m.eng degree?

[freshandclean]

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hi everyone,
im a soon to be reapplicant (i think) and i have a few questions. in my off year of reapplying (i am also taking the august mcat if that is of any relelvance to anything) ive considered a few options. im into research, and i am also very interested in biomedical engineering. my gpa is a low point of my application, and i guess heres my situation:

i have considered doing an md.phd program, but am not definite either way. my top choice medical school (state school) at this point has a m.eng program in BME which is project based not thesis based (a one year program). if i did this and got into school there, those classes i took for a year would actually count directly towards the phd, and in the long run, it would really be like i never even took a year off. (thought the actual sequnce i took grad classes vs. med classes would be different than the usual scenario) but would mstp programs, (or even straight-md programs in general) frown upon an m.eng degree? ive heard that they would becasue its geared towards a career as an engineer not a physician or researcher.. if thats the case would i be better off just doing a year of research at a lab somehwere? thanks everyone for your time!!!

 

[JETER]

From my own personal data, I would have to say that in regards to admission into an MSTP, getting the M.Eng would be more or less a waste of time. That is not to say that you can't personally gain from getting it, but it won't make any difference when it comes to getting the thumbs up/down. I'm not sure about the specifics of your program, but I would imagine that it is not funded, and you would be footing a bill to earn a degree that most likely will not help you out (meaning that if you have a PhD in BME, the pseudo-masters will be meaningless anyways).

If research interests you, look into a regular MS. Several aspects of this are appealing: 1. You get to do some truly novel stuff, develop a thesis, and have two years to work on publications. 2. The classes you take will still count toward your PhD. 3. You will have a leg up on some of the other BME applicants (some schools limit the number that can go into engineering, or even the number that they invite for interviews, so having the graduate degree with proven research only helps you here. 4. It demonstrates that you can succeed in grad school, and the two years of protected research time adds a lot to your applications. And 5. You get paid.

While it took me two years to get my MS in engineering, I don't think that will affect the total time to graduation too much. I have taken a lot of credits, and most of which (~32) are transferable (this takes some negotiation, however), so that eliminates at least a year of formal classwork (most PhDs in engineering require ~40something credits in courswork, most of which are not exempt, for obvious reasons, by med school). In addition, you will have learned from your many mistakes, mostly regarding how to choose a lab/mentor, how to write/submit publications, how to manage your time, the list goes on and on. While these may not decrease the total time in grad school, they will certainly make your time there less frustrating and more productive.

This is just from my experience, however, and could be totally off here