Engineering, the Key to Med School?

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Zubair

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Nexus777 said:
I have an several engineering friends who had far lower GPAs than their compatriot applicants and got into top 10 schools. One had 7 Cs on his transcript - Harvard. Another had a C and also Harvard. Another with a 3.2 science and 3.4 overall - Duke. These schools will recognize the engineering major. They didn't do anything else extraordinary, and their MCATs were mid 30s. I should warn you that they went to good engineering undergrads though, so you should weigh that with your undergrad school.

Can some of you engineering majors (from UIUC or other good engineering schools) give your experiences? I always thought it would be really hard to get into med school being an engineer since its so hard to get good grades? I'm a computer engineering major at UIUC...

What do u guys think?

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I started out as an engineering major at a 'good engineering school'. Then I realized I'd enjoy (two different majors) a lot more - so I switched out, and am currently d-ming in sci/non-sci, neither of which is an engineering major. So I guess that wasn't too helpful. But my point is that it's definitely possible to be pre-med eng...it's just harder. If you're fluid (haha) with math and physics, it won't be as hard. But if you're not fond of either subject at an extended level, I'd steer clear of engineering before it wrecks your GPA. Good luck. :cool:
 
Engineering programs are usually harder so you have more leeway with lower GPA s but i dont think majoring in Eng is going to guarantee admission anywhere
 
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Don't do Engineering unless you think you can do well in it. Nobody is going to be like well, this guy had a 3.5 as BME he would have probably had a 3.95 in Biology... On the other hand, I would think a 3.8 in BME is more impressive than a 3.8 in bio, but what the hell do I know. Do the most challenging major that you think you can excel in I think is the only solid advice anyone can give.
 
I have a civil engineering degree and worked as a structural engineer for many years. I had a ridiculously low GPA. I don't know if this is universally true but several of my interviewers told me that they respect engineers like no other professon except maybe the military.
 
Panda Bear said:
I have a civil engineering degree and worked as a structural engineer for many years. I had a ridiculously low GPA. I don't know if this is universally true but several of my interviewers told me that they respect engineers like no other professon except maybe the military.

I wanted to join the military but they wouldnt let me. The bastards. BTW Egyptian military not US.
 
I was a Computer Engineering major from UCI with 3.96 BCPM (3.85 overall) and 30 MCAT (taken after 1.5 yrs of premed courses). I was surprised with the love I got from the top schools when I applied this year. Ironically, the lower-tier schools couldn't care less. It seemed these schools only wanted to raised their avg MCATs or GPA. The top schools seem to want to diversify their class. They don't have any problem rejecting applicants with 37+ MCATs and superb ECs because I guess they already have so many. If I had to do it over I would've applied to more top 10's, even a Harvard or something. Who knows? Top schools are a crap-shoot. And Engineering majors are the biggest wildcards out there.
 
A higher GPA will always trump a more difficult major. Sure they do take your course of study into consideration, but never so much so that it'll conteract that bad first impression when they see a sub-par GPA. Only do a difficult major if you enjoy it AND can maintain the same academic standards.
 
Bluntman said:
A higher GPA will always trump a more difficult major. Sure they do take your course of study into consideration, but never so much so that it'll conteract that bad first impression when they see a sub-par GPA. Only do a difficult major if you enjoy it AND can maintain the same academic standards.

Agree 100%
 
Bluntman said:
A higher GPA will always trump a more difficult major. Sure they do take your course of study into consideration, but never so much so that it'll conteract that bad first impression when they see a sub-par GPA. Only do a difficult major if you enjoy it AND can maintain the same academic standards.

If the two goes to the the same undergraduate school, maybe? I mean a 3.5 electrical engineering premed from MIT is way more impressive than a 4.0 bio major from a community college all else being equal...? It's not just the potentially harder courses, there are also less overlap in prerequisite classes...
 
Zubair said:
Can some of you engineering majors (from UIUC or other good engineering schools) give your experiences? I always thought it would be really hard to get into med school being an engineer since its so hard to get good grades? I'm a computer engineering major at UIUC...

What do u guys think?

Getting into medical school is hard no matter what major you have. That said, I think they do consider the courseload you take. I am an engineering major at Walla Walla College and I got accepted. Another classmate of mine, a mechanical engineering major, also got accepted.

If you have above a 3.5 you'd be competitive (as long as your MCAT, ECs, LORs are good).

My opinion but, Engineering Major + Good people skills = good doctor.

Good luck with your medical pursuit.
 
SpinEcho13 said:
Don't do Engineering unless you think you can do well in it.

I'd add: Don't do engineering unless you enjoy the subject matter. No hard major is worth doing if you don't like it or aren't interested in it.
 
Bluntman said:
A higher GPA will always trump a more difficult major. Sure they do take your course of study into consideration, but never so much so that it'll conteract that bad first impression when they see a sub-par GPA. Only do a difficult major if you enjoy it AND can maintain the same academic standards.

I think it depends on the spread between the GPAs and the majors and not an absolute always..

3.7 Engineering vs 3.9 Social Work/Elementary Education? Everything else being equal (MCAT, LORs, ECs, etc) I'd go with the engineering guy/gal.
 
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Zuerst said:
If the two goes to the the same undergraduate school, maybe? I mean a 3.5 electrical engineering premed from MIT is way more impressive than a 4.0 bio major from a community college all else being equal...? It's not just the potentially harder courses, there are also less overlap in prerequisite classes...
Sure, that makes sense to us when we're looking at one instance of this vs. that. But just imagine that you're on an adcom with literally thousands of apps to look through, and each one has grades/MCAT/ECs/PS/LORs to consider. Are you really going to devote more time to the "grades" section than looking at the GPA? Doubtful. Stuff like this probably bears a bit more weight at the final stage of the app process (even then I'm doubful it's very much), but an eng major is never going to make up for a 3.5 when it's back at the stage of dishing out secondaries or interviews.

Hell, I was even a bioengineering major at UCSD. This would seem quite prestigious, and something adcoms should pay attention to...but you know what....the only attention that the "grades" section of my app ever got during my interviews was someone asking me to explain a C+. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Of course this is all speculation by all of us...maybe LizzyM/Rel/adcomm/etc. can give some first-hand input?
 
That's true, it might bear some weight if it comes down to a wait list, but thats not really what you want to build your app around... haha.
 
SpinEcho13 said:
That's true, it might bear some weight if it comes down to a wait list, but thats not really what you want to build your app around... haha.
Exactly. :thumbup:
 
Bluntman said:
Sure, that makes sense to us when we're looking at one instance of this vs. that. But just imagine that you're on an adcom with literally thousands of apps to look through, and each one has grades/MCAT/ECs/PS/LORs to consider. Are you really going to devote more time to the "grades" section than looking at the GPA? Doubtful. Stuff like this probably bears a bit more weight at the final stage of the app process (even then I'm doubful it's very much), but an eng major is never going to make up for a 3.5 when it's back at the stage of dishing out secondaries or interviews.

Hell, I was even a bioengineering major at UCSD. This would seem quite prestigious, and something adcoms should pay attention to...but you know what....the only attention that the "grades" section of my app ever got during my interviews was someone asking me to explain a C+. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Of course this is all speculation by all of us...maybe LizzyM/Rel/adcomm/etc. can give some first-hand input?

wow, i'm also majoring in bioengineering :( i thought we'd get more love than this.
 
TheFreshPrince said:
wow, i'm also majoring in bioengineering :( i thought we'd get more love than this.

it really depends. i had a 3.2-3.3 from brown BME (not a great engineering school but the name still has weight) including like 5 C's. then i worked for a couple of years, took a couple of post-bac courses and did well. aced the MCAT like many engineers do and i did well in my applications. some top schools totally ignored me but i got interviews at other top schools. no one asked specifically about those bad grades and everyone seemed to have a lot of respect for engineers.
 
so it's true then that adcoms really have a lot of respect for engineers?
 
i got a 3.9 in engineering from a top 15 eng school, and I definitely think ithelped me. That being said, getting that gpa came at the expense of a lot of other things that would have helped my app.

I loved my major so yeah if you won't enjoy it then forget it. However, realize that not only aren't people really going to give you much slack for GPA in a harder major, they also won't give you any slack in terms of the rest of your application for being an engineering major... you still have to have numerous ECs. I got waitlisted by over half the places i interviewed for MD-only.. i think i was missing the last piece of my app that pushed me over the top.

Adcoms really have no idea what a 3.9 in engineering means... I could have gotten a 3.9 in bio with 1/2 the work... oh well..
 
if you can get a sick gpa in engineering, i think it would be hugely beneficial in terms of med school. and if you don't get in or want to take a year off, you can work anywhere.
 
Generally, I've noticed that physicians respect engineers, if they know about the field. I went to a top-ten materials science school only to get asked, "What's materials science?"
 
Panda Bear said:
I have a civil engineering degree and worked as a structural engineer for many years. I had a ridiculously low GPA. I don't know if this is universally true but several of my interviewers told me that they respect engineers like no other professon except maybe the military.

Panda Bear,

I saw your post about engineering and was wondering what schools you were talking about. I incidentally was an electrical engineer :) that became a military officer :D after I graduated. I am now working on my MS in Biological Engineering and applying to med school this fall. I would really like to apply to the schools you are talking about.

My MD Applicants profile is attached if you have any other words of wisdom.

Thanks.
 
Zubair said:
Can some of you engineering majors (from UIUC or other good engineering schools) give your experiences? I always thought it would be really hard to get into med school being an engineer since its so hard to get good grades? I'm a computer engineering major at UIUC...

What do u guys think?

I agree with a lot of people on here...don't do engineering unless you know you can get the grades. There are too many applications, for schools to look at the major attached to the GPA, at least on the first look. I did BME at BU (top 10), around 3.5 GPA graduated magna, decent MCATS, and just finished my master's in bioengineering at a top 15 BME school. Applied to 20 schools, 2 interviews, and 1 acceptance. So maybe they thought engineering was cool, but I've been told by a few schools the problem was pretty much my undergrad grades, especially my BCPM (3.37). One of my interviewers told me my grades were fine...for engineering, but not great when considered as a med school applicant. You have to consider that comparing a BCPM between a bio or history major isn't quite the same as an engineering major, but schools don't look at it that way. maybe other engineers have had a lot more luck, but this was my story. either way, I'm lucky I got in somewhere. Still glad I did engineering, just wish I got better grades. good luck.
 
SemperJeff said:
I'd add: Don't do engineering unless you enjoy the subject matter. No hard major is worth doing if you don't like it or aren't interested in it.

I would add, that if you aren't interested/don't like it you may end up screwing yourself in the long run. Seriously, what happens if it comes back that you are not accepted, or you decide that medicine is not for you? I personally chose my undergraduate major based on a job that I could see myself doing for years to come. So that if this feel through or I hated my shadowing experience I could make a good living that I was happy with in the major I had chosen. (BTW, I am a genetic engineering major) :) I personally applied to 9 schools and I was offered 4 interviews by February. I accepted 2 of those interviews and was accepted to both of those schools. I will be MS I at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in the fall.
 
SeventhSon said:
i got a 3.9 in engineering from a top 15 eng school, and I definitely think ithelped me. That being said, getting that gpa came at the expense of a lot of other things that would have helped my app.

I loved my major so yeah if you won't enjoy it then forget it. However, realize that not only aren't people really going to give you much slack for GPA in a harder major, they also won't give you any slack in terms of the rest of your application for being an engineering major... you still have to have numerous ECs. I got waitlisted by over half the places i interviewed for MD-only.. i think i was missing the last piece of my app that pushed me over the top.

Adcoms really have no idea what a 3.9 in engineering means... I could have gotten a 3.9 in bio with 1/2 the work... oh well..

If you don't me asking, what is that missing piece? You MDapplicant profile have similiar ECs to mine except maybe for shadowing and cooping with an engineering company?
 
agreed with everyone else. im doin BME @ BU right now actually, i got around a 3.47 BCPM and overall. im scared beyond belief bout applying. even lookin' past the whole GPA thing, there are things bout BME that'll hurt. although i know we can "always find time", BME's are swamped with HW and tests IMHO (moreso than other majors) and this takes away from time that can be spent doing EC's. also, by being around other engineers all the time who aren't doing medicine, you will lose track of doing medical related EC's (or atleast i sure did!). while you're tryin to find shadowing and hospital jobs, they'll be lookin' into industry for coops and interships.

freckledoc, if you don't mind, could u give me an estimate on the amt of EC's you did as an undergrad and your MCAT?
 
Bluntman said:
A higher GPA will always trump a more difficult major.
This is the truth. If I did it all over again, knowing that I wanted to be a doc, I'd go to the local inner-city college (just a step up from a cc), get a degree in liberal arts, party it up every night, ace everything without trying, and get into med school on the first try. Would I be a better candidate? Who knows. But I sure would look better on paper...
 
I'm majoring in engineering (with an emphasis on the physics aspect) at a top 3 school. My GPA is "ok" (above 3.5) but not a slam dunk for any of the top tiers. When I apply next year I'll let you know how the theory pans out!


I'm not holding my breath though. My suspicion is that the GPA is far more important than the major, though obviously I'd like to be wrong in this case.
 
RxnMan said:
This is the truth. If I did it all over again, knowing that I wanted to be a doc, I'd go to the local inner-city college (just a step up from a cc), get a degree in liberal arts, party it up every night, ace everything without trying, and get into med school on the first try. Would I be a better candidate? Who knows. But I sure would look better on paper...

Yeah...
And I just don't buy that this is the case. I had a friend with a 3.2 from Harvard and a good MCAT. He got in to 3 top 20 schools. I know engineers with lower GPAs who have done well. Name means something. Major from a good college means something.

ADCOMs are not stupid. You and I know that a 3.7 at MIT is much harder to achieve than a 3.9 in most state college programs. ADCOMs know it too. They are looking for the best people to SUCCEED in their program. GPA is not the best way to measure this and ADCOMs are not stupid.
 
Mister Pie said:
I'm majoring in engineering (with an emphasis on the physics aspect) at a top 3 school. My GPA is "ok" (above 3.5) but not a slam dunk for any of the top tiers. When I apply next year I'll let you know how the theory pans out!


I'm not holding my breath though. My suspicion is that the GPA is far more important than the major, though obviously I'd like to be wrong in this case.

If you have done some other things and are from the HYP triad, apply to Harvard - you have a good shot of getting in with the pedigree and a decent GPA.
 
Kikaku21 said:
Yeah...
And I just don't buy that this is the case. I had a friend with a 3.2 from Harvard and a good MCAT. He got in to 3 top 20 schools. I know engineers with lower GPAs who have done well. Name means something. Major from a good college means something.

ADCOMs are not stupid. You and I know that a 3.7 at MIT is much harder to achieve than a 3.9 in most state college programs. ADCOMs know it too. They are looking for the best people to SUCCEED in their program. GPA is not the best way to measure this and ADCOMs are not stupid.
My interpretation of the OP is that engineering is a way to get in to medical school with lower grades. If I misinterpreted it, then I'm wrong. But I do know that 300-level Biochem (a walk in the park for me,) is not comparable to 300-level Chemical Reactor Design and Catalysis (a Chem Eng class); it is apples and oranges. The level of effort required/grade is different and your competition for those grades (classmates) is different. Both departments grade on a 4.0 scale, so this leads to simple (and incorrect) comparison. Engineering is not a way to get into med school with grades below the average matriculant.

To address your point, Kikaku21, I agree - name, major, all that means something. But when you're an ADCOM faced with teaching duties and in-house call while reducing the pile of 5k-10k applications to a managable size, you filter. You filter by GPA and MCAT. School attended and degree factor in later, when they actually read your application. Thus, if I could do it all over again, I'd have a lot more fun, do a degree that didn't force me to work too hard, and look better for it. Would I get into a top 3 school? Maybe. In terms of opportunities provided for work invested, I think you would get a better deal with my plan.
 
RxnMan said:
My interpretation of the OP is that engineering is a way to get in to medical school with lower grades. If I misinterpreted it, then I'm wrong. But I do know that 300-level Biochem (a walk in the park for me,) is not comparable to 300-level Chemical Reactor Design and Catalysis (a Chem Eng class); it is apples and oranges. The level of effort required/grade is different and your competition for those grades (classmates) is different. Both departments grade on a 4.0 scale, so this leads to simple (and incorrect) comparison. Engineering is not a way to get into med school with grades below the average matriculant.

To address your point, Kikaku21, I agree - name, major, all that means something. But when you're an ADCOM faced with teaching duties and in-house call while reducing the pile of 5k-10k applications to a managable size, you filter. You filter by GPA and MCAT. School attended and degree factor in later, when they actually read your application. Thus, if I could do it all over again, I'd have a lot more fun, do a degree that didn't force me to work too hard, and look better for it. Would I get into a top 3 school? Maybe. In terms of opportunities provided for work invested, I think you would get a better deal with my plan.


Yes you are probably right. If you have a 3.3 in Nuclear engineering, you might not make the first cut. But a 3.5 is good enough to make most 1st cuts. Hopefully, for the sake of engineers everywhere, they start really reading the application after that.... :scared:
 
Zuerst said:
If you don't me asking, what is that missing piece? You MDapplicant profile have similiar ECs to mine except maybe for shadowing and cooping with an engineering company?

all of my letter of rec were from people i did research with or worked with... I felt I was missing a letter that was talking about me as a potential physician... some of that was due to no shadowing and only hospital volunteering as clinical.

That "one" thing could have been anything... either good amount of time as an EMT, more leadership, or a lot more research (was not wise in retrospect to apply md/phd this year). If i could choose to do one of them, I would say something humanistically leadership-oriented. I was asked at an md interview (stanford) what is my greatest accomplishment, and I said something about research I had done, where i felt it was much more fitting to talk about something humanistic... I think adcoms think that way too.
 
I think if you have the motivation to do an engineering major you should. If it comes down to an engineering major and a bio major, and ALL other things are equal besides the major.......i'd put my money on the engineering major getting in....its just a more well rounded major.
 
Zubair said:
Can some of you engineering majors (from UIUC or other good engineering schools) give your experiences? I always thought it would be really hard to get into med school being an engineer since its so hard to get good grades? I'm a computer engineering major at UIUC...

What do u guys think?


Perhaps engineers are a tad more stable and less freakishly anxious all of the time like their bio/chem counterparts. No? Luckily, I was not around any "premeds" in any of my engineering classes - certainly this contributed to my success
 
Adcoms are smart.

They know engineering degrees produce better problem-solvers and individuals with better analyisis skills than, say, biology. -in general.

Someone said a 3.5 BME doesn't mean the person would have a 3.8 biology. Agreed. But the 3.5 BME is much more impressive than the 3.8 biology. My opinion at least.
 
juiceman311 said:
Someone said a 3.5 BME doesn't mean the person would have a 3.8 biology. Agreed. But the 3.5 BME is much more impressive than the 3.8 biology. My opinion at least.


agreed

juiceman311 said:
Adcoms are smart.

They know engineering degrees produce better problem-solvers and individuals with better analyisis skills than, say, biology. -in general..

disagreed, most of them are NOT engineers, they have no clue.
 
SeventhSon said:
disagreed, most of them are NOT engineers, they have no clue.

Not sure I agree. I think they have a clue. I'm sure, from experience, they feel engineers can handle the med school cirriculum more seamlessly. We're used to not going out on weekends when we can't afford to.

Maybe wishful thinking on my behalf.

Either way, I still have a 3.34, but I feel that I'm still competitive.
 
My personal experience as a engineering premed is that my engineering major helped cover up my mistakes as a premed :D

I did better in my engineering classes than some of my premed courses and I just told my interviewer that I had a difficult courseload---which was true!

I am not able to see into the mind of the adcom people, but I've been told that adcoms tend to allow for lower than average GPA as long as your other stuff is ok---in other words, your premed related courses better be good, but if you didn't do as well in engineering, that's ok since it's a more difficult courseload. My MCAT is only the average of the med school I will be attending this fall but I got in with a 3.4 where the average GPA is a 3.7. Not an URM, but I guess I may be an exception (since others here seem to think their engineering GPA had hurt, rather than help them).
 
Nexus777 said:
If you have done some other things and are from the HYP triad, apply to Harvard - you have a good shot of getting in with the pedigree and a decent GPA.

Oops, I meant top 3 engineering school, so the likes of MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford. Still, I plan on applying broadly (always the smart thing to do, IMO) and hope for the best.

This thread makes me feel a bit better. I always thought I was being foolhardy for sticking with my engineering major which seemed so unrelated to bio.
 
donks06 said:
Panda Bear,

I saw your post about engineering and was wondering what schools you were talking about. I incidentally was an electrical engineer :) that became a military officer :D after I graduated. I am now working on my MS in Biological Engineering and applying to med school this fall. I would really like to apply to the schools you are talking about.

My MD Applicants profile is attached if you have any other words of wisdom.

Thanks.

I applied to two medical schools, LSU New Orleans and LSU Shreveport and was accepted at both.

No real words of wisdom. Just that it's not that hard to get into most medical schools. If you apply to enough you will get in somewhere. I think all 6000 pre-meds on SDN are shooting for Harvard and will feel like failures if they don't land one of the 60 spots there but there are no bad medical schools.
 
Panda Bear said:
I applied to two medical schools, LSU New Orleans and LSU Shreveport and was accepted at both.

No real words of wisdom. Just that it's not that hard to get into most medical schools. If you apply to enough you will get in somewhere. I think all 6000 pre-meds on SDN are shooting for Harvard and will feel like failures if they don't land one of the 60 spots there but there are no bad medical schools.

But you graduated from Duke. What made you decide to transfer?
 
juiceman311 said:
Adcoms are smart.

They know engineering degrees produce better problem-solvers and individuals with better analyisis skills than, say, biology. -in general.

Someone said a 3.5 BME doesn't mean the person would have a 3.8 biology. Agreed. But the 3.5 BME is much more impressive than the 3.8 biology. My opinion at least.

the people selecting the entering class aren't usually the ones getting a first-hand look at the students that they pick in the classroom.
 
Engineering is not the "key" to med school. It could be your key if this is a major that fits you. I had a 3.5 undergrad in Mech Engr. and almost all A's in my pre-med courses from a community college. I was never asked about the couple C's I had in my upper level engr courses. My advantage was that I've been an engineer for 8 years. My experience as an engineer definitely helped me get accepted. In your case, I recommend staying with engineering if you enjoy what you're learning and you think you can hit >3.65 overall.
 
There have been many good points made on this thread. Please allow me to indulge in reiterating the main ones...

Engineering is definitely not the easy short cut to med school. For most engineering majors, there's very little overlap with premed courses and therefore less time for ECs. It's a challenging road to take. Fortunately, many adcoms take this into consideration (more so at the top schools in my experience). If you have fairly similar stats and ECs with a Bio major, the engineering degree will push you over the top. But you still have to get to the Big Dance with the GPA, MCAT, and ECs like everyone else.

Good luck fellow premed/engineers!
 
Rafa said:
But you graduated from Duke. What made you decide to transfer?

No. I graduated from LSU-Shreveport Medical School. I scrambled into Family Medicine at Duke after not matchng in Emergency Medicine and have just finished my first year of residency here and my last as I am moving to Michigan in one week to start Emergency Medicine after I reapplied for the match and was successful.
 
SeventhSon said:
the people selecting the entering class aren't usually the ones getting a first-hand look at the students that they pick in the classroom.

Hi, Bluntman asked me to chime in on this thread.

Many (most) of the adcom members have first hand experience with students either in the classroom or in the wards.

One of the first things I learned as a new adcom member was that engineering courses are hard and when I see a transcript with engineering courses (I scan the entire transcript keeping in mind the school attended) I consider that fact. I think that most adcoms know that engineering courses are graded more fiercely (on a curve) and the classroom competition is different.

That said, most adcoms are looking at the whole picture. Poor grades can get you weeded out (when the median gpa is >3.6, and one is faced with 6,000+ applications it is hard to give serious consideration to a gpa <3.2) but if your MCAT (the great leveler) and grades, taking into consideration the degree of difficulty of the courses taken and the undergraduate college, get you past the first cut, then it is your letters, personal statement, and ECs that are what matters with regard to who gets an interview. Keep in mind that up to 90% of those who do not get admitted are cut prior to interview.

At the interview, personality and verbal communication comes into play. Engineers (and there are exceptions) are not always the most engaging and sparkling conversationalists and they sometimes lose points or come across as less passionate than the more extroverted applicants.

I think that engineers have an up-hill climb to medical school. No major is a guarantee of admission. Major in what you love. Work on all the other aspects of the application (you won't be given a pass on the clinical experince ("have you smelled patients?") requirement because you were in a time consuming major). As a third year med student (and often even sooner) you are going to be interviewing patients, asking them very personal questions, trying to make a connection, earn their trust and gain their confidence. Much of medicine involves this type of interaction, if not with the patient, then with members of the patient's family. While adcoms want to weed out students who don't have the academic talents and study habits to succeed in the first 2 years of medical school, the bigger picture means looking at who is going to be a talented and empathetic provider of services in the clinical years and beyond.

:luck:
 
i got a 3.9 in engineering from a top 15 eng school, and I definitely think ithelped me. That being said, getting that gpa came at the expense of a lot of other things that would have helped my app.

I loved my major so yeah if you won't enjoy it then forget it. However, realize that not only aren't people really going to give you much slack for GPA in a harder major, they also won't give you any slack in terms of the rest of your application for being an engineering major... you still have to have numerous ECs. I got waitlisted by over half the places i interviewed for MD-only.. i think i was missing the last piece of my app that pushed me over the top.

Adcoms really have no idea what a 3.9 in engineering means... I could have gotten a 3.9 in bio with 1/2 the work... oh well..

Is that same for international trained engineers; I mean i got 3.92 GPA? I am international trained engineer with PE and have 17 yrs exp; does it make any difference?
 
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