Any Engineers Applying this Year?

[Neha4000]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi All,

I just graduated, and I'll be working as an engineer this year while applying to schools. Any engineers who are applying to med schools during this cycle?

 

[Marvin O'Connor]

Hi,

I'm going to have my Master's in Chemical Eng. in August and I'll be working for a year before (hopefully) starting med school in 2005. Chalklette, I think that engineering majors are in general very difficult and dense. However, I have also seen many people who I didn't think would be able to finish the program finish it on nothing but hard work. So I would say an average student can make it in engineering (and I hear Chem Eng is the hardest one) if they are willing to work their butts off. Of course, I'm of the opinion that anyone can have anything if they work like hell to get it. Hope this helps.

 

[Mr. Obsessive]

I just graduated a couple of weeks ago with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. I've been accepted to Albany, waitlisted at UCONN, and interviewed with a decision pending at NYMC. Not my top choices but my application ran late and these were the only schools in my area that I could meet the deadlines. If you did any kind of senior design project, try to talk about it in your interview. My interviewers ate that stuff up. Not too many applicants are engineers, I think they enjoyed listening to something other than research about blah blah blah with specific concentration in the testing of blah blah blah (not that I'm bashing anyone would did an extensive amount of research).

 

[sacrament]

Hi,

I'm going to have my Master's in Chemical Eng. in August and I'll be working for a year before (hopefully) starting med school in 2005.

Hey Marvin, we took similar paths. I got my MS in ChemE and then worked for a year before starting school. Big props to another ChemE stud. (Are you bald and pasty white, btw? Maybe we're separated twins.)

 

[Buddha]

I was a mechanical engineer. Got the B.S. and M.S. and did a little work here and there in private sector, academia, and startup. I'll be going to UC Davis this year.

 

[jxu66]

If you want to do pre-med, try to avoid engineering school. Engineering school in general don't have GPA inflation. I went to a top five engineering school. Average student GPA of that school is 2.76 and 3.0 is dean list. In order to competitive with MD school, one needs 3.6 GPA. Less than 5% of my graduating class have that high.

 

[MechE]

I am a mechanical engineering senior at the University of Oklahoma. I took the MCAT last April and I?m still waiting on the results. I?ll be graduating in Spring 2005 and hopefully start medical school in Fall 2005. I was always told from admissions people that engineers usually have a high acceptance rate to medical schools since they are smart, extremely hard working and can work well under a lot of stress. Although it is very tough to keep a decent GPA.

 

[SoonerMed]

Keep the faith. I just got accepted out of U. of Oklahoma with Mech E. It's a bit tougher to get into medical school unless you bust your tail and complete the degree AND you are able to get some serious quality patient contact, but it's worth it if you plan to carry the hard work and dedication you have developed into medical school.

 

[menemotxi]

I just graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and will be attending Emory in Fall 2005 (They let me defer my acceptance for a year). Like Mr. Obsessive said, talk about senior design. My interviewers loved hearing about it. I think being an engineer helps a lot during the application cycle, since we stand out from all the regular science majors.

Do all you can to get some patient contact though. I had hardly any and lots of interviewers told me that was my one weak point. It's just hard when you have to work your a$$ off all the time to keep up with school.

Good Luck with everything.

 

[berriesarie]

I just graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering and will be attending med school in the fall. I found most of the Adcomm's were impressed with an engineering degree, even though I didn't have a "high" gpa I didn't feel disadvantaged. Enginnering does give you a distinct advantage, and can be a sort of "excuse" if you don't have stellar grades. Additionally, I think there is a great deal of problem solving involved with engineering that pure sciences don't have and that's a great advantage in med school where you will be expected to solve medical cases that don't present themselves in straight foward ways.

 

[NDESTRUKT]

i graduated with a BS in MechE and have been working for 2 years now...but i applied after working 1 year. i just got my MS in SystemsE (the easiest engineering masters i could find that my company would pay for) and will be going this fall to med schoolio.

if i can do it, anyone...seriously anyone can.

 

[tontondavid]

Got a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and will be going to UC Davis or Georgetown (if I get off the stupid waitlist).
I also worked for almost three years at a wirless comm. company.

Cheers...

 

[nascentdoc]

Good luck to all with the application process! I just had a quick question for you guys. Why medicine? This, evidently, is a profession that differs a lot from your original career path. Is it because engineering gets boring?

 

[Mr. Obsessive]

It was always my intention to get into medicine. I just wanted a degree with some weight to it if I didn't get into medical school. No offence, but you can't do very much with a B.S. in a biological science.

 

[nascentdoc]

It was always my intention to get into medicine. I just wanted a degree with some weight to it if I didn't get into medical school. No offence, but you can't do very much with a B.S. in a biological science.

True that. I majored in biochem., a relatively difficult subject that was not gonna get me anywhere. I absolutely dettest being stuck in a lab, so my diploma would have been good for only one thing...

 

[NonTradMed]

I fear posting in here but my degree was Computer Science which is offered throughthe engineering school at our school, I know other schools offer it through the math dept. I almost majored in Computer Engineering but didn't like hardware.

Unfortunately, engineering classes are rarely easy, I believe the average GPA at our engineering school is around a 3.2 or so.

I did this b/c I liked programming, and I decided college was a time to experiment (in different areas of study 😉) so I did something that had nothing to do with medicine or the biological sciences. Also, my parents were biologists and they strongly advised me against biology as an undergrad major, in part b/c by itself, the degree is not too popular in the job market for the amount of work you go through. As I review for the MCAT, I regret listening to them b/c I really enjoyed biology. All well, live and learn.

I had always wanted to go into medicine so I have plenty of experiences working/volunteering in the hospitals and I currently work in the healthcare field as an engineer.

Anyway, I am hoping that they will see my average GPA and take into account that I had some killer classes. It was not easy doing premed and engineering but I think if you are truly interested in other areas, go for it! You won't ever have this chance once you get into med school. 🙂

 

[jxu66]

I always want to go to Medical school. However, it is very difficult to do so when your parents don't make any money. Engineering is a way to make some quick money. Afterall, my coop job pretty much pay my college tuition.

I don't know that's true or not. But it seems that most of my engineering classmates don't exactly come from wealthy family.

 

[anthoncr]

I got my B.S. in engineering. It's a great way to build up a financial "war chest" but I had to bust my ass for a 3.5. Unfortunately grades matter for medical school, and they'll be the first to tell you your major doesn't.

OHSU class of 2008, engineer for 7 years

 

[NDESTRUKT]

that financial war chest you're talking about? i guess it's all going toward the war in fighting med school tuition which i BARELY passed the mark for all four years...it's gonna be sad seeing the bank account deplete slowly like a small leak in the bucket.

 

[R@j]

I'm an engineer applying this year too. I just graduated from Duke with a triple major in EE/BME/CS. One of the hardest things during my four years was trying to fit in humanity classes with all the ridiculous engineering requirements. Somehow I pulled off a Political Science minor though.

 

[MITkid111]

I am an engineer as well (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering). As i took my last semester I laugh that the average student on this board thinks that ochem and pchem are the hardest classes they have taken. I just finished my operating systems class and compiler class, and i am sure these classes are at least twice as hard as anything they have seen. As far as average GPA's... it is a 2.7 at my school. All classes set the average at a C+/B- with no more than 25% A/A-. In industry, the only number that means anything is 3.5. A lot of companies (mostly government contractors) screen for all engineers who are above 3.5 (this is mostly because the interviewers are SOOO clueless they need some backup). However, at Microsoft among others, they didn't ask for my grades at any point in the process. It puts engineers in a tough spot regarding grades becaues they do not mean much to employers or the professors for that matter. The grade inflation i saw in my bio classes is sickening. THey would drop the lowest midterm (disgrace) of two and then have two curves...one with both midterms and one with the lowest dropped, and you got the max grade between those. I bet the avreage grade in this class was a b+/a-.
If the med schools don't want to take the GPA of an engineer into consideration, that is there problem.

 

[Mr. Obsessive]

I am an engineer as well (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering). As i took my last semester I laugh that the average student on this board thinks that ochem and pchem are the hardest classes they have taken. I just finished my operating systems class and compiler class, and i am sure these classes are at least twice as hard as anything they have seen. As far as average GPA's... it is a 2.7 at my school. All classes set the average at a C+/B- with no more than 25% A/A-. In industry, the only number that means anything is 3.5. A lot of companies (mostly government contractors) screen for all engineers who are above 3.5 (this is mostly because the interviewers are SOOO clueless they need some backup). However, at Microsoft among others, they didn't ask for my grades at any point in the process. It puts engineers in a tough spot regarding grades becaues they do not mean much to employers or the professors for that matter. The grade inflation i saw in my bio classes is sickening. THey would drop the lowest midterm (disgrace) of two and then have two curves...one with both midterms and one with the lowest dropped, and you got the max grade between those. I bet the avreage grade in this class was a b+/a-.
If the med school don't want to take the GPA of an engineer into consideration, that is there problem.

Here here MITkid111. I totally get you. I don't know if I'm being optomistic, but I have a feeling med school won't be nearly as difficult as my major; not a lot of critical thinking, just mostly memorization.

 

[microTAS]

ChE here. Surprisingly, my engineering GPA is higher than my total, science, and humanities GPA. Engineering requires two things: math skills and lots of time. Unfortunately the time requirement is a pain for premeds who need to do other things

 

[TarHokie_08]

This has been an interesting thread. Still, though, I think it will be hard to compare engineering school to medical school. In engineering school all I did was solve problems and try to figure out how what was discussed in class could be used to figure out my stupid projects and homework. I have no idea how I will fare with all of the memorization of medical school.

What is good about having the engineering background is the fact that we've already been in a pretty tough program and understand what kind of committment it takes to get through a demanding degree. We may have that advantage over our classmates, at least for the first semester or so. After that, the non-engineers will be in the groove (hopefully we will be too!!!).

 

[The JockDoc]

I'm an engineer applying this year too. I just graduated from Duke with a triple major in EE/BME/CS. One of the hardest things during my four years was trying to fit in humanity classes with all the ridiculous engineering requirements. Somehow I pulled off a Political Science minor though.

Sounds like you majored in BS to me.

 

[BaseballFan]

Good luck to this year's engineers applying to med school.

I was an engineering student, worked for a year while applying, and will be starting med school this fall.

In all of my interviews, my engineering background was mentioned by my interviewers. It was always a plus factor in my application, according to my interviewers.

My advice to you is to make sure you have enough extra-curricular activities which show compassion/empathy/patient interaction to counteract the inevitable questions about engineers being able to interact with people.

PM me if you have any questions.