Should I Do Engineering Research?

[newbiedoc]

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Both my degrees (BS and MS) are in the engineering field. I graduated last year and did a few interviews the past couple of months. I was wondering if schools would start to question my commitment to the medical field if I started doing organic semiconductor research? I want to do medical research but for the limited time that I have left, I think that I can contribute more doing research in other areas.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?

 

[scrappysurfer]

Both my degrees (BS and MS) are in the engineering field. I graduated last year and did a few interviews the past couple of months. I was wondering if schools would start to question my commitment to the medical field if I started doing organic semiconductor research? I want to do medical research but for the limited time that I have left, I think that I can contribute more doing research in other areas.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?

As a bioengineer applying to MD/PhD, I strongly suggest doing something medically related. I have had PhD interviewers suggest that even my bioengineering research, which has been cardiac and orthopedics biomechanics, is bunk. They also seemed to question my dedication to medical research (despite the fact that I work in a hospital lab) simply because they didn't understand what I was studying. While this has not been the case across the board, not everyone is willing to look at the difficulty of an engineering degree as a sign that a student is qualified for medical. Having medically related research would do you some good.

If you can cite medical applications of the orgo semiconductor research, by all means proceed.

p.s. I hope you applied to the Harvard Health and Science Technology program. They would love you. And its hard to argue with getting Harvard and MIT in one fell swoop.

 

[newbiedoc]

I applied to HAVURD, but they never sent me a secondary. I'm from Cali and so I didn't really care much. I want to live and die here. I graduated from the MIT of the west and so I figured a low-life school like Loma Linda or UC Irivne would pick me up for MD school. I was wrong. You live and learn.


Scrappy, thanks for the input. I really appreciate it.

As a bioengineer applying to MD/PhD, I strongly suggest doing something medically related. I have had PhD interviewers suggest that even my bioengineering research, which has been cardiac and orthopedics biomechanics, is bunk. They also seemed to question my dedication to medical research (despite the fact that I work in a hospital lab) simply because they didn't understand what I was studying. While this has not been the case across the board, not everyone is willing to look at the difficulty of an engineering degree as a sign that a student is qualified for medical. Having medically related research would do you some good.

If you can cite medical applications of the orgo semiconductor research, by all means proceed.

p.s. I hope you applied to the Harvard Health and Science Technology program. They would love you. And its hard to argue with getting Harvard and MIT in one fell swoop.

 

[tinkerbelle]

I was a biomedical engineer in undergrad and all my research is engineering oriented. I haven't had any interviewers give me a hard time about my research. However, I did explain why I'm crossing over from engineering to medicine in my PS. I think you should just do whatever research interests you.