Is the safe path worth it? HELP

[Klay10]

Hi everyone, first time poster here. Sorry for the wall of text. I'm currently enrolled and on my way to the flagship public university in my state that has a medical school in its system. I am completely financially supporting myself while there, but I have scholarships that cover all expenses for 5 years (why I chose this specific state school.)

I want to become a doctor. I have shadowed extensively, lurked this thread for years during high school, and questioned every doctor I've come into contact with to learn as much as possible. I am incredibly hardworking and social and get joy and a sense of purpose from face-to-face interaction and assistance to people. I think I would make a great family med or emergency doctor. But that is about a decade off and I am not naive to think I know how well I will test or what options will be available to me or if I will have the same attitude down the line.

So this is my dilemma, I have no clue if I'm cut out for medical school or becoming a doctor. Being a doctor requires an insane amount of dedication, diligence, and intelligence that I have just not figured out if I'm capable of yet. I'm currently top 1% in high school, national merit, perfect standardized tests, 5's on AP tests, but my experience in high school is not even comparable to a rigorous or prestigious undergraduate let alone a graduate program or medical school. So I think I have my work cut out for me into first even knowing if I'm capable.

Both my parents are engineers, I know if I couldnt make it as a doctor I would love to "settle" for being a mechanical engineer. So I'm trying to major in mechanical engineering to have as a backup program. My issue arises from trying to get a perfect GPA in this difficult major at my school while taking pre reqs, shadowing, clinicals, and studying for the MCAT. Also I might have to CO-OP to make my engineering degree worth anything in the real world. This would be incredibly difficult for me and not too efficient as it would probably take me 6 years to fit everything in.

Or... I could do what everyone does and get a related major such as Biology, Chemistry, or Biomedical Engineering and put all my eggs into the medical school basket, because I would be absolutely miserable working a job with just a bachelor's degree in any of those, but I could do well in school to get them GPA-wise.

So should I take the gamble to be a better medical school candidate, graduating sooner and cheaper, with a useless (to me) bachelors, or should I invest in my bachelor's degree, take longer and spend more money, in order to ensure an escape route?

Experiences and advice greatly needed! Thanks.

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[jih]

No matter what you do, you should have a backup plan in case you change your mind or cannot get into medical school. For me it was biomedical engineering, and although it was difficult, the rigorous coursework gave me valuable critical thinking and problem solving skills that most other premeds missed out on. I believe that it helped me do exceptionally well on the MCAT, and it will help me excel in the preclinical years.

However, you are correct in that you will have a much harder time than your peers in "easy" majors to maintain a high GPA. If you sincerely believe that you are capable of doing it, then go for it. Keep in mind that you won't be able to drink and party as much as everyone else, though, or you will give up your chances at medical school.

If you do decide to major in engineering, I would ignore internships and co-ops for now. If medical school doesn't work out, you can always pursue an MS and get your experience then. In undergrad focus on the ECs you will need for medical school.

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[Goro]

Here are several things that will let you know if you're cut out for this process:

1) volunteer with patients.
2) shadow some doctors, and see what their day is like
3) Take the med school pre-reqs, to see if you can handle tough courses. Take Anatomy and Biochemisty as well. I actually do not believe that being trained as an engineer, (and yes, I know it's a VERY rigorous training) actually let's you know if you can handle med school. The engineers who enter our program tend to have academic trouble here.
4) Volunteer in non-clinical settings, preferably with people who are less fortunate than yourself. Medicine is a service profession.

We get that you're smart, but being a doctor is more than merely doing well in college and med school. We don't want people who are merely good students, we want people who will be good doctors.

So this is my dilemma, I have no clue if I'm cut out for medical school or becoming a doctor. Being a doctor requires an insane amount of dedication, diligence, and intelligence that I have just not figured out if I'm capable of yet. I'm currently top 1% in high school, national merit, perfect standardized tests, 5's on AP tests, but my experience in high school is not even comparable to a rigorous or prestigious undergraduate let alone a graduate program or medical school.

 

[eteshoe]

I have a few thoughts on this subject. And this is speaking as someone who went with a kind of ridiculous UG major combo (ChemE / Biochem) and worked in industry as an engineer for a couple yrs (plus internships).

1. If you want to pursue the ME degree, that's fine but it will be a bit awkward fitting in all the pre-req courses due to the inherent nature of that major. This is why many engineering pre-meds tend to be BMEs. Also, it may just be smarter to give up your dreams of having a perfect GPA. I'm not saying it's not possible, but your time and effort would be better spent not killing yourself in such a manner. Aim for a 3.8 or 3.9 and you're fine for any med school or job (if you don't choose medicine)

2. Doing well in an engineering major is going to be difficult but as long as you're willing to be disciplined in your study regiments and utilizing all the resources available (office hrs, tutoring center, upperclassmen, friends, google, etc) - it is achievable.

3. Of course get involved with the appropriate ECs as @Goro mentioned to see if you really want to go down this path. Also take the time to do well on your MCAT (which shouldn't be too much trouble if you did so well on your SAT/ACT).

4. I will have to say though that from my perspective, the engineering training actually helped me handle the data dump/torrent that med school threw at me a bit better. Not saying it wasn't hard, but the shock would have been a little more pronounced if I wasn't used to a ridiculous course load already.

 

[7331poas]

I did what you are thinking about. I am a computer science major and was willing to be a software developer if my ambitions did not work out.

All I can say is I am very happy I did it. What I got out of it was a wide breadth of knowledge in the engineering field, as well as ECs which I would call unique.

Fitting in the pre reqs is not really as hard as other posters state. I fit all the pre reqs, along with a ton of other courses which I took for fun and I will still graduate on time. All of this plus the ECs that med schools want to see.

If you want a safe path btw, computer science is the way to go, not ME as far as the job market is concerned. Actually, in general CS is the way to go, even above medicine.

 

[MaxPlancker]

Also, it may just be smarter to give up your dreams of having a perfect GPA. I'm not saying it's not possible, but your time and effort would be better spent not killing yourself in such a manner. Aim for a 3.8 or 3.9 and you're fine for any med school or job (if you don't choose medicine)

I can't stress how important this is IMO. Study your college grading system carefully. In my case, we only had solid letters no +/-'s. Why put in the extra hour or two for that 100 when an 89.5 is a 4.0? If you miss an A in a few classes, big deal who cares. You can devote hundreds of hours more to what really matters by doing this in college. Beyond academics, your ECs that separate you from the crowd really is mainly dependent on how much time you spend on them. You want productive research? Probably wise to spend more than 10-15 hours a week in lab. Sure, there's an element of luck etc but time is by and large the secret to having a stellar app.

To add a bit more, it's better to drop the mentality of trying to be perfect as soon as possible. You will get rekt emotionally having that mindset in med school and life.

 

[Goro]

Indeed! Perfect is the enemy of good.

We find that perfectionists attempt to learn everything, and end up learning nothing. That, and they're in our offices all the time trying explain why their 96 should actually be a 97.

I can't stress how important this is IMO. Study your college grading system carefully. In my case, we only had solid letters no +/-'s. Why put in the extra hour or two for that 100 when an 89.5 is a 4.0? If you miss an A in a few classes, big deal who cares. You can devote hundreds of hours more to what really matters by doing this in college. Beyond academics, your ECs that separate you from the crowd really is mainly dependent on how much time you spend on them. You want productive research? Probably wise to spend more than 10-15 hours a week in lab. Sure, there's an element of luck etc but time is by and large the secret to having a stellar app.

To add a bit more, it's better to drop the mentality of trying to be perfect as soon as possible. You will get rekt emotionally having that mindset in med school and life.

 

[Cookiess]

Going with the mechanical engineering degree would be fine. Regardless of the degree path you pick, you would still have to take the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math pre-reqs in order to be able to apply for medical school. As mentioned, a lot of people interested in the engineering route pick BME since there's overlap with the pre-med coursework requirements. Just know that if you decided to go the mechanical engineering route, you would take the pre-med pre-reqs on top of your ME classes and that can be tough academically. I'll echo the fact that you don't need a perfect GPA to get into med school.

If you do go the ME route, I would do some volunteer work (both clinical and non-clinical) as well as have some clinical experiences during college instead of doing a Co-Op so that you would be ready to apply to medical school when you graduate or after a gap year. If you decide to not go with the medicine route, you could always get your ME experiences in at that point, but if you skip out on the pre-med experiences during college, you may have to take extra time off after graduation to get those experiences in.

 

[Klay10]

If you do decide to major in engineering, I would ignore internships and co-ops for now. If medical school doesn't work out, you can always pursue an MS and get your experience then.

I did not even consider getting in the oh-so-criticial "experience" while doing a graduate degree, which I would love to pursue if medical school didnt accept me on my first second... third try. Is that how it works? My limited understanding was that graduate students just locked themselves in from 7am to 7pm everyday doing papers and research, would that make me just as employable as the kids doing co-ops and "actual" jobs?

If you want a safe path btw, computer science is the way to go, not ME as far as the job market is concerned. Actually, in general CS is the way to go, even above medicine.

Could you explain this further for me? How is the future of mechanical engineering careers looking? I always heard it was one of the best paying and most versatile engineering paths. Is the future not solid for it?

Thanks everyone for all the advice.

 

[jih]

I did not even consider getting in the oh-so-criticial "experience" while doing a graduate degree, which I would love to pursue if medical school didnt accept me on my first second... third try. Is that how it works? My limited understanding was that graduate students just locked themselves in from 7am to 7pm everyday doing papers and research, would that make me just as employable as the kids doing co-ops and "actual" jobs?



Could you explain this further for me? How is the future of mechanical engineering careers looking? I always heard it was one of the best paying and most versatile engineering paths. Is the future not solid for it?

Thanks everyone for all the advice.

What I meant was if you don't get in anywhere, you can do an internship or co op before graduate school starts. Additionally, at my school the MS engineering students have a lot of time. It's the PhD that takes away all of it.

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[7331poas]

Could you explain this further for me? How is the future of mechanical engineering careers looking? I always heard it was one of the best paying and most versatile engineering paths. Is the future not solid for it?
.

I am saying that CS would be better than ME. Not necessarily that ME is going to crap.

 

[Crayola227]

go the escape route

you will only know if you can handle the pressure by working hard

a full course of studying and getting high marks, coupled with work and service activities on top of that trying to amount to 60-80 hrs per week of productive time for four years straight will give you *some* idea if you can cut it