Hey there,
A few things - protect your anonymity on this board by changing your avatar. Next, I was a ChemE/Biochem double major in college so I'll try to answer some of your questions. It's fine to take a few pre-reqs at a CC if you don't happen to be able to take them at TAMU but do not take a bunch of them because it will look as if you're trying to protect your GPA (sort of) by not taking the rigorous version of said courses. The biggest downfall with engineering is that it is a very tough major, especially at good engineering schools such as TAMU. What I mean to say is that chemical engineering will definitely give you options if you so choose not to pursue medicine but it will be tough (not impossible) to keep a med school competitive GPA (3.7+). In order to combat this you will need to stay dedicated with your studies from the get go and utilize all your schools resources such as office hrs, tutors, the learning center, older students, friends, youtube, etc.
You can do hospital volunteering at any time that is convenient for you. I usually just did 3-4 hrs a weekend for 2 yrs and racked up a good amount of hrs. You don't have to dedicate a whole summer. Also try to do some non-clinical volunteering and shadow a few types of physicians (40-70 hrs total over a couple different specialties). Make sure you do get some internships as a ChemE or summer research (I did both and enjoyed my time). Depending on if you want to go to med school immediately following UG will dictate when you take the MCAT. If right after, then you would take the MCAT during your Junior year and apply for med school during the summer before your senior year. Once accepted, you would go to med school for 4 yrs (5 if you take a research year) which typically consists of 2 yrs of pre-clinical courses and 2 yrs of clinical clerkships. You would apply for residency at the beginning of the 4th yr and then do residency for 3-5 yrs (depending on the specialty) plus 2-4 yrs of fellowship (sub specialization). I'm glossing over a lot of details but explore SDN and you'll find a lot of helpful resources. Also I would typically advice that you think of taking a gap year(s) after UG to either get more experience, research, etc. and just enjoy life a bit before committing to medicine. Hopefully this helps give you some idea of the process. Enjoy the college experience and don't stress yourself out too much about pre-med stuff. Keep a good GPA and learn all you can, you can always get the appropriate ECs (extracurriculars) after UG if that will be less stressful (that's what I ended up doing). Good luck!
