Engineering Premeds (Accepted or Applying)

[thesauce]

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I WAS a chemical engineering major, with a concentration in biomolecular engineering. I wanted a back-up plan in case I didnt get into med school. However, after my first few core engineering courses, I realized if I was really serious about medicine, then engineering wasnt the best option for me because it was destroying my GPA. I accepted that I was smart enough to be an engineer, smart enough to be a doctor, but not smart enough to do both

No kidding. I remember one of the weeder engineering courses that I took. I did well on the first test and absolutely bombed the second (thank God we got to drop one). I remember the night before the 3rd test thinking: okay, if I don't do well on this one, I'm going to have to go pre-med. I did well, finished engineering, and ended up in med school regardless.

 

[thesauce]

I'm an engineering non-trad. I worked for 3 years after getting an MS. I was accepted this cycle and during my interviews, I really played up the "problem solving" and "how stuff works" aspect of what I did. They also seemed to like the "get to the point" attitude of engineers as well as the ability to read thousands of pages of government regulations and understand them quickly.

Plus - I don't care what they say - medical school CANNOT be as hard as my senior year of engineering school. I won't elaborate, but it will be cake comparatively.

You are correct. It won't be.

 

[confusedchild]

I'm an accepted engineering premed - Electrical Engineering to be exact. Engineering definitely helps in my opinion but I think what med schools want to see is that you can do well in whatever undergrad major that you choose. If you can do well in engineering by all means do it (given that you find interest in it), and when you come out you'll have a lot of training and skills that others don't. Plus, you can package yourself in a unique way to stand out during interviews. Throughout college, I got involved in activities that had aspects of both fields. For example, I took on a biotech internship, and many of my interviewers found that to be very interesting. Also, during interviews, when asked about how I would use my engineering background, I would pull examples of breakthroughs and also my only personal experiences. I talked about Fourier Transforms and spectral densities and how they are used extensively in the OR to observe brain wave patterns, etc. On the contrary, some people have also asked me if a 3.5 GPA from engineering for example is better than a 3.7 or 3.8 GPA from an outside major. I personally don't think so. Engineering may be tough but from my interviewing experiences, what schools want to see if that you have PASSION for something and can do well in your passion. If going into engineering means taking a huge hit on your GPA, I'd say you'd have a lot of explaining to do during interviews. That's just my take on it.

 

[Limvostov]

Bottom line - engineering is a tough field but is a great fall-back if your aspirations change or if medical school doesn't happen for you.

This is the best reason to major in engineering, I also worked 4 years in the pharmaceutical industry with my engineering degree. That was a huge plus for the application season and I know that a degree in Biology would not have taken me nearly as far... if I was even able to find employment with it. Besides, if I ever get sick of medicine Genentech, GSK, Pfizer, and the like will be more than happy to pick me up because those 4 years in industry made for some excellent networking and lifelong connections.

If you can keep the grades up engineering will never let you down. I would suggest staying with the core programs though (EE, ChE, ME, CE) because programs like EnviroE, BioE, EP, and NukeE have worse job choices or have a majority of employment options in very specific regions of the country. The big four are found just about everywhere you find industry and the starting wage is great.

 

[Risin]

Do you guys recommend Engineering as a second undergrad in order to get into med school?

Graduating this semester from Bach Science (Physiology) with 3.3~ GPA. I think I didn't work hard enough during undergrad and frankly didn't really enjoy memorizing biochemical pathways and stuff.

I'm thinking of going back and doing another undergrad to boost my grades and prove my academic ability. I am currently accepted into an Engineering program and am thinking of doing an eng degree with a biomed option.

What you guys think?

 

[surftheiop]

Do you guys recommend Engineering as a second undergrad in order to get into med school?

Graduating this semester from Bach Science (Physiology) with 3.3~ GPA. I think I didn't work hard enough during undergrad and frankly didn't really enjoy memorizing biochemical pathways and stuff.

I'm thinking of going back and doing another undergrad to boost my grades and prove my academic ability. I am currently accepted into an Engineering program and am thinking of doing an eng degree with a biomed option.

What you guys think?

Bad idea for a second degree with med school in mind, just take the usual "post-bac" route. To be honest if you made a 3.3 in physiology, its not likely your going to get a 4.0 or whatever in engineering no matter how hard you work now or how much you slacked then.

 

[Cmaj7th]

so what made you guys pick engineering as your major? I only ask because I have an unusual major for pre-med that prepares for a career as well. I'm doing EMT-p/BS in EMS management because I like working in the field and it seems to be (somewhat?) applicable experience.

engineering is one hell of a major though, I know I couldn't hack it. did you guys pick this major with medical school in mind or change your mind half way through?

 

[thesauce]

so what made you guys pick engineering as your major? I only ask because I have an unusual major for pre-med that prepares for a career as well. I'm doing EMT-p/BS in EMS management because I like working in the field and it seems to be (somewhat?) applicable experience.

engineering is one hell of a major though, I know I couldn't hack it. did you guys pick this major with medical school in mind or change your mind half way through?

I picked it for a challenge and because of the great job prospects out of undergrad. I chose to pursue medicine during junior year.

 

[surftheiop]

so what made you guys pick engineering as your major? I only ask because I have an unusual major for pre-med that prepares for a career as well. I'm doing EMT-p/BS in EMS management because I like working in the field and it seems to be (somewhat?) applicable experience.

engineering is one hell of a major though, I know I couldn't hack it. did you guys pick this major with medical school in mind or change your mind half way through?

I changed my mind partway through, I'd say that is the case for 80% of us.

Its few and far between to find someone entering engineering as a pre-med, who both gets into med school and finishes the engineering degree. Although the rise in popularity of Bio/Biomed Engineering might be changing this a some in recent years.

 

[Risin]

Bad idea for a second degree with med school in mind, just take the usual "post-bac" route. To be honest if you made a 3.3 in physiology, its not likely your going to get a 4.0 or whatever in engineering no matter how hard you work now or how much you slacked then.

Thing is I don't really want to do a masters in science... if this makes a difference or not. What are some alternate ''post-bac'' things I could look into?

I'm thinking that if I graduate from an engineering degree, I will have at least a wider selection of jobs. BSc in phgy doesn't really give me much option other than being a lab assistant or research assistant. I really want to break from this...

Thanks for insight.

 

[dr zaius]

I graduated with a BS in BME and I'm about to receive a MS in BME. I've had great success this application season (5/6 with no rejections!).

My department is very well-rounded with in depth classes ranging from bioelectric phenomenon to continuum mechanics applied to hard and soft tissues to all kinds of tissue engineering. With these classes and the other engineering discipline pre-reqs (circuits, mechanics of solids, statics, dynamics, etc) I found that the physical science section of the MCAT was pretty easy compared to the feelings of my biology majoring peers. Pretty much all engineering classes are exercises in critical thinking, so gearing up for the MCAT mindset was also fairly easy.

During interviews it seemed that if the interviewer was heavily involved in research my major played an advantage. When the interviewer was primarily a clinician, BME seemed to not matter at all. I guess it just depends on who is interviewing you.

Overall, don't think you can get away with a lower GPA because you're an engineering major. Students would parrot this all the time when I was a freshman. Fair or not, it seems to be a false statement the majority of the time. Depending on who interviews you it might help to be an engineer, but I doubt it's something that would seriously increase your chances of acceptance. It might give you more to talk about during the interview than the same old stuff they've discussed with the 87568976 biology majors, but at the end of the day I'm willing to bet you won't get any points for simply being an engineer.

Anyway, if you like engineering go for it. There's probably no real advantage in the interview process, though I do feel there is a slight one in MCAT preparation. I had a lot of fun as an undergrad and a grad student in engineering. I spent much more time on coursework than my non-engineering friends, but I genuinely enjoyed most of it. Except thermo. Thermo can go to hell along with all of those damn reference tables. If you go into it for the reason of thinking it's going to be an easier way into medical school turn back now. It's a trap.

 

[Velocity]

so what made you guys pick engineering as your major?

I chose engineering for a few reasons. Admittedly, I had no idea what engineers did in the real world, but the prospect of "making things better for society" appealed to me and it seemed to be what engineering was about. I also knew that engineering was considered to be one of the most difficult majors that a person could choose from. As such, I figured that even if I didn't end up liking engineering, I should be able to change fields to business, law, medicine, or practically anything else.

I ended up changing out of engineering when I realized that engineering (or at least, my track of it) was not what I expected, and it did not seem like I'd be particularly happy in it. I also realized that the only people who cared that you were in engineering were other engineering students, and maybe professional engineers. I never looked into business or law school, but on the medical school side it was clear that they only cared about your GPA. Sure, in some rare instances an interviewer might weigh the major against the GPA, but otherwise they didn't care what your major was. Since engineering wasn't doing my GPA any favors, I changed majors.

Do you guys recommend Engineering as a second undergrad in order to get into med school?

I would recommend it as a second major if you really like engineering and want to learn about it.

I would absolutely not recommend it if you're just looking for something to bolster your academic record in order to get into medical school. The national engineering average was 2.8 a few years ago, and I don't think it's gone up much since then. Medical schools simply do not care and will not weight your GPA when comparing against someone who majored in an "easier" major. So do yourself a favor and pick a major that is both interesting to you and that will more or less guarantee you some strong grades.

I hate to give that advice because I feel that it's a total perversion of what the education system should be about, but that's how things are.

 

[surftheiop]

Thing is I don't really want to do a masters in science... if this makes a difference or not. What are some alternate ''post-bac'' things I could look into?

I'm thinking that if I graduate from an engineering degree, I will have at least a wider selection of jobs. BSc in phgy doesn't really give me much option other than being a lab assistant or research assistant. I really want to break from this...

Thanks for insight.

If your not sure what you want to do, then engineering is a very good degree generally leading to jobs before you even graduate. But if you know for sure you want to do medicine, then its probably going to hurt your GPA b/c of how engineering courses are graded.

A "post-bac" just means taking more undergrad courses without necessarily pursuing a specific degree.

 

[fishbait63]

Thought I would chime in...

Not an engineering major (not for me; I love biochem) BUT worked in bioengineering labs for 4 years (medical imagining, systems modeling) and some computational research in biochem now

I loved my experience in BioE, makes you think very differently than everyone around you, some parts of the body are truly better understood from the standpoint of physics rather than biology. I don't think that engineering is always a more holistic view parts of it gets very down to nitty gritty just as a lot of biochem does.

 

[FlowRate]

I don't think that's necc the case, I haven't found 1st n 2nd year to be too hard *shrug* there's a lot of memorization but everyone has to do that whether or not you're an engineer.

Btw I was chem e.

Cool username, like your posts, turns out you're a ChemE, too! Neato =P

It is totally true. A 3.8 in bio >> 3.5 in engineering. And the fact that engineering classes aren't considered "real science" is the most ridiculous thing ever, but unfortunately it is the case with AMCAS and most schools for LOR's.

I posted a thread about this and was told than an engineering LOR was fine for sci, have you had experience the other way around? Did schools tell you that engineering doesn't count?

Plus - I don't care what they say - medical school CANNOT be as hard as my senior year of engineering school. I won't elaborate, but it will be cake comparatively.

I've actually been told this. Sure does sound like a lot of memorizing, but MD school actually sounds like less of a time commitment than the semester I'm in right now.

 

[DrJosephKim]

I leveraged the fact that engineering teaches you how to solve problems and think analytically. Those skills are very useful when you need to solve complex medical cases and when you have to apply your learned knowledge in the medical environment.

 

[Excelsius]

I think that while generally it is true that having a tough major doesn't make that much difference (a Caltech engineer with a 3.2 had a tough time getting in), it still matters. The problem is that it is probably very school and adcom dependent. I have seen some adcoms even here on SDN write that the hard science majors can add about 10% to your GPA. But given that not all adcoms share this view and that the difficulty of an engineering major is not just 10% more than a bio major, it holds true that generally the major doesn't matter too much, with some exceptions here and there.

In terms of difficulty, I'd say that physics is likely on top, followed by engineering, physical chemistry, and math. The curricula among schools vary and that's probably another reason why it is not that easy to judge all these majors properly. I wouldn't expect an adcom to know which schools are known for engineering, math, etc. Harvey Mudders probably are not at an advantage and when I was shopping for undergrad, it was an important factor because I knew I probably couldn't manage a near-perfect physics GPA in Harvey Mudd.

If you apply widely enough, I am sure that you'll hit at least a couple of schools that value your physical science background. At the same time, for your background to matter much you probably need a high MCAT score to back up your experience, especially in the science section. So if you have like 3.2 in physics and then bomb the PS section in MCAT, it was probably not that your GPA was considered to be inadmissible, but that you couldn't back up your knowledge. Probably a 3.7+ GPA in physics and then just a 9 on the PS in MCAT looks just as bad since it significantly devalues the GPA.

 

[sugarx]

I can always count on you for crushing my dreams, SDN.

ME here.

 

[shadowfox87]

I can always count on you for crushing my dreams, SDN.

ME here.

I got a 2.9 Overall GPA in BME & EE (dual) and my science GPA was probably even lower. I got into SGU, have a 3.9 right now. Nothing's impossible, esp. for engineers.

 

[redpanda]

I did BME because I was interested in it and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do after graduation. I graduated several years ago and have been working in the pharma industry between undergrad and med school. The job is a specialty consultancy role where I advise on a very specific part of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process for the entire pipeline of compounds (I am one of two people who do this in the company). I would never ever have been given this level of responsibility as a biology/biochem grad in this company, and, were I lucky, the most I would get from that sort of background in this company would be being a lab tech, pipetting away. Also, engineers get paid significantly more with a BS in this company than biologists/biochemists (think 30%!).

To address the issue of "BME is the easiest out of engineering majors," I would have to disagree. My undergrad program was relatively new and had an enrollment limit, such that only 40 students could enter per year. This meant there was a GPA cutoff to admit students to major at the end of sophomore year, and the cutoff the year I entered was a 3.3. If you are familiar with the typical underclassman engineering requirements (2 semesters calculus, diff eq, linear algebra, 2 sem inorganic chem, 2 sem physics, computer science, 1-2 sem organic chem), you will know that no one is a dummy who has a 3.3 coming out of that. The next two years aren't any easier in terms of the courseload than any other type of engineering and may indeed be harder since you have no choice in your course material (I got exactly one bioengineering elective to fill).

That being said, I've sold myself as an interdiscipliniarian during the med school application process. BME was my major, but much of what I do now is chemical engineering and materials science, as well as some aspects of project management. I interact with a lot of other groups (non-scientific) in my job like regulatory, marketing, oversight committees, etc. and this has given me a lot of experience in distilling down problems into something anyone can understand (marketing has little imagination!). This sort of diverse interaction is something I would not have if I had never been in industry/real job.

 

[Valig8r]

I graduated in chemical engineering in 2005 with a 3.9 GPA. I worked as a process engineer for an oil refinery for 3 years before applying to medical school. I have had 7 interviews and been accepted to 4 schools so far, and my background as an engineer came up positively in each interview. In particular, the aspects of being able to apply logical reasoning to a seemingly complex situation, working with diverse teams and demonstrating professionalism, came up in each of my interviews. Working as an engineer, I believe, definitely made my application stand-out. Not so sure if it would have been as impressive just coming out as an undergrad (unless the GPA is high and application has been demonstrated in internships/research).

Bottom line - engineering is a tough field but is a great fall-back if your aspirations change or if medical school doesn't happen for you.

I have a similar background... Chem E grad with 4 years of industry experience (paper) and I'm looking to venture into the medical world (I realize that's where my passion is). Just wondering...are you still happy with the decision you made? If you've already started a medical program, how is it going for you? Any advice to help with my decision would be great.