Engineering Graduate School to Medicine

[healthEngineer]

Hi everyone. I am a graduate student at UCLA pursuing a M.S. in bioengineering. My interests have changed recently and I am now looking to go to medical school to eventually become a psychiatrist. This decision was sparked in Jan 2020 when I found my mom and brother were using addictive, illegal drugs again. This is nothing new, drug and alcohol addiction have occurred throughout my family since I can remember. Bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and depression are also among my family. My hope is to become a psychiatrist to help people with these disorders and addictions since I have seen first-hand how devastating the effects can be if not treated or managed properly.

Before I can apply to medical school, I need to finish about half of the premed science courses, develop connections who can write good letters of recommendation, gain clinical experience, and do some shadowing. To do this, I am considering dropping out of the M.S. program, becoming an EMT or psychiatric aide (to gain medical experience), and applying to a post-bacc program with med school linkages (so I can fast-track into a med school and skip the gap year). I mostly want to drop out of the M.S. in bioengineering because I feel what I am researching and learning is not aligned with helping people who have mental health disorders and/or addictions, and I have about 2 years left before I can graduate.

I am curious what others think about this plan. Do you think dropping the M.S. will harm my potential to get accepted into post-bacc programs or medical schools? Do med schools prefer students with advanced engineering degrees or is hands-on medical experience more important? How selective are post-bacc programs?

I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks for reading.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Goro]

For many people, the path to Medicine is revolutionary, not evolutionary. Hence, I wouldn't ding you for dropping the MS, unlike, say, dropping out of a PharmD program, or PA.

Read this:
Med School Rx: Getting In, Getting Through, and Getting On with Doctoring Original Edition by Walter Hartwig
ISBN-13: 978-1607140627

ISBN-10: 1607140624

 

[DocJanItor]

Former mechanical engineer here. Medical schools don't really consider any advanced degree to be a valuable aspect of your application. The reason is that so many MS/MA/MBA degrees suffer from grade inflation and are difficult to compare to one another. If you still have 2 years left and you don't plan to use this degree then I'd drop it. A single change of heart isn't likely to raise any red flags as long as you address is appropriately in your letters.

 

[healthEngineer]

Thanks for your comments, it's a relief knowing most medical schools will not be too critical about leaving engineering graduate school. Goro, I will look into the book you suggest.

Now I have another dilemma. Should I finish premed requirements at UCLA while enrolled as a graduate student? Or should I apply to post-bacc programs for summer and fall 2021?

If I do premed requirements at UCLA, I could continue receiving my graduate fellowship funding (though that may be unethical if I'm not planning to obtain the M.S. degree). The premed courses (ochem 2, biochem, biology 2&3, plus labs) could be completed by March 2021. But I would need to get shadowing and clinical experience on my own, starting from no current experience. Is it reasonably possible to get enough shadowing and clinical experience while finishing my remaining premed courses (2 full-time quarters, 13 units each) and taking the MCAT by the 2021 application cycle?

If I apply to post-bacc programs, I run the risk of not getting accepted the first time around. But I may be able to make use of the linkage programs and enroll straight to medical school when I finish the post-bacc. Any opinions on linkage programs? For example, are they typically very selective or does one just need to meet the GPA and MCAT criteria?

 

[a522759693]

I was accepted to UCLA BE MS too in 2019 but decided to attend WUSTL. I am planning to graduate from BME MS after Fall 2020 and do SMP because obviously non-smp/non-post-bac graduate degree is not very valued in medical school applications. WUSTL gave me a lot of flexibility in taking undergraduate level courses that help application and I have been taking advantage of that to take biochem, A&P, and some graduate-level Immunobiology and Molecular bio classes. If you decide not to drop out, I would suggest checking with advisors and see if you can do the same while obtaining your MS. If you need LOR, EC, prereqs, going post-bacc is definitely a good option. However, my situation is different because I finished my prereqs in undergrad with low GPA. If you have decent UG gpa, maybe taking prereqs at UCLA and finish up your MS with classes you are interested in and some upper level bio-related is what I would do. Best of luck!

 

[healthEngineer]

I decided to take my remaining pre-medical courses while enrolled as a graduate student. Will these courses still "count" if I withdraw from the graduate program without obtaining the degree?

 

[DocJanItor]

I decided to take my remaining pre-medical courses while enrolled as a graduate student. Will these courses still "count" if I withdraw from the graduate program without obtaining the degree?

Yes, in the eyes of the AAMC and AACOMAS, all courses you took for credit count regardless of degree-seeking status.