Engineering student advice

[tl77]

I am a senior electrical engineering major at an engineering focused big ten school. I had some difficulty adjusting to college and because of this my grades suffered during my freshman year, giving me a 3.3. My sophomore year improved slightly, and my junior year was even better. I have not had a semester GPA lower than 3.75 since then. My focus through school has been on getting research experience and getting accepted into top engineering graduate schools. I worked in one EE research group for a semester, then an IE (operations research) research group for a year. I am slated to graduate in fall 2013 (so one semester left after this.) I have also completed four co-op tours at NASA in Texas.

Recently I have come to the realization that I do not enjoy research enough to pursue a career in it, and definitely do not want to work as an engineer in industry. I have been researching possible alternative career plans and have become extremely attracted to a career in medicine - particularly as an EM physician.

Unfortunately my poor freshman GPA negatively impacts my sGPA. My grades for BCPM classes have so far been as follows:

Calc 1 - C+
Calc 2 - B-
Calc 3 - B
Differential Equations - A-
Linear Algebra - A+
Phys 1 - A
Phys 2 - B+
Bio 1 - A+
Chem 1 - A

My calculus grades from freshman year are the poorest grades on my whole transcript. I have earned As in EE classes on far more advanced math topics, but understand that that doesn't help me much in this instance. I will take Chem 2 and Bio 2 next semester before graduating.

My question is on the best way to proceed after graduating. My plan was to take the organic chemistry requirements at the local state university and then start studying for the MCAT. I will be a Texas resident, so getting into a Texas MD school would be my ultimate goal. I will graduate with ~3.6 cumulative GPA, but only a ~3.5 sGPA. The only thing holding it down are those calc classes.

What can I do to best improve my chances of getting into med school? Will my two low calc grades severely cripple my application? What can I do to overcome this?

Thank you for any advice you can give.

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[anguisette]

I think your grades look fine. Do well in the rest of your pre-reqs and the MCAT. Make sure you explore the field a bit more through shadowing, clinical exposure, and volunteering to really know if medicine is the right career path for you. Your projected GPA and one C+ won't hold you back. Good luck!

 

[Captain Sisko]

I am a senior electrical engineering major at an engineering focused big ten school. I had some difficulty adjusting to college and because of this my grades suffered during my freshman year, giving me a 3.3. My sophomore year improved slightly, and my junior year was even better. I have not had a semester GPA lower than 3.75 since then. My focus through school has been on getting research experience and getting accepted into top engineering graduate schools. I worked in one EE research group for a semester, then an IE (operations research) research group for a year. I am slated to graduate in fall 2013 (so one semester left after this.) I have also completed four co-op tours at NASA in Texas.

Recently I have come to the realization that I do not enjoy research enough to pursue a career in it, and definitely do not want to work as an engineer in industry. I have been researching possible alternative career plans and have become extremely attracted to a career in medicine - particularly as an EM physician.

Unfortunately my poor freshman GPA negatively impacts my sGPA. My grades for BCPM classes have so far been as follows:

Calc 1 - C+
Calc 2 - B-
Calc 3 - B
Differential Equations - A-
Linear Algebra - A+
Phys 1 - A
Phys 2 - B+
Bio 1 - A+
Chem 1 - A

My calculus grades from freshman year are the poorest grades on my whole transcript. I have earned As in EE classes on far more advanced math topics, but understand that that doesn't help me much in this instance. I will take Chem 2 and Bio 2 next semester before graduating.

My question is on the best way to proceed after graduating. My plan was to take the organic chemistry requirements at the local state university and then start studying for the MCAT. I will be a Texas resident, so getting into a Texas MD school would be my ultimate goal. I will graduate with ~3.6 cumulative GPA, but only a ~3.5 sGPA. The only thing holding it down are those calc classes.

What can I do to best improve my chances of getting into med school? Will my two low calc grades severely cripple my application? What can I do to overcome this?

Thank you for any advice you can give.

great to hear from another jsc veteran! i did a summer job at a contractor way back in 2004 working on return to flight after Columbia. welcome!

I'd suggest that you get a job after you graduate. work at NASA, wherever. take organic at night, and apply after your mcat. you can probably take it after organic 1 if that works with your schedule. the work experience more than makes up for calculus grades, especially with diffeq and ee courses on the transcript.

 

[tl77]

Thank you for the informative replies. Are night classes considered less rigorous by the admissions committee? I also will need to take another 6 credits of "Advanced Biological Sciences" and another 3 credits of English (according to the TAMU handbook.)

 

[doctech]

If I were you, I'd try to:
-Explain in your personal statement (or the section on academic probation if you were put on that) what happened with your GPA during freshman year and how you have learned from it. Not the blame game, but just be honest about the trouble you had and how it will never happen again because _____.
-Rock the MCAT!
-Apply broadly
OR
-Consider taking graduate-level science and engineering courses. If you don't make it in the first time that is probably the best option if you want to stay in Texas, but if you don't apply broadly you might need to boost your GPA more. Maybe take summer classes also to keep your GPA going up. At my university, my Premed courses counted as engineering graduate credit (Orgo 1 & 2 and Biochem 1) That helped me to get my masters in just a calendar year. I also took Immunology and Biomaterials (Materials Engineering) and Biomedical Applications (a Chem E course) during grad school.

Best of luck to you. Your GPA is a strike against you, but not enough to hold you back, especially if you have a great MCAT and upper level science courses.