Premed MIT

[streetlight]

I am currently a senior in high school and have been accepted to MIT for next fall (class of 09). I opted not to apply to any of the joint BS/MD programs. I understand that the grading and rigor of the MIT undergraduate engineering programs is not conducive to med school acceptances (they have a 76% acceptance rate - meaning 24% did not get admission to any med school at all). I have been doing summer research in a Tb lab for the past two years and volunteer work at the local hospital. I plan to continue these activites while at MIT for the next four years. I am interested in a competitive MD program or possibly a MD/PhD program. I am looking to Biological Engineering for my major but am not sure if an engineering major will kill my GPA.

In short, do any of you who have successully been admitted to high level med schools have tips for a high school senior that wants to start early? Please relate any experiences you have had that may help.

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[Shaz]

I am currently a senior in high school and have been accepted to MIT for next fall (class of 09). I opted not to apply to any of the joint BS/MD programs. I understand that the grading and rigor of the MIT undergraduate engineering programs is not conducive to med school acceptances (they have a 76% acceptance rate - meaning 24% did not get admission to any med school at all). I have been doing summer research in a Tb lab for the past two years and volunteer work at the local hospital. I plan to continue these activites while at MIT for the next four years. I am interested in a competitive MD program or possibly a MD/PhD program. I am looking to Biological Engineering for my major but am not sure if an engineering major will kill my GPA.

In short, do any of you who have successully been admitted to high level med schools have tips for a high school senior that wants to start early? Please relate any experiences you have had that may help.

Add: In 5376 characters or less.

 

[uclabruin2003]

I am currently a senior in high school and have been accepted to MIT for next fall (class of 09). I opted not to apply to any of the joint BS/MD programs. I understand that the grading and rigor of the MIT undergraduate engineering programs is not conducive to med school acceptances (they have a 76% acceptance rate - meaning 24% did not get admission to any med school at all). I have been doing summer research in a Tb lab for the past two years and volunteer work at the local hospital. I plan to continue these activites while at MIT for the next four years. I am interested in a competitive MD program or possibly a MD/PhD program. I am looking to Biological Engineering for my major but am not sure if an engineering major will kill my GPA.

In short, do any of you who have successully been admitted to high level med schools have tips for a high school senior that wants to start early? Please relate any experiences you have had that may help.

My best advice is to just chill out. You havent even begun school yet....cant you wait until fall or better yet spring semester to start stressing?

anyone else agree with me?

 

[beanbean]

Congratulations on your acceptance to MIT! I went to BU (Biomed Eng.'90) and my husband attended MIT (ME -BS and MS). Boston and Cambridge are awesome places for undergrad.

Although engineering is a tough major - especially at MIT - don't be too concerned. Med schools know how rigorous engineering is and that schools like MIT do not inflate grades. Major is something you enjoy - that's the best way to do well. Enjoy your time in undergrad, take some interesting classes and have a little fun. Just keep on top of your work and don't fall too far behindin classes.

I personally feel my background in engineering prepared me well for med school. Engineering teaches you to think and solve problems - great skills to have entering med school

Don't be too obsessed with gunning for what you think is a top med school now. There are many ways to define a 'top school' and the definition depends on many factors. Some schools excel in primary care, others in research - it varies depending on what your interests are. Do well in your classes and keep up your volunteer work (although not at the expense of your classes). The rest of the pieces are in the future. There are many steps to the successful application process to med school. Take them one at a time.

 

[jhugti]

Congratulations on your acceptance to MIT! I went to BU (Biomed Eng.'90) and my husband attended MIT (ME -BS and MS). Boston and Cambridge are awesome places for undergrad.

Although engineering is a tough major - especially at MIT - don't be too concerned. Med schools know how rigorous engineering is and that schools like MIT do not inflate grades. Major is something you enjoy - that's the best way to do well. Enjoy your time in undergrad, take some interesting classes and have a little fun. Just keep on top of your work and don't fall too far behindin classes.

I personally feel my background in engineering prepared me well for med school. Engineering teaches you to think and solve problems - great skills to have entering med school

Don't be too obsessed with gunning for what you think is a top med school now. There are many ways to define a 'top school' and the definition depends on many factors. Some schools excel in primary care, others in research - it varies depending on what your interests are. Do well in your classes and keep up your volunteer work (although not at the expense of your classes). The rest of the pieces are in the future. There are many steps to the successful application process to med school. Take them one at a time.

👍 well said

just relax, enjoy your first year, and (I know this is cliche sounding) do your best. You're clearly a bright kid- just work hard and you will be fine. Be wary of averages- they are useful for some things, but aren't good predictors of individual accomplishment.

 

[streetlight]

Thanks for your feedback so far. Yeah, I may be stressing a little early, but I'd rather get at least informed of an outline of what I need to do for the next four years early on. Hey, it's better to get on this stuff early than too late in the game, right?

Anyone else?

 

[kikkoman]

Eh, not sure how good it is to be so concerned about this stuff coming into college. I found that it was good to have an open mind and to try a lot of new things rather than to accomodate your pursuits (even slightly) to what you "want to be."

I went to MIT, and it's a great place to be a student because you will learn so much from your classmates. People there are excited about what they do and are almost always willing to teach you. It's hard to get a good GPA in engineering - this is true - but I think that the type of education you get is unique and more "worth" it in the long run than sacrifying that aspect and attending a marginally better medical school.

The students (especially in biology where it's not as tough to get a high GPA) do very well in medical school placement too, so I wouldn't worry about it. Good luck with everything and get off SDN =]

 

[streetlight]

Are you doing pre-med at MIT currently? And are you a Course 7 major? What (if you are pre-med) schools are you looking at/been accepted to? Thanks for your help! I'll try to get off SDN!

 

[davidus]

I'd agree with kikkoman. Go to the place that gives you the greatest opportunity to maximize your potential at the next stage of your life. Don't start making sacrifices before you even know what you want to do for certain. If you went somewhere else, you may not regret it, but you wouldn't know what you're missing (which could be a lot). At MIT, you may discover the love of your life is something very different from medicine.

I did engineering at a pretty strong engineering school (almost MIT - heheh) and will likely go to a pretty good med school, but I never considered going to my state school (or somewhere lesser) just to make better grades. Then again, I wasn't premed at the time, but I think I would have really regretted not going to my undergrad school.

 

[wendywellesley]

congrats on MIT!!! it's such a great school, you will suffer but it will make you strong 🙂

don't forget to party at Wellesley!! those girls are hot and need some lovin' 😉

 

[X.O.]

MIT is seriously hardcore and there seems to be two distributions of students there. The scary geniuses and everyone else that just manages to hack it out of effort. My cousin attended there, did well, and pretty much got into every school she applied to including both of the big Hs.

As far as medical school admissions goes, the key piece of advice she gave to me was to get involved in bench research early on and publish. MIT has its fair share of Nobels in medicine and the labs there do top notch work. As long as the rest of the your application numbers are competitive, you should fare well in the process.

 

[streetlight]

Interesting. I am very inclined towards the research related portions of a MD. I hope that my high school research will give me grounds to start up a (more involved) research project at MIT. They have the UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) there which most student's avail of. I'm not even sure how to go about getting a published paper.

I also am considering going to India for one summer to help out the World Health Organization. Would that have much bearing on my application? Also, do non-med related ECs (such as varsity athletics) matter much for MD admissions as they did for college admissions?

Sorry for the insane amounts of questions, but it seems as though you people are very helpful. I'm brand spankin new to the whole med school admissions process (as I have just leeched myself out of the undergrad admissions process). Thanks again for all the help you have and will be posting. 🙂

 

[rockit]

76% acceptance is outlandish. Half of people that apply get accepted.

 

[goheel]

Interesting. I am very inclined towards the research related portions of a MD. I hope that my high school research will give me grounds to start up a (more involved) research project at MIT. They have the UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) there which most student's avail of. I'm not even sure how to go about getting a published paper.

I also am considering going to India for one summer to help out the World Health Organization. Would that have much bearing on my application? Also, do non-med related ECs (such as varsity athletics) matter much for MD admissions as they did for college admissions?

Sorry for the insane amounts of questions, but it seems as though you people are very helpful. I'm brand spankin new to the whole med school admissions process (as I have just leeched myself out of the undergrad admissions process). Thanks again for all the help you have and will be posting. 🙂

I would like to extend my hand and welcome you to the fraternity of gunners.

 

[hypersting]

I would like to extend my hand and welcome you to the fraternity of gunners.

You should go the BS/MD route over MIT, if you are absolutely positive that you want to do medicine. Spend as much time as you want (from 3-5 years), relaxing and pursuing non-medical pursuits in undergrad and then rock it hard once you get to med school. Just my advice from personal experience.

 

[Bhavesh]

There's nothing really more than getting good grades/MCAT and a few solid extracurriculars.

Brace for college by gaining a background of the classes you are taking. When you get there, study really, really hard.

 

[Sunflower189]

I'm a pre-MD/PhD at MIT, and I was in the same position as you last year.

Yes, you will have to work for your GPA here. And if you were interested in straight MD, I might advise you to consider your options elsewhere. But if you want to do research, there really is nowhere better. The classes are designed to force you to think and apply new information - brute memory won't help much, and most tests are open book/notes. The labs are top-notch, and you can get a job as easily as you can send an email, because letting undergrads get real experience is part of the culture. And there are so many scary-good role models, and everyone's passionate about *something*.

Plus, if you get bored here, you can mosey over to our liberal arts department (Harvard). A lot of people rave about the upper-level language classes. I'm taking a class at their med school right now, and it's really really good.

Which is another point - there are so many resources here, and if you want 'em, nobody's going to stop you. Walk up to famous PI and get a job? Sure. Walk up to famous med school and take a class? Sure. 😍 Most universities would have a fit. And that's perhaps the #1 reason I came here...I have a record of, erm, believing that "prereqs" and "pansy" start with the same letter for a reason...and here that's okay and expected.

I can't comment so much on BE...it hasn't even been approved yet, officially, so there's no track record. Some of the classes are offered, though. It's looking not so evil, as MIT engineering goes. The bio dept. has a good record with med schools, and has a rep for being easier...but then again, it's infested with premeds. 😉

As for the low acceptance rate - this is speculation, but I think a lot of engineers stick in an app without really being prepared to. They're most of the way through the program, their GPA isn't that great, they decided they can't hack having no human interaction...so they throw in a few apps to med school, just to see. People who really want in get in.

Mmm. Long post. Poke me if you have any questions. I'm doing EECS and bio, by the way.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Work hard, get a solid GPA, do well on the MCAT, get involved (need to work on this one myself). Solid routine 🙂

 

[45408]

I understand that the grading and rigor of the MIT undergraduate engineering programs is not conducive to med school acceptances (they have a 76% acceptance rate - meaning 24% did not get admission to any med school at all).

Dude, this is just an internet forum. You don't have to act all serious for us.

Anyways, you don't know much about med school admissions, do you? 😉 We do know what an acceptance rate is.

A 76% acceptance rate is pretty high, considering the total acceptance rate is something like 45%. Buy yourself the MSAR and read up.

 

[streetlight]

Dude, this is just an internet forum. You don't have to act all serious for us.

Anyways, you don't know much about med school admissions, do you? 😉 We do know what an acceptance rate is.

A 76% acceptance rate is pretty high, considering the total acceptance rate is something like 45%. Buy yourself the MSAR and read up.

Yeah I really don't know that much about med school admissions haha 😳 . What is MSAR 😕 ?

 

[45408]

Yeah I really don't know that much about med school admissions haha 😳 . What is MSAR 😕 ?

Search for it on the AAMC's website. 😉 It's got a lot of useful information.

 

[pjm]

The MSAR is the big book listing each medical school's official statistics. More here:

http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/msar.htm

If you just want to bounce go through ugrad, get a 4.0 GPA and magna cum laude, MIT isn't that kind of school. It's a rigorous place where you'll get challenging classes and excellent research opportunities. (everything the above poster said about MIT, Harvard, and HMS research opportunities is true.)

I went through MIT as course 6 (EECS) with an interest in medicine. I thought the true-blue premeds were a little nutty. I can't remember the number of people that believed they wouldn't get into Hopkins because MIT freshman year classes were all P/F. Truth be told, P/F did make my AMCAS app a little messy, since P/F included most of my science prereqs. (Now, only the first semester is graded P/F.)

I did research nearly my entire time at MIT, and I did my M.Eng thesis with some people at HMS. After MIT, I worked for a few years, then I took six months of classes at a local university to finish my orgo/bio requirements, and I applied to med school.

Interviewers seemed to appreciate that the school has a somewhat deflated GPA compared to ivy schools. They loved the research exposure I got at MIT. I ended up with several acceptances, and I'm now at a great medical school.

Your MIT career will be what you make of it. The unofficial motto is IHTFP - "I hate this f***ing place" - in part because the school will not cater to you. However, if you go out there and find a research project, find good mentors, and learn how to get the most out of the classes, you'll do fine.

If you can, put the med-school blinders in a drawer. Research whatever interests you, even if it's not medicine related. There are plenty of exciting things to do in the world that don't involve medical school.

(sorry for the heresy.)

 

[hjt]

I'm also a current student at MIT (senior). Honestly, it's not an easy ride...it's almost hopeless sometimes if your grades are just not going to be A's (or even worry that they might be C's). I have interviewed at several of the TX schools and will be interviewing at Baylor.

It's been a pretty tough process. My advice is to truthfully look at your background. If you have been able to top State-level (or national) science/math competitions without exhausting yourself, you might do very well here. I've done fairly well in HS and was #1 of my class, but I still found myself having a tough time getting through the classes (engineering/CS-ish). I'm a biology major, but I have also done some course 6 classes. I hav done a lot of social science/economics-related work but little lab work, however.

MIT does offer awesome opportunities for research, etc., but unless you are really smart (was excelling in HS and competitions easy?), you will find the academics challenging and find that the grades are totally not within your control and find that you may not get to do as much extracurriculars as you like. Even if grades aren't everything and people will look favorably at a MIT background, be rest assured that pre-meds will always find themselves agonizing over their GPA's (vs. published averages). And, sigh at how MIT doesn't inflat anything compared to the IVY's.

Best of luck...just a few frank comments. 🙄

 

[streetlight]

Would course 7 (biology) be easier GPAwise than majoring in the new BE major? Also, what should I do about biology, chem, physics, calc placement from AP testing?

 

[Sunflower189]

MIT is a bit nitpicky about AP credit. A 5 on AP Bio or Calc BC will get you out of 7.01X (intro bio) and 18.01 (calc 1) respectively. But to get out of 8.01 (mechanics), you need a 5 on BOTH sections of the AP Physics C exam.

To get credit for 8.02 (E&M) or 5.11 (intro chem), you have to take the MIT placement exam. The one for chem, in particular, is legendary - only a handful of people pass every year, and even IChO people fail. 😱

 

[pjm]

You may hear some advice that you shouldn't accept AP credit if offered, and instead take the intro courses. The idea is that A) you can get an easy A in the course, B) medical schools don't accept AP credit. I think both rationales are wrong.

At MIT especially, if you can get out of a course, do it -- whatever entry-level course you got out of will be harder than your AP class was. Also, you'll give yourself more room to take more interesting classes, and perhaps take a challenging second-level intro class on P/F in your first term.

The schools I applied to had no problem with the fact that my intro chem and bio were AP cred. I had grades in subsequent bio/orgo/pchem classes, and that was enough to satisfy the prereq screening.

 

[Sunflower189]

At MIT especially, if you can get out of a course, do it.

Agreed. I'm one placement test away from being done with my science requirements, and it definitely makes life easier. If you have to put in the work anyway, why do it for things you more or less know already? 😀

Of course, I'm that nutjob who is trying to fit a semester abroad in with two unrelated majors, so I'm a walking transfer credit. But still, go ahead and get into the good stuff. With a BE major, no adcom is going to ding you for not having enough background.

 

[streetlight]

Hm, that is true. I am pretty torn with the AP credit issue:
I've taken and received 5s on Bio, Chem, Physics C Mech, Statistics, and Calc BC...
I'm taking Physics C E&M and History this year and hope for 5s on both.
I'm also taking Multivar Calc senior year that I can maybe use to test out of 18.02?
Would placing out of these into harder classes be too much for freshman year?

btw thanks for all your replies...a LOT of help 🙂

 

[Sunflower189]

18.02 is a big, hairy pain in the butt. Don't take it if you don't have to, unless you have some sort of pset fetish.

Take all the placement tests you possibly can during orientation. They're hard tests, and they won't let you sneak through, but you'll be okay if you know the material. Besides, anything above a C counts, and anything below disappears. I failed to follow this advice and am kicking myself now.

What's P/NR for anyway, if not for abuse 😀

 

[Elpis]

I also am considering going to India for one summer to help out the World Health Organization. Would that have much bearing on my application?

whoa there. you want to go to india for a summer to help out the WHO? first, go to india to help the people of india. second, is your concern really whether or not it will have a bearing on your application? your concern should be helping out over there and making a difference. let's say that you knew that a med school admissions committee would reject you in the future if you helped out in india (as ridiculous as that sounds). if you knew that, would you not go to india? 😕 third, why one summer? because it's long enough to put on your applications? why put the limit? i have a friend that applied to baylor and was accepted for matriculation in 2004. he decided to take a year off to help out for a year doing transformation work in a povery-sticken area of south america. again, he was already accepted to a prestigious "top tier" school. he didn't have to prove anything to admissions committees at that point, and yet, he's taking a year off because he sincerely thinks he can make a difference. so if you're going to do this stuff, do it for the right reasons--not because it will look good to admissions committees. if you want to go to a top school, you should shoot for a high gpa, a high mcat, solid recommendations, solid clinical experience, and some laboratory research experience. if you want to go to india because you think it will be a big plus in getting into a prestigious school, save your time and money. you don't need it to get into a top school. i'm not trying to be judgmental, but whenever people say they want to go to africa and volunteer with aids projects "because it will look good," i want to vomit. if i'm jumping to unfair conclusions, sorry in advance 😳

oh, and congrats on MIT, that's quite an achievement. it's something to be really proud of. i've got a friend that graduated as a chem engineer a few years ago.

and yeah, 76% or so is pretty darn high for a med school acceptance rate.

 

[streetlight]

I apologize for how that came out. I do want to go to india to help the people of India. To give back to my heritage's country. Never the less, I do want to maximize the effects of the opportunities I do receive and eventually take on. That is why I was wondering if it would also be a supplement to my character on my application. The whole tsunami disaster had me thinking for a while and that is when I decided I wanted to help out as much as I could. My parents would tell me about how some villages and such have little or no medical assistance, and that is something I would at least want to be a contribution towards changing. Again, sorry for the way it came out.

18.02 - Hopefully I'll remember enough material from this year's multivar calc course in order to place out.

Thanks for all your help so far guys. 🙂