Electrical Engineer to med school questions

[dbhakta]

I have my masters degree in electrical engineer. I graduated with an undergrad GPA of 3.8 and a grad GPA of 3.9. I just graduated in December 2012 and am highly leaning toward quitting my job and going back to school to take my pre-reqs. While I had multiple internships and coops as an engineering student, I don't have any experience in the medical field. How much can this hurt me when I apply to med schools? What other things could I do to make myself standout when applying/interviewing?

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[hypadude]

I was an electrical engineer before applying to med school. It took me two rounds of applications, but I am now in my second year of medical school. I learned from the mistakes of my first application cycle.

1. Ace your prereqs. Electrical Engineering is a difficult major and you have excellent GPAs. However, if you go back and ace (4.0) your prereqs, you will have a rock solid coursework profile. Compared to some of the upper-level EE courses, freshman biology and chemistry are extremely easy. Orgo is difficult, though, with the variability between professors and institutions being great. Make sure you ask current students before choosing an orgo course, because what would be an A with one professor could easily be a C with another.

2. MCAT. understand the concepts and do practice questions. thousands of practice questions. For the questions you get wrong, go back and restudy those concepts and understand why you got the them wrong the first time. I did all of the 1001 EK q-books 3 times each and got a score I was very happy with. This requires discipline and a rigid study schedule. In my opinion, if you don't do practice questions early, you overstudy or study material that is rarely tested. Unlike electrical engineering, if the math is complicated, you are doing something wrong.

3. Clinical experience. Probably both the most difficult and most critical component. ER scribing and underserved clinic intake are probably the two best experiences, but pay little to nothing, so finding the time to do them was my greatest challenge. It also requires networking skills and/or connections to find the opportunities. In my opinion, 100 hours is a bare minimum.

4. Community service. It depends who you ask, but most people think it HAS to be clinical volunteering. I personally don't think it matters, as long as you are passionate about it and do it consistently for a considerable number of hours. Leadership/responsibility are especially good. If you don't have clinical experience though, your volunteerism better be clinical. Hundreds of hours and leadership in one activity is far better than a few hours in dozens of activities.

 

[Neutrino123]

Hi 5 dbhakta, I am in exact same situation as u r. "I have my masters degree in electrical engineer. I graduated with an undergrad GPA of ~3.8 and a grad GPA of 3.5ish. I just graduated in December 2012 and am highly leaning toward quitting my job and going back to school to take my pre-reqs." I hate my job but ironically love electrical engineering; however, I believe medicine is something I always wanted to do alongside electrical. So switching my gears for professional education. I feel like I didnt learn anything in EE as it now seems to be like as if it never happened. At least that's how it feels when you just start at a big company where everyone around you have white hair.
What are your reasons to switch? Is English your first language?

P.S. I wont say we are switching careers as they haven't begun yet.

 

[battousai]

I have my masters degree in electrical engineer. I graduated with an undergrad GPA of 3.8 and a grad GPA of 3.9. I just graduated in December 2012 and am highly leaning toward quitting my job and going back to school to take my pre-reqs. While I had multiple internships and coops as an engineering student, I don't have any experience in the medical field. How much can this hurt me when I apply to med schools? What other things could I do to make myself standout when applying/interviewing?

Hi 5 dbhakta, I am in exact same situation as u r. "I have my masters degree in electrical engineer. I graduated with an undergrad GPA of ~3.8 and a grad GPA of 3.5ish. I just graduated in December 2012 and am highly leaning toward quitting my job and going back to school to take my pre-reqs." I hate my job but ironically love electrical engineering; however, I believe medicine is something I always wanted to do alongside electrical. So switching my gears for professional education. I feel like I didnt learn anything in EE as it now seems to be like as if it never happened. At least that's how it feels when you just start at a big company where everyone around you have white hair.
What are your reasons to switch? Is English your first language?

P.S. I wont say we are switching careers as they haven't begun yet.

Before you even contemplating switching careers, I would highly suggest that you shadow a physician and volunteer at an ED. You could be experiencing the "grass is always greener" syndrome, but medicine isn't all rare cases and adrenaline rushes. Make sure this is exactly what you want before you start taking prerequisites as it will be a long road ahead and if you aren't sure this is what you want to do, it will be even longer.

To both of you, if you're just not enjoying your job, but enjoy electrical engineering, I would suggest looking for a job at a smaller company; the social dynamics are completely different and it could make you enjoy your job more.

 

[Neutrino123]

Well, every other person in my family is a physician and in few cases an engineer, so I know exactly what I am getting into. I liked engineering equally as much as I liked medicine. I pursued engineering because it was my hobby and was quite hands on. However, I think my skills and time better utilized helping people and doing innovative things. This way my services would help people directly compared to a large corporate.

 

[battousai]

Well, every other person in my family is a physician and in few cases an engineer, so I know exactly what I am getting into. I liked engineering equally as much as I liked medicine. I pursued engineering because it was my hobby and was quite hands on. However, I think my skills and time better utilized helping people and doing innovative things. This way my services would help people directly compared to a large corporate.

Ok, I believe that you know what it takes, but med schools would want to see you actively pursuing medical experience; not just relying on the fact that you're related to a few physicians. On top of your prerequisites, you need both shadowing hours and clinical volunteer work.

 

[Neutrino123]

Yeah definitely that's the plan right now. I will be looking for clinical/shadowing experience with some other physician that has no ties with anyone I know. This way I will have the required experience and the exposure.