Engineer in med school?

[ucat08]

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Hello,

My Current Situation:
I am 23 and recently graduated from a decent school with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (3.83 overall GPA, 3.95 major GPA). I was pretty involved with volunteering, leadership experience, and interning for 2 years at two very respected companies. When I graduated this summer, I took a job in a manufacturing-oriented leadership development program and am committed for the next 1.5yrs. With this job I will receive top notch business, leadership, and management training with a WIDE variety of experiences (currently supervising a union work force and soon to be buying raw materials from foreign suppliers). This all sounds great but I am realizing that I may be destined for a career in the medical field and am currently taking steps (shadowing doctors, volunteering...) to test the waters before making a big decision.

Questions:
I am short a few prerequisites (ochem, bio, labs). My question is which class (ochem 2 or bio 2) would have the least affect regarding the MCAT if I putt off taking the class until I completed the MCAT. Of course, I would do some serious preparation in all areas but which does the MCAT cover less.

With my GPA (assuming that it does not drop during the prereq's) in an engineering undergrad, what would be a solid MCAT score to make me competitive in a top 10 MD (and possibly mba) program?

Does my experience make me more marketable to a school with a md/mba program or have any impact at all?

How do you remain sane while working 40+hrs/week, taking classes, studying for the mcat, and getting engaged?

Thanks for your help!

 

[DrMidlife]

With med school admissions, your undergrad GPA is your fate. Nice fate!

Ochem 2 topics are not on the MCAT. That one's easy.

Your experience in industry will be viewed as (a) a nice extra-curricular activity, and (b) evidence of maturity. Nobody will get particularly excited about that job unless you have killer anecdotes about bloody negotiations with labor bosses. I kid.

Volunteering in general is great, but you need clinical volunteering. Easy to get. Working 4 hrs a week in an emergency room is pretty fun. There are lots of other opportunities.

What any given MD/MBA program considers in an applicant is going to be very school-dependent, but I think you'll find that the B school owns whether you get to be in the MBA program, independently from the med school's decision.

Take advantage of your current position to collect opinions from all sides on healthcare. This has been a favorite med school interview topic for a long time, and it's only going to get more focused.

Best of luck to you.

 

[thoffen]

Other than the GPA, you and I have remarkable similarities in profile. Dr. Midlife did a good job answering your post, but here are my suggestions:
1) neither bio 2 nor orgo 2 are likely to receive much attention on the MCAT. Although, your curriculum can obviously differ. My suggestion here is to get an MCAT review book such as Examkrackers and start pouring through what you know and figuring out which courses contain which material. For me, there was a significant amount of bio that I wasn't taught in any course.
2) I need to stress highly that you must get clinical experience ASAP. Med schools are highly reluctant admit someone who is naive about medicine. Also read quality papers for issues in medicine and the SDN articles. This helps you both become informed about your future profession and also talk intelligently about it in interviews. You don't necessarily need clinical volunteering, but you should start shadowing a physician soon.
3) Don't narrow yourself to "top 10" schools. Every medical school is prestigious and full of opportunity. The most important thing is that you are happy with the environment you end up in.