Career Changer Engineer - Input Sought on SMP

[TheDreamingDog]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on the forum but I've been lurking on here for quite some time.

I was just curious to get your input on whether I should be planning on attending an SMP or not. I had a pretty rough start to college back when I was 18. Essentially, I earned a stream of F's by enrolling in classes and then, not attending or dropping them. After maturing a bit (read: a lot!), I went on to earn almost straight A's for the rest of my education.

My GPA stats are:

221 Credits
2.95023 cGPA
3.79578 cGPA on last 142 Credits

My calculations reveal that I'll be at around 3.1- 3.15 cGPA when I finish the prerequisite courses with straight A's and my grades show a clear upward trend (more of a piece-wise trend if you ask the engineer side of me ).

I'm dead set on changing my career to be a physician. After settling on the engineering career and extracting precisely zero fulfillment from my job and performing exactly zero good deeds in my work, I'm looking to do things right the second time around. As such, this question is really just a matter of adjusting my expectations of when I'll be matriculating. Should I settle in for the long haul of post-bacc+SMP? What do the vets around here think?

Thanks in advance!

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[curbsideconsult]

Do you have any prereqs at all under your belt? Are you older than 25? 30? 35? Older?

 

[TheDreamingDog]

Hi there! I do have all of them except organic chemistry. I ended up finishing a BS in mechanical engineering with a minor in math and got summa cum laude. I was also a biology major before that. I was thinking it would be a good idea to go back to square one and retake all of the prerequisites plus some additional courses. What do you think?

I did all of the calculations for AMCAS and here are my numbers:

2.4 cGPA BCPM / 96 credits (last 39 credits at 4.0)
3.4 cGPA AO / 125 credits (last 100 credits at 3.81)
2.95 cGPA / 221 credits (last 122 credits at 3.87)

 

[TheDreamingDog]

Oh, and sorry to miss your other question. I'm 32 right now and I've been working as an engineer for quite some time. I was actually planning on sitting for the PE test sometime soon. I'd like to have it for the future to possibly participate in some fun things.

 

[curbsideconsult]

My apologies, I didn't see that you said you were finishing up prereqs in your OP.

This is a strange case because I don't think many people go from < 2.0 GPA to 4.0. Clearly it's a strong upward trend, but your overall sGPA is 2.4. A plus for you is that you have a significant amount of time that's passed between undergrad and now.

So are all your prereq grades from senior year or before that? If before that, you should retake those classes. You don't necessarily have to do a formal program. You can take those classes while you work (it's nice to have money).

What have done since your revelation that you want to do medicine to show that you really want to do it?

 

[DocJanItor]

So you're basically in the same situation I was in 3 years ago. BS ME, low GPA, determined to become a doctor.

My starting GPA was lower than yours but I didn't have quite as many credits loading me down. Nevertheless, it would've taken forever to get above a 3.0 and it would've been a huge waste of time for very little return.

An SMP is really going to be your only option at this point. If you can get your GPA above a 3.0 before you apply then that will help you to avoid the need for a GPA waiver (most grad schools require one for those who apply < 3.0). It's not a huge deal if you can't, but you'll need a great MCAT as well as solid pre-req grades to show them that you can perform.

Also, BCPM isn't strict about the course inclusions. I put thermo, fluids, etc. in BCPM because at the end of the day it's just physics and math.

Good luck, and feel free to reach out.

 

[TheDreamingDog]

Thanks so much for the help. This is still in the beginning stages so I'm not currently enrolled in any classes. I'm planning on starting those this summer. By my calculations, I can get the sGPA up to 3.0 and the cGPA up to 3.2 if I do 60 hours of BCPM work at a 4.0.

I had some volunteer and clinical experience from about a decade ago but nothing is recent. This is where I was thinking I need to quit my job and find something part-time. I have about $60k in savings, some in retirement vehicles, that I can use if I need to. That way, I can really focus on getting competitive quickly by getting like a CNA job, volunteering, and studying.

Do you think after all of this I'll still need to do an SMP?

 

[TheDreamingDog]

@DocJanItor

Good call. I put all of the ME courses under AO with the exception of Thermo. If I change that, my BCPM will go "way up" to like 2.8. I agree with your thinking; just wasn't sure how strict they'd be with it.

So what's going on with you right now? It sounds like you're doing an SMP. Are you enrolled now?

 

[TheDreamingDog]

If I'm generous with what I reclassify to BCPM, I get:

Better.

 

[DocJanItor]

Graduated from the SMP and accepted into the affiliated medical school. 3/4 of the way through M1 right now.

Based upon your calculations, spending more time in undergrad padding your GPA would be a waste of time. 60 credits is 2 years of full time coursework, which is obviously ridiculous. The individual GPAs don't really matter as much as the cGPA. You're pretty consistent across the board at slightly sub 3.0. If you can get your cGPA over 3.0 with 15-20 credits then I'd say go for it.

You absolutely need volunteering and shadowing before you're ready to apply. A few hundred hours of volunteering helping the underserved is the minimum and more always looks better. Shadowing you'll need at least 40 hours. And you'll need LORs from professors, doctors, etc.

I'd try to keep working if your job isn't super demanding. The income stream will always help and it will also help keep your time broken up. If it's too hard to balance everything then obviously think about quitting. Your number one goal right now should be MCAT prep and scoring in the 90+ percentile (you're an engineer, it should be relatively easy ).