroleum engineering instead of chemical?

 

[Himmelblau]

Why not do petroleum engineering instead of chemical?

There a few docs who did petro eng and somehow made the transition - I read about a neurosurgeon somewhere. I wouldn't advise it though if you have med school in mind. Too specialised - contrary to what alot of people think petro engineers are not just chemical engineers who work in the oil and gas industry - it focuses on stuff like drilling engineering, field development planning & economics, reservoir engineering - interesting but very narrow scope and preparing you for a particular profession in a particular industry. Plus you'll probably not be able to cover all the pre-reqs. Hard to squeeze bio into a petro eng degree. Plus ChE gives you much broader job opportunities across many different industries other than oil/gas and can get you into some lab based research work that is relevant to medicine - eg. tissue engineering, bioengineering, drug development, nanotech etc etc

 

[alamo4]

Thanks for all the replies folks! I think I could do Chemical Engineering its right up my niche. Although I've never really built anything in high school it certainly sounds very interesting!

Presumably you are going to have to take some intro physics, intro chemistry, some intro math, and maybe some sort of general design classes before you even get close to deciding if you like electrical, mechanical, aerospace, etc. Your school might even have a bioengineering program, or a bioengineering focus to another, broader discipline (like mechE or chemE might have a bioE "track") which you like more and help you include some of the bio courses you need to take for premed. Or maybe you will want to do computer science. CS would probably maximize your career options and non-medical career outlook, and that is part of the frontier of biomedical research.

As noted, Channing Robertson is a legend at Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgWNQVdhE9A

 

[mizzu]

All those who said chemE was hard... They lacked a super strong math skill/foundation.

ChemE is a breeze if math is practically your primary language

 

[xnfs93hy]

I'm a ChemE major and would find it very difficult to squeeze in all of the medical school stuff on top of all of the ChemE stuff. I'd have no time to breathe. I agree with @ChemEngMD. The degree itself isn't difficult for me, but then again I'm very good at math and science. The classes alone eat up a lot of your time. If you think that you can do both, then I wish you luck. I couldn't do it all. There aren't enough hours in the day and I like sleep, too.

 

[Himmelblau]

All those who said chemE was hard... They lacked a super strong math skill/foundation.

ChemE is a breeze if math is practically your primary language

You won't get a 4.0 in ChE just by being able to derive Reynold's Transport Theorem or the Navier-Stokes equations from first principles. Chemical process design requires a great deal of creativity, problem solving and tenacity - especially when it comes to process simulation. Good qualities to market yourself on for med school in fact. Therefore, you should be under no illusions that ChE will be easy - even if you eat Partial Differential Equations and Laplace Transforms for breakfast.

 

[mizzu]

You won't get a 4.0 in ChE just by being able to derive Reynold's Transport Theorem or the Navier-Stokes equations from first principles. Chemical process design requires a great deal of creativity, problem solving and tenacity - especially when it comes to process simulation. Good qualities to market yourself on for med school in fact. Therefore, you should be under no illusions that ChE will be easy - even if you eat Partial Differential Equations and Laplace Transforms for breakfast.

Well it worked for me :/ and I'm not even smart...

 

[deleted380953]

If you're looking for a major with a good fallback plan, you should also consider mathematics or physics. At my school, there's also a biomedical physics major, which obviously has more premed requirements built in to the major as well as interesting upperclass medical physics classes. Both mathematics and physics majors can usually enter industry jobs after graduating and I think that mathematics majors in particular are paid well in finance jobs. I'm not sure how particularly interested you'd be in that, though.

Also random anecdote, I have a chemie friend who wanted to be premed but after taking Organic Chemistry, now wants to work in the pharmaceutical industry. You never know!

Ehh, I majored in physics. Just as an anecdote, I applied for a bunch of jobs in my gap year. Application was put on hold/rejected for most of them. Ended up getting an unpaid spot at a lab. I wouldn't say it's all that easy to enter industry in general.



Well, maybe it is for eng majors..

 

[mizzu]

Ehh, I majored in physics. Just as an anecdote, I applied for a bunch of jobs in my gap year. Application was put on hold/rejected for most of them. Ended up getting an unpaid spot at a lab. I wouldn't say it's all that easy to enter industry in general.



Well, maybe it is for eng majors..

Your physics - that's why. Job market is tough on pure science majors (bio/chem/physics/math)

 

[GoNoles1]

The original poster seems pretty set on going the chemical engineering route, but I would strongly recommend against it. I majored in biomedical/chemical engineering (it's a joint program at my university) and it was probably one of the worst I've made. To go to medical school then you need to be 100% dedicated to it, choosing engineering because your afraid you won't make it into medical school is a poor decision. It is important to realize that this major intentionally tries to weed people out because of the relatively high salary with a bachelors degree, if you know you want to go to medical school why would you make it that much harder for yourself.

 

[deleted380953]

Your physics - that's why. Job market is tough on pure science majors (bio/chem/physics/math)

Yep, That's what I'm getting at. @dechristine said that physics majors can usually enter the workforce with what they have. In my experience and from what I've heard, that's not really true, unless you get that Ph.D.

I'm not too familiar with the mathematics side

 

[dechristine]

@stigus I'm not sure what jobs you were looking for and I'm probably in a bit of a different situation than you are because my university is very big on co-ops. A lot of defense and robotics companies (Raytheon, Boeing, etc.) like to hire physics majors for co-ops and after they graduate so ymmv. I know that a lot of my math major friends are going on actuary co-ops that pay very well.