mechanical engineering major may want to go premed-how to do clinical work, etc.

[Tim Haas]

Hey all, im a senior in high school and was just wondering how i could go about doing medical extra curriculars if im doing mech. engineering for my major, and its a 5 yr thing. Should i try and do like clinical work during my 5 yrs in college doing mech. engineering ? or how will this work?

I just wanna have the option of gettin into med school, ya know? Well, if i take all prereq's, exactly what are they?, and i do all that what kind of extra curriculars can/should i do? tahnks a lot

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[Wrigleyville]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. If you're wanting to get clinical exposure, volunteer at a hospital. If you want to take pre-med classes, you'll need to take:

General Chemistry (w/ lab)
Organic Chemistry (w/lab)
General Biology (w/lab)

You'll want to squeeze in some upper level biology classes later on as well.

But I guess the question is, why would you want to do this? Are you wanting to combine your interests in medicine/engineering somehow? It seems to me like you're looking at medicine as some sort of a backup plan, a plan that probably isn't very well thought-out.

The best advice I can give you is to start doing volunteer work now, and see if medicine is something you're interested in doing. If it is not, you can save yourself the trouble of taking all the extra classes. If it is something you'd want to do, you can dispense with the engineering classes (which will brutalize your GPA), and save yourself a year of your life (I think engineers do 5-years at CWRU? Some sort of co-op thing?).

 

[Tim Haas]

well, thing is is that i love math and technology....Rochester institute of tech. is where im goin, and they have the 5 yr coop. In order for me to even afford med school and stuff, i have to get a degree and get a good job and work for awhile then go back and try to get into med school. $ Is the main issue here, as i have no $ saved for college already, and my mom only makes like 20k a year and my parents are divorced...I really am interested in the med field, so thats why my interest is here...

Also, mech engineers graduation from RIt make like 50k a year starting , so thats a huge plus for me. That will allow me to pay off the Rit dues and then save for med school if i wanna really go, down the road.....understand ?

 

[Adcadet]

OK, so how do you start volunteering? Well, first see if your college has a volunteer office with info. If not, start calling up hospitals and medical organizations (I think having one good medical volunteer experience, and one non-medical experience is a pretty good way to go as long as the non-medical one still involves helping people). I'd start with medical organizations to see if you like medicine. Look for something that you can see yourself doing for all 5 years (but of course, if you hate it drop it fast to find something you do like), and preferably something where you add responsibilities/intensity as your time and skills allow - whether this is a slightly different position or just getting to do more. I've had a wonderful experience with an in-home hospice program...just a thought. EMT stuff seems common (and overdone), though it requires extra schooling that you, for economic reasons, may want to avoid (though, you do get paid as an EMT at some places, so maybe this is a good choice).

 

[Adcadet]

p.s. starting to think very seriously about pre-med stuff now is very smart. Planning is important.

p.p.s. I hope Tim Haas isn't your real name, as privacy issues may crop up when you start applying, interviewing, and asked to give out your stats.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by sacrament
Using medicine as a back-up to engineering is exactly backwards, it's true. However, I feel that engineering is a perfectly legitimate, maybe even wise, choice as a pre-med major. You need to stay on top of your game in order to maintain GPA, but the study of engineering instills a problem-solving mindset that I think is useful in medicine, besides providing a good background for various medical research avenues.

I know of some people who are in med school and wish they were engineering majors, since they are interested in working in/with biomedical engineering stuff. Rumor has it that engineering majors are more difficult than other majors. Some think that adcoms know this, and will mentally adjust your GPA (i.e. an engineering GPA of 3.2=a normal 3.4 GPA). I don't think anybody would tell you not to do engineering - just keep in mind that a lower engineering GPA may not hurt you. But then again any sort of lower GPA might. So who knows.

 

[Gradient Echo]

If you like engineering then go for it. I was electrical/computer engineering in undergrad and dont regret that pathway at all. My background helps with my current line of research and gives me some insight into medical technology that med students without an engineering background dont have.

Medicine was my first choice and engineering my backup plan. It will be tough, but if thats the kind of stuff you like to study you will do better at it than if you choose a major based on other peoples' advice.

 

[Tim Haas]

Really appreciate it all, but one more question....how many hours a week do med schools see how much you did your med volunteering? approx....and yeah i actually thought peeps did pay a lot out of pocket for medschool, good to know that they dont. I was looking around and think i saw that drexel has a tuition waiver til you wait til you get your job and then you pay back? is that true, i forget or not if it was drex. Thanks a lot

 

[Adcadet]

not sure what you're asking about time spent volunteering. If you're asking how much time most people spend volunteering, I know I usually spent 5-15 hours/week with my two extra-curriculars (ECs).

This is how the majority of people pay for med school: you get loans. Some of which are subsidized so you don't pay interest until after residency, some you don't pay interest until after med school, and some (unsubsidized, private) you pay interest starting immediately. You graduate from medical school, enter residency, don't make much money (30-35k is wha I've been hearing, and start paying back loans. Thus, the cost of med school turns into just another monthly payment (though granted, it might be rather large, and last a long time). I've heard one person lament something about how you make payments on your education just like your friends might be making car and house payments. But in the end they own something, and you've just got an education.

Drexel may be in a position to give their students loans and act as the bank in some cases, in which they will basically collect tuition after you're done with med school. I'm not sure, as I don't know much about how they do financial aid. I doubt it's practically different from how most people do things.

 

[Adcadet]

just don't forget that the education you receive basically guarontees you a good paying job for life, doing the best job on earth (according to some people, at least). Sure, a good business person may make more money, but I for one would much prefer practicing medicine to pushing papers and looking at sales reports.

 

[Tim Haas]

hey thanks for the help, took a long time for me to see it cuz sdn was down but another thing...my parents are divorced and i live w/ my mother and lil bro and sis=extra money is nonexistent. So, i have been reading a med school book and people in med school living off campus usually pay like 11k a year for rent, food, car expenses, etc. How can i even possibly afford this w/o having help from my mom, having no job probably cuz med school i mean come on, and on top of having to pay some tuition for school itself. Geeze, i have no idea what to do and if my dream is even relatively possible to achieve w/o just getting my BS degree after 4 yr of college, working for a few years to get some $ so i can LIVE during med school.....thanks people

 

[An Yong]

Originally posted by Tim Haas
hey thanks for the help, took a long time for me to see it cuz sdn was down but another thing...my parents are divorced and i live w/ my mother and lil bro and sis=extra money is nonexistent. So, i have been reading a med school book and people in med school living off campus usually pay like 11k a year for rent, food, car expenses, etc. How can i even possibly afford this w/o having help from my mom, having no job probably cuz med school i mean come on, and on top of having to pay some tuition for school itself. Geeze, i have no idea what to do and if my dream is even relatively possible to achieve w/o just getting my BS degree after 4 yr of college, working for a few years to get some $ so i can LIVE during med school.....thanks people

Loans.

-An Yong

 

[Tim Haas]

yeah, thats what i figured, nice input'