Hello, this is my first time posting on here, please excuse me if this thread doesn't belong here or on this forum at all. I'm having a huge crisis right now, ruined my entire friday night and my entire Saturday, Sunday probably isn't forgiven either. My mom desperately wants me to enter the medical field and up until now i never told her i had interests elsewhere (electrical engineering) and I am wondering if it is possible to enter the realm of medicine four years from now as an electrical engineer? I looked up on my local medical school required courses and over half of them I am able to obtain credit for via credit by examination. I can surely rock the physics portion on the mcat (woop woop like an engineer). However the thing i am most fear are the lack of cohesion that I might show with medicine (shouldn't prospective med students be bio/chem/psych/etc. majors). So what I'm trying to get at here is that would it be possible for someone to get an engineering degree and enter medicine at the same time? Would being an engineer get me automatically rejected? Would I stand at a disadvantage against biology majors and the such? Should I just throw away all my plans I have for engineering and just take a biology major? Thanks for any replies !
A little conflict of interest crisis...Resolvable?
- Thread starter Xrocker
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I was an engineer before med school - that won't stop you from getting in. You will have to meet all the pre-req/GPA/MCAT/ECs standards required by traditional applicants.
I'm a bit confused - do you want to do medicine?
I'm a bit confused - do you want to do medicine?
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Of course this is resolvable. Calm down and think this through. Are you only choosing a path of medicine because of your mother? If so, you should re-evaluate. If this is what YOU really want, no being an engineer would certainly not get you automatically rejected. Plenty of engineering majors go into medicine. I suggest taking the pre-req courses at your school and keep your engineering major (since your real passion seems to be engineering). You will need to start gaining clinical experiences such as shadowing and volunteering, and get science LORs.
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Actually it's good that you realize now that you might not have a passion for medicine, going to medical school because of parental pressure is one of the WORST reasons for anyone to go. It produces medical students that don't care and often burn out with a ton of debt. Go the engineering route (which is one of the best undergrad majors especially starting salary wise) and afterwards if you feel like you might want to pursue medicine you can finish up the pre-reqs and apply later. Your major won't hold you back and you'll probably get some pre-reqs out of the way like Calc, Physics, etc if you wind up entering medicine. Also when you get electives you can coordinate them with the med school pre-reqs, so take things like psych, a few bio/chem courses, etc if you have the chance. Please please don't enter this field if you don't absolutely see yourself as anything other than a physician, you will seriously hate yourself and regret it.
Edit: As far as the original question, no - I think the engineering major might actually set you apart from the typical applicants. Biology is a boring major and adcoms aren't impressed by it, some of the best med students I currently know weren't even science majors, one did economics, the other philosophy. In the end it's your work ethic and dedication to succeed that really matter here.
Edit: As far as the original question, no - I think the engineering major might actually set you apart from the typical applicants. Biology is a boring major and adcoms aren't impressed by it, some of the best med students I currently know weren't even science majors, one did economics, the other philosophy. In the end it's your work ethic and dedication to succeed that really matter here.
Medicine has been hanging around in my head for a really long time, i used to think as a child to be both, however as a more wise college-bound HS senior, I had to painfully choose engineering over a med school related major. You can say i favor both almost equally. Unfortunate, this decision that I made, I hadn't consulted about it with my parent, which is why I'm having a crisis. Thanks for the deep and thoughtful replies everyone!
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By the time you apply the good folks at the University of Illinois will have officially opened a medical school designed to be "at the intersection of engineering and medicine." Food for thought! As for the engineering thing, it will certainly be more difficult to get a high GPA than somebody with a french or psychology major, but you won't be discriminated against. Also, it's a really solid backup in case you decide you don't want to go into medicine.
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This holds precedence over XYZ. Your parents interests should not be the determining factor in your career. Pursue whichever field you feel more passionate about. Naturally, that is where you will be capable of making the most significant contribution.
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Are you interested in Medicine just because your mom wants you to be a doctor?
This is a recipe for disaster.
We don't care what your major is, only that you did well, that you show evidence that you can be a good medical student, and more importantly, that you'll be a good doctor.
So don't even think about going down this path until you volunteer with patients, and shadow a doctor.
This is a recipe for disaster.
We don't care what your major is, only that you did well, that you show evidence that you can be a good medical student, and more importantly, that you'll be a good doctor.
So don't even think about going down this path until you volunteer with patients, and shadow a doctor.
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What @Goro said, plus keep your GPA high if you want to keep your options open.
