Engineering to Medical School

[irishforever182]

Hi everyone,

I recently graduated with my BS in chemical engineering and am now working as a process engineer in manufacturing of syringe diabetes products at a large pharmaceutical company. This job involves supporting a 24/7 manufacturing line, interfacing directly with the equipment used to formulate the drug and engineers are on call to fix any problems on the line at any time outside normal working hours. While this job has been a great learning experience and I am glad to be able to use my chemical engineering degree to make medicine, I have never felt strongly passionate about engineering and since I have begun my job + have internship experience at the same company in a similar role the previous summer, am confident I want to go into medicine, to be the one delivering the medicine to the patient. I had originally planned to apply the 2024-2025 cycle but since moving to a new city and starting my job, I have decided that it is in my best interest to wait and apply the 2025-2026 cycle. That being said, I am volunteering at the local childrens hospital 4h/week, tutoring in reading .5h/week and also going to volunteer at either a hospice or drug rehab. I hope to also get ample hours of shadowing in as well. I also need to take an introductory psychology course as that is the one course I am missing that is a medical school requirement. Currently, I am planning to start studying for the MCAT in January with a tentative test date of late may, but can push back if necessary as I will be studying after work and on weekends but also will be on call during this time.

I had a 3.76 undergrad GPA in engineering with a 3.83 sGPA. I have one semester of light research experience in a water purification lab (during Covid) and did an extensive senior design project on designing a process for the production of a Crohn’s disease drug which I was told by an advisor could also count towards research.

I was wondering if this seems like a feasible plan and if there is more I should be doing to increase my chances of medical school admission. I will be 24 while I am applying, hoping to matriculate at age 25. I appreciate any and all feedback/advice. Thank you!!

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[Angler]

Given that you will have almost two more years prior to your AMCAS submission, this is clearly doable. Your GPA is fine. Get a good MCAT score. Being a ChemE should help! Arrange your LOR's now while you remember your college profs (maybe they remember you). As you indicate, get clinical experience (sounds like maybe 300 hours of clinical volunteering, not counting hospice/drug rehab; this might be a little on the low side compared to many applicants). You'll need non clinical volunteering (hospice or drug rehab may not count -- food bank, soup kitchen is non clinical). 50 hours shadowing (primary care is the best here, but specialties are ok) ... But you know all these things, it looks like! Look at some of the threads in the WAMC forum to get an idea of the hours required for these EC's. You need to check the boxes (without looking like that's all you're doing!).

Get an idea of your target schools, in terms of mission fit, GPA/MCAT percentiles, location. MSAR is a good starting resource.

Try to shadow early on. Maybe once you see the nitty gritty of a doctor's day, you won't like it...