2 Years Off...What to Do?

[Eschafer]

Hi everyone,

So I will be a senior electrical engineering major starting in the fall and have made the decision to take the remaining pre-reqs and apply to med school. It looks like I will have 2 years off so I was weighing my options and thought I'd ask for your opinion. My options are:

1. Take an engineering job in healthcare. I am currently interning for a large healthcare company. If given an offer, I could work there for two years on x-ray, flouroscopy, mammo systems etc.
Pros: Make more money to pay off undergrad debt and save for med school while still staying in healthcare field.
Cons: Will likely be working 50+ hours a week for these first two years making it hard to find time for studying/taking the MCATs and the application process.

2. Apply to a master's program in ee/biomed. While I wouldn't be looking for it to boost my gpa, staying in school would likely help me focus more on studying for the MCATs. Also either degree would likely help in the future as medical technology grows. Major con: I would be paying another $40k/year unless I applied for funding through PhD program and then stopped after getting the Masters (which is a little too unethical).

3. Something more service related, such as Teach for America/ACE. These programs look interesting but again take a lot of time and do not pay well, which is a big practical concern. However, I do lack volunteering experience as I have been pretty busy with engineering classes/internships in the past.

4. Take a job with another healthcare company in my home state. Similar to #1, except I would be looking for the job in Massachusetts. Having the chance to apply to Umass Worcester is a big factor here because it seems to be a great deal for the cost. Again similar pro's and con's would apply as in #1 except I may have more free if I could find a less time consuming position.


Any advice or suggestions?

Thank you.

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[engineeredout]

Im going to be a senior in chem engineering this fall but only gonna take one year off (hopefully). do you really need two years?
I

 

[dd128]

How's your science and overall gpa? That could be fairly important in deciding whether to go to grad school. As for the job, it's good to pay off debt and have a stable income, but working 50+ hours/week while trying to find time to build up the clinical exerience and studying for the mcat could wreak havoc on your personal life. It definitely would not be impossible, but will also depend on your ability to retain all the info. Maybe you can find a stable job that is simply 9-5 type, where you have weekends and evening free to do what you need to.

 

[Eschafer]

Im going to be a senior in chem engineering this fall but only gonna take one year off (hopefully). do you really need two years?
I

I'm pretty sure I need the 2 years. I still have Orgo I/II and Bio I/II to take plus the lab for Chem II. I'll take those this year, take the MCATs next fall or spring so I'm not rushed to get the application in, and then apply the following cycle.

At our school I know chegs take orgo soph year so your likely ahead of me.

 

[engineeredout]

I'm pretty sure I need the 2 years. I still have Orgo I/II and Bio I/II to take plus the lab for Chem II. I'll take those this year, take the MCATs next fall or spring so I'm not rushed to get the application in, and then apply the following cycle.

At our school I know chegs take orgo soph year so your likely ahead of me.

Oh yeah good call, I keep forgetting I took all the premeds for cheme except bio

 

[Eschafer]

How's your science and overall gpa? That could be fairly important in deciding whether to go to grad school. As for the job, it's good to pay off debt and have a stable income, but working 50+ hours/week while trying to find time to build up the clinical exerience and studying for the mcat could wreak havoc on your personal life. It definitely would not be impossible, but will also depend on your ability to retain all the info. Maybe you can find a stable job that is simply 9-5 type, where you have weekends and evening free to do what you need to.

I should have mentioned this as a factor too. My overrall GPA is 3.64. However, that has been steadily increasing since freshmen year (~3.85 without freshmen year). As for the science GPA, do all science/math courses count toward this? I have taken up through Physics III and Differential Equations, so if all of these courses count my science GPA would be slightly above a 3.5.

That being said, I am not to concerned about where my GPA will be after undergrad. I know that freshmen year held me back with transitioning to college and getting caught up in the college partying atmosphere. Since becoming interested in pursuing medicine after freshmen year, my GPA has shown strong improvements and I am confident I can end with >3.7.

 

[dd128]

I should have mentioned this as a factor too. My overrall GPA is 3.64. However, that has been steadily increasing since freshmen year (~3.85 without freshmen year). As for the science GPA, do all science/math courses count toward this? I have taken up through Physics III and Differential Equations, so if all of these courses count my science GPA would be slightly above a 3.5.

That being said, I am not to concerned about where my GPA will be after undergrad. I know that freshmen year held me back with transitioning to college and getting caught up in the college partying atmosphere. Since becoming interested in pursuing medicine after freshmen year, my GPA has shown strong improvements and I am confident I can end with >3.7.

Your gpa would probably be fine if you can pull off a descent mcat score (yeah any science class is counted in bcpm). I guess if I were you I would only invest the extra money and time towards grad school if it's something you are genunitely interested in. That first job looks like it may give you some descent clinical exposure, and you could use the rest of your time for mcat studying, but you probably should get some volunteering experience if you have none. Don't underestimate the toll of working that many hours a week and how it will affect your will to study, no matter how dedicated you are right now.

 

[pianola]

My suggestion is that you add a poll to this post (it's at the bottom) and then you'll get more feedback.