Engineering to Medicine

[VoidableStar]

Hey everyone, I wanted to get some feedback about how to be a more competitive applicant to get accepted into medical school. I'd also like to know what my odds are of getting in to a mid to higher tier school. I'm working on my undergrad in chemical engineering, and decided I'm more passionate about medicine and would prefer to be a doctor or perhaps a physician engineer. I’ve heard of several programs in Texas that offer dual degrees in biomedical engineering along with the MD (for example, the Texas A & M EnMed program), and those have drawn my interest. I’m planning on taking the MCAT in early June of 2020 and applying that summer.



-Cumulative GPA: 3.95

-Major GPA: 3.97

-I started volunteering at a hospital for a few hours a week, which I plan to continue until applying to med schools next year. I believe this will count toward the patient exposure hours.

-I work as a research assistant determining thermophysical chemical properties as well as on a team led by a biomedical professor that is working on growing nerve tissue.

-I have a 2 year gap in my college education where I was serving a mission in Washington, DC. I learned French and interacted with natives for 16 hours a day


===============================================================================

Hey everyone, I have a bit of an update.


Applying: I'd love to apply to Mayo AZ campus because they have dual-degree engineering options but I don't know if I'm just wasting my time. Other than that, I'll be applying to University of AZ, TAMU (EnMed in particular) UT at Austin, UTMB Health, UT Southwestern, University of Colorado, McGovern at UTHSCH, UT Health San Antonia. Top choices are Mayo and TAMU EnMed.

Year in School: 4th year of 5

Residence: Arizona

Major: Chemical Engineering

GPA: 3.97

MCAT: Previous practice tests have me confident that I can score at least 518, I'm hoping for higher

Research:

Thermophysical properties lab for two years (~300 hrs):
Nerve research team for one year (currently ~80 hrs, but will continue work in this lab until graduation, and plan to have ~200 hrs by then): likely won't have any publications before applying, but may have one by the time interviews role around
Protein modeling team for one semester (plan to continue until graduation; will soon be a contributing author on a paper, but it likely won't be out by interview time)
Clinical Volunteering: currently at about 80 hours at a local hospital, this may be all I can do due to COVID-19 precautions; I've begun volunteering at Red Cross Blood Drives as a Blood Donor Ambassador and am currently at about 40 hours with them.

Shadowing: currently only at ~30 hours, 25 with anesthesiologist and 5 with otolaryngologist, still seeking more but again, this may be all I get depending on COVID-19. I will likely be able to shadow a radiologist for several hours soon.

Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~350 hours total, spent two years in DC as a volunteer working with refugees and West African immigrants, volunteering at an autism foundation, currently volunteer at a children's center and as an interpreter at a volunteer representative training center. With COVID-19 I've begun volunteering at a food bank in need of help and I'm hoping to have ~20 hours with them soon, also volunteering with Red Cross as I mentioned above.

Extracurricular Activities: VP of my school's chapter of Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, lead researcher in thermophysical properties group, participation in various honor society such as Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Pi Delta Phi French National Honor Society, Golden Key International Honor Society

Employment History:

Worked two summers full-time in France, once as an administrative assistant where I helped teach English and once as a research intern for a France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research, where I contributed to their Polluscope Project aiming to create personal/portable pollution sensors for at-risk individuals; and I feel that this helped me a lot in terms of professional development.
Worked as an undergraduate TA for an introductory chemical engineering course, leading review sessions, grading homework, and answering students' questions via email and in a weekly office hour.
Since being a TA, I worked as a research assistant, first in combustion studies, then in thermophysical properties, and now in protein modeling and nerve regeneration.

Immediate family member in medicine: No

Specialty of Interest: First choice is engineering in medicine, like TAMU's EnMed program; Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Pathology

Any advice on what I can do at this point to maximize my chances of acceptance, especially at Mayo or TAMU EnMed? Again, I don't know if I'm just wasting my time with Mayo or even both, so any advice would be great. Also any programs I'm missing that you know of that have an engineering emphasis/dual degree would be great.

Thanks!

-I haven’t started shadowed a doctor yet, but plan to very soon.



Any advice is greatly appreciated, especially from people who are already past being a pre-med. I’d mostly like to know if I have a good chance of being accepted, and I’d especially appreciate any information about my chances for the physician engineer programs being offered. A potential school would also be super helpful. Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[candbgirl]

What French speaking natives did you interact with in DC for 16 hours a day?
The purpose of nonclinical volunteering is to show your altruism to the unserved/underserved in your community. That’s why I’m asking what you did and with whom. You need about 50 hours of shadowing including some time with a primary care doc. Keep up with your clinical volunteering too. Even after you apply.
Nobody can predict your chances or develop a list for you until you have your MCAT score. So come back when you have your score.
Are you a Texas resident? If not be aware that Texas schools are mandated by law to have 90 percent Texas residents in each med school class. So OOS accepted are rare. But look at Carle in Champaign ,IL. They are a new school and their focus is engineering in medicine. Good luck coming.

 

[VoidableStar]

What French speaking natives did you interact with in DC for 16 hours a day?
The purpose of nonclinical volunteering is to show your altruism to the unserved/underserved in your community. That’s why I’m asking what you did and with whom. You need about 50 hours of shadowing including some time with a primary care doc. Keep up with your clinical volunteering too. Even after you apply.
Nobody can predict your chances or develop a list for you until you have your MCAT score. So come back when you have your score.
Are you a Texas resident? If not be aware that Texas schools are mandated by law to have 90 percent Texas residents in each med school class. So OOS accepted are rare. But look at Carle in Champaign ,IL. They are a new school and their focus is engineering in medicine. Good luck coming.

Thank you for that info! I'm very new to the whole pre-med situation as I've only recently decided to go this direction. The French-speaking natives I worked with work West African immigrants, most of them in very poor situations.

I'm looking into shadowing a doctor soon, hopefully starting next semester. I'll keep up my volunteering too!

I'm not a Texas resident. I was aware that OOS acceptances are rare, but I didn't realize there was a 90% mandate, so thank you for making me aware of that. I've heard of Carle and will definitely look into it. Thank you so much!

 

[MyOdyssey]

Hey everyone, I wanted to get some feedback about how to be a more competitive applicant to get accepted into medical school. I'd also like to know what my odds are of getting in to a mid to higher tier school. I'm working on my undergrad in chemical engineering, and decided I'm more passionate about medicine and would prefer to be a doctor or perhaps a physician engineer. I’ve heard of several programs in Texas that offer dual degrees in biomedical engineering along with the MD (for example, the Texas A & M EnMed program), and those have drawn my interest. I’m planning on taking the MCAT in early June of 2020 and applying that summer.



-Cumulative GPA: 3.95

-Major GPA: 3.97

-I started volunteering at a hospital for a few hours a week, which I plan to continue until applying to med schools next year. I believe this will count toward the patient exposure hours.

-I work as a research assistant determining thermophysical chemical properties as well as on a team led by a biomedical professor that is working on growing nerve tissue.

-I have a 2 year gap in my college education where I was serving a mission in Washington, DC. I learned French and interacted with natives for 16 hours a day

-I haven’t started shadowed a doctor yet, but plan to very soon.



Any advice is greatly appreciated, especially from people who are already past being a pre-med. I’d mostly like to know if I have a good chance of being accepted, and I’d especially appreciate any information about my chances for the physician engineer programs being offered. A potential school would also be super helpful. Thanks!

Harvard has a track for physician engineers that requires additional quantative coursework beyond the usual premed - e.g. calc based physics, dif equations, linear algebra, etc.

 

[HKSZYU]

Small suggestion: while your plan of taking the MCAT June 2020 and applying that same cycle is doable, it is tight. You'll need to wait a month after taking the exam to receive your score, which would mean you wouldn't be able to finalize a school list until early to mid-July. Taking the exam 4-6 weeks earlier would set you up to be able to submit right at the beginning of the cycle and have a finalized school list such that you can begin pre-writing secondaries.

 

[VoidableStar]

Small suggestion: while your plan of taking the MCAT June 2020 and applying that same cycle is doable, it is tight. You'll need to wait a month after taking the exam to receive your score, which would mean you wouldn't be able to finalize a school list until early to mid-July. Taking the exam 4-6 weeks earlier would set you up to be able to submit right at the beginning of the cycle and have a finalized school list such that you can begin pre-writing secondaries.

You're right, I have been thinking about that. I think I'll aim to talk it closer to April or May. Thanks for that advice!

 

[VoidableStar]

Harvard has a track for physician engineers that requires additional quantative coursework beyond the usual premed - e.g. calc based physics, dif equations, linear algebra, etc.

Great! Do you know where I can find more specific information about the program?

 

[MyOdyssey]

Great! Do you know where I can find more specific information about the program?

Health Sciences & Technology

Founded in 1970, the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) is one of the world’s oldest interdisciplinary educational programs focused on translational medical science and engineering.

meded.hms.harvard.edu