Premed or not

[grapeseeds]

My daughter has been accepted to top colleges for electrical engineering but she is now considering to switch to Life Science and premed in an UC. She is attending a competitive high school and has straight A's except for a B in one quarter of her AP Chem class (an A in another quarter). She got 5's in all the numerous AP exams taken except that she got her only 4 in AP Chem.

Her classes were online due to Covid when she was taking AP Chem and she didn't have a good teacher either. Those might not be good reasons but do you think she should still pursue medicine given her less than perfect AP chem? She now prefers to be a doctor than an engineer but it is a big deal if that would mean she has to transfer out of Engineering (may not be practical to do both engineering and premed).

What is your opinion? Do you think she is good enough to get into medical school and do well?

Thanks!

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

She can do any major she wants and go to medical school as long as she excels in whatever the major is. She just has to take the prereq classes, most of which are required for any engineering core anyway. The rest can be done as Gen Eds or a minor. A B in a high school chemistry class for one semester has zero bearing on her ability to become a doctor.

I suggest that you tell your child to make an account and post this question herself. She's an adult now and needs to start making choices for her future without mom and dad telling her exactly what to do.

- a former engineer who is applying this year

 

[chilly_md]

Thread moved to hSDN.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You can get an engineering degree and still go to medical school. You have to be aware engineering is a quantitative intense program and can seem to be much harder than biomedical majors (and it is). But with the right support, students do get in.

A 4 on AP chemistry is not an issue, but she can always take the course. I would not take organic chemistry as a freshman.

 

[Osminog]

Your daughter should try to shadow some physicians to see if caring for sick people is something that she would enjoy. If that career path continues to appeal to her, then she should strongly consider switch majors; engineering courses tend to be graded quite harshly, and GPA is a massive factor in the medical school admissions process. Any major would fulfill medical school admission requirements, as long as the pre-requisite science courses are completed.

Her high school performance in AP chemistry doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. In fact, even if she were to get a few B's in college science classes, it wouldn't be the end of the world. The average MD matriculant in the US has a 3.75 cumulative undergraduate GPA. That's roughly an A- average.