Considering optometry or med-school as an aerospace engineer

[dcb942]

Posted in other areas so delete if not allowed.

Hello. I am seriously considering med school or optometry but I am looking for advice and others in a similar situation. I currently work at NASA, I have an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Texas. My GPA was not the best, 3.1.

The day before I was to go to college in 2009 I found out that I had trigeminal schwannoma. I withdrew from college, had two surgeries to remove the tumor, and returned to college the next semester. The tumor left me with severe strabismus, asymetrical facial muscles, complete neuropathy due to trigeminal nerve damage, severe scars, and neurotrophic keratopathy to the left eye which left me with 20/400 vision. This left me depressed and I did not preform as well in school as I should have.

I had the strabismus corrected in college and things started to look up around my junior year. My last two years of college took my GPA from around 2.5 to 3.1. It was a clear upward trend and took a lot of work. I did well in all of my science courses. I had 3 internships at college at the same company, but I did not really enjoy the work.

I got a job at NASA coming out of college, which is surprising with the GPA that I had. I am very good at interviews and marketing myself. I worked as a ISS flight controller for two years. In this job training never ceased. I had to learn how to truly study, something which I never quite knew how to do in college. There were several tests, all of which were purely verbal in front of review boards. I had to learn to communicate, adapt, and maintain absolute situational awareness in high stress, team-based environments. Over my flight control career I had to partake in 50-60 intense 8 hour simulations. Within these simulations I was placed in situations that could have meant life or death to 6 astronauts, and/or the destruction of the most expensive piece of equipment ever built by man. Needless to say I learned several valuable skills that you cannot learn in many other places. Most importantly I learned how to prioritize and make choices that could have the ultimate consequence.

I was not that happy at this job. In the end it ended up being mostly paperwork. Not as glamorous as it sounded. I could see that I did not want to do this forever, and I honestly would not know what to do when the ISS reached its end of life. I felt as if there was no more room for learning. Some of it was interesting work, but it tied me to one geographic area and the pay was not great. I decided to change departments and transferred out of flight control to engineering. Again I found myself unhappy. Its a good paying job, but I cannot see myself working here forever. It is just not rewarding. I don't feel like I am helping anyone. I feel stagnant, and I desire to continue learning. I made the decision to go to some sort of graduate school. Currently I am planning on getting a masters degree in computer science, which I think I would like, but I am not sure.

I got married last year and just started building a house. I am only 26, so I do not feel like time is running out to go back to school. I have the financial resources to quit work and focus on medical school If I could get in. Throughout my experience with trigeminal schwannoma I was in and out of doctors offices, optometrists, plastic surgeons (I had facial implants to correct the asymmetrical facial muscles) etc. I found myself deeply interested in the eye. In fact I probably put my ophthalmologist's kids through school because I was in there so often. I believe I would be happy as an optometrist or ophthalmologist. I just do not know if I could get into med-school. I would need to go back to school to take pre-recs anyways. Assuming I did this and did well, say 3.8-4.0 GPA, what do you think my chances are at getting into med-school/optometry school? The kicker is that I cannot leave Texas. My wife and I love Texas and our families are close. Neither of us are willing to leave. Fortunately there are multiple med-schools and even an optometry school within driving distance of where I live. I can take the pre-recs and continue to work, so in the event I did not get into any of these schools, I would only be out a few thousand dollars. I am willing to take this risk, but I just needed someone to talk to that knows more about med-school than I. I figure that there are other engineers out there who decided to become doctors. I feel like I have a unique experience that would appeal to any admissions board assuming I had a good enough post-bac GPA and MCAT. Thanks in advance.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Stirling]

While I can't speak for med school, your GPA is somewhat competitive for optometry school as-is. Taking the necessary pre-reqs can definitely help that become more competitive. For med school, that will definitely help as well.

From what I understand, the MCAT and OAT are somewhat similar. The OAT is heavier on the physics but doesn't cover social sciences or psychology. Everything else will be pretty much the same so studying for one will help with the other. That being said, I think it would be best to decide which path you want to take before taking the exam.

Have you done any shadowing? I understand that you've been to both offices multiple times, but it would be beneficial to observe several patients (both medical and optometric) to get a feel for each profession. This can help you decide which profession you like better.

I'm assuming you live near Houston, so the optometry school there shouldn't be hard to get into since you're a Texas resident.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[dcb942]

While I can't speak for med school, your GPA is somewhat competitive for optometry school as-is. Taking the necessary pre-reqs can definitely help that become more competitive. For med school, that will definitely help as well.

From what I understand, the MCAT and OAT are somewhat similar. The OAT is heavier on the physics but doesn't cover social sciences or psychology. Everything else will be pretty much the same so studying for one will help with the other. That being said, I think it would be best to decide which path you want to take before taking the exam.

Have you done any shadowing? I understand that you've been to both offices multiple times, but it would be beneficial to observe several patients (both medical and optometric) to get a feel for each profession. This can help you decide which profession you like better.

I'm assuming you live near Houston, so the optometry school there shouldn't be hard to get into since you're a Texas resident.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Thanks for the response. No, I have not done any shadowing. I am friends with my optometrist, he would probably let me sit in for a few days. Yep I live in Houston.

 

[Meeehai]

Posted in other areas so delete if not allowed.

Hello. I am seriously considering med school or optometry but I am looking for advice and others in a similar situation. I currently work at NASA, I have an aerospace engineering degree from the University of Texas. My GPA was not the best, 3.1.

The day before I was to go to college in 2009 I found out that I had trigeminal schwannoma. I withdrew from college, had two surgeries to remove the tumor, and returned to college the next semester. The tumor left me with severe strabismus, asymetrical facial muscles, complete neuropathy due to trigeminal nerve damage, severe scars, and neurotrophic keratopathy to the left eye which left me with 20/400 vision. This left me depressed and I did not preform as well in school as I should have.

I had the strabismus corrected in college and things started to look up around my junior year. My last two years of college took my GPA from around 2.5 to 3.1. It was a clear upward trend and took a lot of work. I did well in all of my science courses. I had 3 internships at college at the same company, but I did not really enjoy the work.

I got a job at NASA coming out of college, which is surprising with the GPA that I had. I am very good at interviews and marketing myself. I worked as a ISS flight controller for two years. In this job training never ceased. I had to learn how to truly study, something which I never quite knew how to do in college. There were several tests, all of which were purely verbal in front of review boards. I had to learn to communicate, adapt, and maintain absolute situational awareness in high stress, team-based environments. Over my flight control career I had to partake in 50-60 intense 8 hour simulations. Within these simulations I was placed in situations that could have meant life or death to 6 astronauts, and/or the destruction of the most expensive piece of equipment ever built by man. Needless to say I learned several valuable skills that you cannot learn in many other places. Most importantly I learned how to prioritize and make choices that could have the ultimate consequence.

I was not that happy at this job. In the end it ended up being mostly paperwork. Not as glamorous as it sounded. I could see that I did not want to do this forever, and I honestly would not know what to do when the ISS reached its end of life. I felt as if there was no more room for learning. Some of it was interesting work, but it tied me to one geographic area and the pay was not great. I decided to change departments and transferred out of flight control to engineering. Again I found myself unhappy. Its a good paying job, but I cannot see myself working here forever. It is just not rewarding. I don't feel like I am helping anyone. I feel stagnant, and I desire to continue learning. I made the decision to go to some sort of graduate school. Currently I am planning on getting a masters degree in computer science, which I think I would like, but I am not sure.

I got married last year and just started building a house. I am only 26, so I do not feel like time is running out to go back to school. I have the financial resources to quit work and focus on medical school If I could get in. Throughout my experience with trigeminal schwannoma I was in and out of doctors offices, optometrists, plastic surgeons (I had facial implants to correct the asymmetrical facial muscles) etc. I found myself deeply interested in the eye. In fact I probably put my ophthalmologist's kids through school because I was in there so often. I believe I would be happy as an optometrist or ophthalmologist. I just do not know if I could get into med-school. I would need to go back to school to take pre-recs anyways. Assuming I did this and did well, say 3.8-4.0 GPA, what do you think my chances are at getting into med-school/optometry school? The kicker is that I cannot leave Texas. My wife and I love Texas and our families are close. Neither of us are willing to leave. Fortunately there are multiple med-schools and even an optometry school within driving distance of where I live. I can take the pre-recs and continue to work, so in the event I did not get into any of these schools, I would only be out a few thousand dollars. I am willing to take this risk, but I just needed someone to talk to that knows more about med-school than I. I figure that there are other engineers out there who decided to become doctors. I feel like I have a unique experience that would appeal to any admissions board assuming I had a good enough post-bac GPA and MCAT. Thanks in advance.

It is definitely not too late to pursue schooling and a different career, the median age of entering students in numerous healthcare professions is probably higher than you expect. The good thing is that you have a lot of leadership experience through your job as a flight controller which, as you stated, gave you the opportunity to learn and master valuable skills that can impress members of admission committees. The bad thing is, your stats are low. Medicine and optometry are two different things and going into these fields should prompt you to research pros and cons beyond just being interested in the eye. Additionally, you should be really careful about pursuing a very specific medical specialty prior to even beginning school because medicine is a BIG investment in terms of money, time and effort - would you be satisfied settling for other types of medical professions if you can't match into ophthalmology? Remember, at the end of a medical program you're going to be four years and a lot of money in the hole, if you won't be happy with anything else, I would stay away from this path. With that being said, take a moment to think about which path you want to commit to just in terms of logistics. Let's talk about your chances.

Your stats are relatively low, but with good grades in a post-bacc/masters program as well as strong test scores, you shouldn't have any problems being admitted in optometry. You would just have to complete the necessary pre-reqs and requirements and you should be good to go.

Medical school admission is a whole different beast. Currently your chances at an allopathic school are ZERO and minimal at any other osteopathic school. You will be automatically filtered out at most schools just because of your low GPA. Different schools have different policies about grade replacement and post-bacc/masters work and how it factors into their decision, but despite all that you would have to commit to more schooling and demonstrate that you can ace coursework in the sciences. Even after that, your stats will still be largely dependent on your MCAT score. Although you have some really cool experience with your previous job, you need to have a lot of clinical experience on your application to be a competitive applicant. Do you have any at the time? If not, it would probably take you a few years to gain the relevant clinical experience you need for acceptance. Going down the medicine path is going to take a lot more time and effort on your part just to make yourself a competitive applicant and even then you are not guaranteed a seat. I completely understand needing to stay in Texas, but unfortunately, it does really limit your options - medical school admission is hard enough, so to maximize your chances you need to give yourself the most options possible and apply broadly.

I think you can accomplish anything you want and I don't want to tell you not to do something because it will be hard, but... I would go for the four year program you can easily prepare for as opposed to the long 8+ year road that might require a few years just to get in. It has nothing to do with you not being prepared or qualified, medicine is just a very selective field and you have to jump through a lot more hoops to get noticed. However, if you are really passionate about medicine and you want to commit to it, I would recommend reposting this thread in the pre-allo forum and asking for opinions and advice there.

I'm sorry you had the misfortune of dealing with cancer and I'm really impressed that you kept hustling, fought on and didn't let it bring you down. I wish you the best of luck in whatever direction you choose to go in the future.

From what I understand, the MCAT and OAT are somewhat similar.

I respectfully disagree. Not only is the OAT a joke compared to the MCAT, the standards for a competitive score for admission are much lower. The MCAT will require much more preparation and effort to even score in the median admission range, whereas a similar effort can land you with a 99 percentile score on the OAT.

 

[Weirdy]

While I can't speak for med school, your GPA is somewhat competitive for optometry school as-is. Taking the necessary pre-reqs can definitely help that become more competitive. For med school, that will definitely help as well.

From what I understand, the MCAT and OAT are somewhat similar. The OAT is heavier on the physics but doesn't cover social sciences or psychology. Everything else will be pretty much the same so studying for one will help with the other. That being said, I think it would be best to decide which path you want to take before taking the exam.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

OAT and MCAT are nothing alike. Not even close.

OAT test itself is very straight forward. Questions are to the point, as with answer choices.
MCAT test itself tries to trick you. Double negatives, 2nd and 3rd order questions. Answers with minute or vague choices.

 

[AcademicEyes]

I disagree with what Stirling said above about the GPA - the optometry schools I'm familiar with would like a GPA closer to 3.5 to be competitive, though sometimes a good OAT score can help offset a low GPA if the rest of the application is strong as well. Some of the schools do have lower applicant stats though.

If I were you, I would look into the professions themselves a little more thoroughly first! Would you be happy with the salary, the challenges of the professions, the job opportunities? This will help you decide if you prefer med school over optometry school, since they are two very different professions.

If you have any questions about optometry school or optometry, let me know.

Though I never had an interest in pursuing medicine myself, from what my friends have said I agree with what others have posted. Schools are quite selective, and even with a lot of experience getting in to a school can be a challenge.

 

[ME2OD]

I know I am a few months late but I can relate to your academic situation a little. I graduated this past December with a degree in mechanical engineering and will be starting optometry school at SCO this fall. I'll be 25 when I start due to me transferring from a junior college and also doing two semester-long internships with GE Aviation which prolonged my schooling. Like you I just was not very happy with the day to day. It was good work and some days it would even be fun as I really enjoy problem-solving. However, I didn't really take a liking to the repetitive paperwork or being confined to a desk to plug and chug numbers for 10 hours a day while also having manufacturing projects to manage on the floor.

Now I always wanted to apply to optometry school but I wanted to make sure I had a good academic foundation and backup career in something I enjoyed. So in my last year, after consulting with my dad about my gpa and developing a course of action to apply, I took organic chemistry, biology I, biochem along with my other senior engineering courses while studying for the OAT. I didn't have a great OAT (300 AA/300 TS) because in the summer I was studying for it I was also taking 6 hours each semester.
I applied to UAB, KYCO, and SCO and I was accepted to those three a couple months later (I had an odd acceptance to UAB). I chose SCO due to location and cost, but the engineer in me loved KYCO. They are new, but they are very heavy on technology and incorporating that into the curriculum.
I took the rest of my pre-reqs (biology II, micro, and stats) at a junior college this past spring.

One of the admissions counselors told me that they viewed my 3.28 overall gpa as a 3.4-3.5. So it could depend on where you apply but I am pretty sure they will add some weight to your gpa because of your engineering degree, especially since you attended a really good engineering school.

I was talking to a professor about how I would have to change my learning style a little and he told me that when it comes to the clinical application of Optometry, the problem-solving mindset of an engineer could be very useful and provide a unique perspective and suggested I not try to change it.

Also, I'm sure working for NASA has never hurt an application ha. I think it is an excellent talking point and that will definitely impress them on an application.

I hope some of this helps I tried not to ramble on too much ha.