To stick with engineering or move on to medical (junior)

[Sky55]

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Hi guys! I stumbled across this forum while doing a google search about medical school, so I thought this place could be of help in answering my current dilemma.

So right now, I'm 18 and I'm in my first year at the University of Washington (just graduated from HS last year). I accumulated 112.5 credits thru the in state Running Start program which allowed me to gain college credit for HS classes and for other classes (but had to do HS work concurrently with college work. So... senior year I had to do 2 HS classes and 3 college courses concurrently). Now along the way during my senior year of high school, I was able to program a robot from a kit as my senior project with help from an electronics engineer. With that experience I was able to gain some insight as to the daily routines of the electronics engineer.

The problem is now though, I'm beginning to have second thoughts of becoming an engineer. After having that experience, and struggling in mathematics, physics, and circuitry, I'm beginning to feel that my passion for engineering was only superficial. I excelled in programming, since I was able to mess around with projects, but even so, programming feels like it is something I'm just good at, not something I really want to do.

Thus, I began to relook at my options. I have a 3.24 GPA (41.5 credits) from one community college and a 3.54 GPA from another community college (71.0 credits), so I'm in somewhat good shape. What I learned a bit about myself was that I really wanted to help people (fairly cliche). When somethings turns out alright in the end, I celebrate with upmost joy about completing something. I prefer to be pushed towards something big, will put 110% of my effort and time into something I feel is strongly important. I guess I'm sort of an adrenaline addict in a sense . The experience from my senior project basically told me that I don't really want to be stuck in a room doing things by myself and listening to ebooks to occupy my time while creating some circuits. I rather talk to people and try and analyze the situation while talking to them, not talking to my circuit wondering why it doesn't work and then consulting others. I also tend to think more deeply (in my opinion) in a serious manner but usually don't look like I do to others. I also learned that I'm able to absorb information concretely with hands on learning, but with absorbing conceptual information with relative ease (could be the cause of why programming was relatively easy for me), only if I'm doing massive problems with them. I'm also able to derive information faster than others (from what I've experienced) if the information I learned was concrete in my head.

My original plan was that since I have so many spare classes I could do and either way it'd take me 3 - 3.25 years to complete a CSE degree, I could easily double major with something like Japanese. This idea had two majors that I was passionate about, but now I feel it's just superficial. Thus, I'm thinking, since I'm 18, I can still do a full 4 years somehow, I still have some time to change gears and go to a major I really want.

Thus, what should I do? I have no idea what to do if I do decide to pursue medical school. I have to declare my major at 105 credits, or next quarter since I'm given a quarter before I must declare. I have not even attempted to study for the MCAT because I'm still adjusting from getting out of HS.

For those that didn't think TLDR (too long didn't read) and didn't skip the whole thing, thanks.

 

[Bradstein]

As a fellow engineer I understand where you're coming from. It's interesting how much your "passions" change as you get into it.

What kind of engineering pre-reqs have you done already? If you've already started calculus, gen chem, maybe some physics, then you have lots of time to explore. I would suggest taking an intro bio course now to see if that's your thing.

The only way to know what you really want to do is through experience. Follow the thoughts and feelings you have and see where they lead. I was where you were, with medicine being just an idea and eventually becoming the major focus of my education.

 

[fizzle]

Well, first of all, get some clinical experience by volunteering in a medical setting. Throughout your entire post, you haven't mentioned at all why you want to go into medicine beyond the hazy desire to "help people." Pretty much every career is dedicated to "helping people," so you need to come up with a cohesive, narrow reason for wanting to go into medicine.

Once you get that small bit of clinical experience, your path should become much more clear.

 

[AZFutureDoc]

As a fellow engineer I understand where you're coming from. It's interesting how much your "passions" change as you get into it.

What kind of engineering pre-reqs have you done already? If you've already started calculus, gen chem, maybe some physics, then you have lots of time to explore. I would suggest taking an intro bio course now to see if that's your thing.

The only way to know what you really want to do is through experience. Follow the thoughts and feelings you have and see where they lead. I was where you were, with medicine being just an idea and eventually becoming the major focus of my education.

Just explore in a bio class or 2 man. Think about it. You won't make it till the end and become a doctor if you're not passionate about it, so make sure you really want this. Best of luck!

 

[Bradstein]

Oh yeah, make sure you like the subject matter (classes) and make sure you like the work (clinical exposure).

The reason I say take a bio class is because a lot of the nitty gritty stuff you need to know, like molecular genetics or biochem usually require o-chem. O-chem is NOT a good indicator of how much you like medicine, and it's been argued for years whether pre-meds need what's essential an organic chemistry course for chemistry majors to understand biomedical sciences.

 

[Schlockinz]

Explore now.

Other thought, if you are struggling with IC and physics, and some math (I am assuming that you haven't started taking ODE or PDE) then you might get slaughtered in upper division engineering. Then again you may be fine. But, if you do not like engineering, get out of it now, do not put yourself through the hell that it is to get an engr. degree.

Nota bene: I am answering your question with no regard to your medical career, just college in general.

 

[Sky55]

As a fellow engineer I understand where you're coming from. It's interesting how much your "passions" change as you get into it.

What kind of engineering pre-reqs have you done already? If you've already started calculus, gen chem, maybe some physics, then you have lots of time to explore. I would suggest taking an intro bio course now to see if that's your thing.

I've taken the Calculus series, the Engineering Physics series, differential equations & linear algebra ( LA was hard with proofs, DE was easier), the intro programming series (CSC142/143, java), and one class of Chemistry (CHE 142 in UW's I think). Then on the side was some Japanese, history, first aid (see below), and some english.

Well, first of all, get some clinical experience by volunteering in a medical setting. Throughout your entire post, you haven't mentioned at all why you want to go into medicine beyond the hazy desire to "help people." Pretty much every career is dedicated to "helping people," so you need to come up with a cohesive, narrow reason for wanting to go into medicine.

Yeah, I wish I had a better reason. But for all I know, my mother is actually a nurse at the main hospital in the area (Harborview Medical Center), and my sister became a pharmacist. So over the years, I began slowly gaining information about what I should be doing in certain situations and what certain drugs do and when they should be used. I also took a first aid class as well, and I felt that the information I gained in the class was worthwhile (I'm still First Aid certified). I wanted to venture a bit more into it because it gave me more knowledge about what to do in certain situations that a first aid certified person could handle and what to do properly before the arrival of an EMT. Those reasons are still hazy though, and I guess I should still think critically of a better one later on. But for now, that's all I have.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

Hi guys! I stumbled across this forum while doing a google search about medical school, so I thought this place could be of help in answering my current dilemma.

So right now, I'm 18 and I'm in my first year at the University of Washington (just graduated from HS last year). I accumulated 112.5 credits thru the in state Running Start program which allowed me to gain college credit for HS classes and for other classes (but had to do HS work concurrently with college work. So... senior year I had to do 2 HS classes and 3 college courses concurrently). Now along the way during my senior year of high school, I was able to program a robot from a kit as my senior project with help from an electronics engineer. With that experience I was able to gain some insight as to the daily routines of the electronics engineer.

The problem is now though, I'm beginning to have second thoughts of becoming an engineer. After having that experience, and struggling in mathematics, physics, and circuitry, I'm beginning to feel that my passion for engineering was only superficial. I excelled in programming, since I was able to mess around with projects, but even so, programming feels like it is something I'm just good at, not something I really want to do.

Thus, I began to relook at my options. I have a 3.24 GPA (41.5 credits) from one community college and a 3.54 GPA from another community college (71.0 credits), so I'm in somewhat good shape. What I learned a bit about myself was that I really wanted to help people (fairly cliche). When somethings turns out alright in the end, I celebrate with upmost joy about completing something. I prefer to be pushed towards something big, will put 110% of my effort and time into something I feel is strongly important. I guess I'm sort of an adrenaline addict in a sense . The experience from my senior project basically told me that I don't really want to be stuck in a room doing things by myself and listening to ebooks to occupy my time while creating some circuits. I rather talk to people and try and analyze the situation while talking to them, not talking to my circuit wondering why it doesn't work and then consulting others. I also tend to think more deeply (in my opinion) in a serious manner but usually don't look like I do to others. I also learned that I'm able to absorb information concretely with hands on learning, but with absorbing conceptual information with relative ease (could be the cause of why programming was relatively easy for me), only if I'm doing massive problems with them. I'm also able to derive information faster than others (from what I've experienced) if the information I learned was concrete in my head.

My original plan was that since I have so many spare classes I could do and either way it'd take me 3 - 3.25 years to complete a CSE degree, I could easily double major with something like Japanese. This idea had two majors that I was passionate about, but now I feel it's just superficial. Thus, I'm thinking, since I'm 18, I can still do a full 4 years somehow, I still have some time to change gears and go to a major I really want.

Thus, what should I do? I have no idea what to do if I do decide to pursue medical school. I have to declare my major at 105 credits, or next quarter since I'm given a quarter before I must declare. I have not even attempted to study for the MCAT because I'm still adjusting from getting out of HS.

For those that didn't think TLDR (too long didn't read) and didn't skip the whole thing, thanks.

I sort of skimmed through your post, but from the looks of it, I assume you took chem 142 already? I'm at UW too, and I say you that if you haven't already, try finishing up the chem series and move on to biol 180. I know some people from running start, and for some of them it was tough for some of them to choose a major, but I think you can defer to choose your major if you talk to a counselor. I was sort of in your shoes too as a freshman. I thought it would be really cool to do bioengineering, esepcially since uw had such a good program, except I wasn't terribly good at programming, which made the experience horrible. I played around with different majors and finally ended up with microbio. You're still early in your career, so you should take differerent courses and see what you enjoy. Remember, medical schools don't require a specific major, so do something you like. You can PM me if you need info on some of the classes like ochem and bio. good luck man.

 

[Bradstein]

I've taken the Calculus series, the Engineering Physics series, differential equations & linear algebra, the intro programming series (CSC142/143, java), and one class of Chemistry (CHE 142 in UW's I think). Then on the side was some Japanese, history, first aid (see below), and some english.

Yeah definitely check out a bio course, probably finish chem, maybe do o-chem if it seems interesting at the end of chem.

Also, go on with the first aid stuff if that interests you. I think if you get some time in an ambulance as an EMT-B or whatever it would be great experience. But do SOMETHING clinical.

 

[RSAgator]

There are quite a few engineering defectors on here. I think you really need to be honest with yourself. I see a lot of people switching to medicine and their answers to "so why do you want to be a doctor" come across as "well because I didn't want to be an engineer." Volunteer, shadow, see if the profession is something you can HONESTLY see yourself doing, and keep your grades up. 112.5 credits from CC classes at about a 3.3GPA doesn't really put you in "good shape." I suggest getting some real clinical experience and then deciding if it's right for you, and again I stress that you need to be honest with yourself because it's a long and hard road ahead.

 

[neiborino]

There are quite a few engineering defectors on here. I think you really need to be honest with yourself. I see a lot of people switching to medicine and their answers to "so why do you want to be a doctor" come across as "well because I didn't want to be an engineer." Volunteer, shadow, see if the profession is something you can HONESTLY see yourself doing, and keep your grades up. 112.5 credits from CC classes at about a 3.3GPA doesn't really put you in "good shape." I suggest getting some real clinical experience and then deciding if it's right for you, and again I stress that you need to be honest with yourself because it's a long and hard road ahead.

I definitely agree with RSAgator. Engineering is definitely a tough major, but as a chemical engineer who decided my junior year that I wanted to go into medicine, it's been a great platform for medicine. There's a big difference between peripheral knowledge of medicine and actually spending time cleaning bedpans or interacting with patients over an extended period of time. I wouldn't get out of engineering completely unless you sincerely dislike the material until you have a better idea if medicine really is the best for you.

 

[SBK]

I definitely agree with RSAgator. Engineering is definitely a tough major, but as a chemical engineer who decided my junior year that I wanted to go into medicine, it's been a great platform for medicine. There's a big difference between peripheral knowledge of medicine and actually spending time cleaning bedpans or interacting with patients over an extended period of time. I wouldn't get out of engineering completely unless you sincerely dislike the material until you have a better idea if medicine really is the best for you.

Chemical Eng + Med Student Unite !!

 

[Law2Doc]

There are quite a few engineering defectors on here. I think you really need to be honest with yourself. I see a lot of people switching to medicine and their answers to "so why do you want to be a doctor" come across as "well because I didn't want to be an engineer." Volunteer, shadow, see if the profession is something you can HONESTLY see yourself doing, and keep your grades up. 112.5 credits from CC classes at about a 3.3GPA doesn't really put you in "good shape." I suggest getting some real clinical experience and then deciding if it's right for you, and again I stress that you need to be honest with yourself because it's a long and hard road ahead.

Agree with this. You don't go into medicine because you don't like what you are doing, and you don't go into medicine just because you have the grades for it. You go into medicine because you really enjoy what medicine is all about and can only see yourself doing that role. It is often said, and probably true, that if you can picture yourself doing any other thing besides medicine, then you should do that other thing. Medicine is a long, hard, road, and it's not everything a lot of premeds think it is. There are as many negatives as positives in this field, so you have to really want it to the point that the negatives won't bother you. From your posts, I agree that step #1 is to do a TON of shadowing and volunteering so that you get a better sense of what being a physician is all about. Having a relative who is a nurse or a pharmacist simply doesn't count. Even having a relative who is a doctor doesn't count as adequate exposure. Getting out there and working in a healthcare environment where you can see what doctors do, and can pick their brains, is what counts -- only after doing that can you get a better formed impression of what the field is all about. Even that won't be a perfect insight, but it will be miles beyond anything you've gotten thus far. And thus that needs to be your first step.

I also agree with the above poster who suggested that a 3.3-3.4 cumulative GPA at community colleges doesn't really translate to being in "good shape". It's a starting point, but certainly not there yet. It's a long road. You can get there if it's what you really want, but start with some clinical exposure to make sure it's what you really want before you go down this road.

 

[atomi]

Hi guys! I stumbled across this forum while doing a google search about medical school, so I thought this place could be of help in answering my current dilemma.

So right now, I'm 18 and I'm in my first year at the University of Washington (just graduated from HS last year). I accumulated 112.5 credits thru the in state Running Start program which allowed me to gain college credit for HS classes and for other classes (but had to do HS work concurrently with college work. So... senior year I had to do 2 HS classes and 3 college courses concurrently). Now along the way during my senior year of high school, I was able to program a robot from a kit as my senior project with help from an electronics engineer. With that experience I was able to gain some insight as to the daily routines of the electronics engineer.

The problem is now though, I'm beginning to have second thoughts of becoming an engineer. After having that experience, and struggling in mathematics, physics, and circuitry, I'm beginning to feel that my passion for engineering was only superficial. I excelled in programming, since I was able to mess around with projects, but even so, programming feels like it is something I'm just good at, not something I really want to do.

Thus, I began to relook at my options. I have a 3.24 GPA (41.5 credits) from one community college and a 3.54 GPA from another community college (71.0 credits), so I'm in somewhat good shape. What I learned a bit about myself was that I really wanted to help people (fairly cliche). When somethings turns out alright in the end, I celebrate with upmost joy about completing something. I prefer to be pushed towards something big, will put 110% of my effort and time into something I feel is strongly important. I guess I'm sort of an adrenaline addict in a sense . The experience from my senior project basically told me that I don't really want to be stuck in a room doing things by myself and listening to ebooks to occupy my time while creating some circuits. I rather talk to people and try and analyze the situation while talking to them, not talking to my circuit wondering why it doesn't work and then consulting others. I also tend to think more deeply (in my opinion) in a serious manner but usually don't look like I do to others. I also learned that I'm able to absorb information concretely with hands on learning, but with absorbing conceptual information with relative ease (could be the cause of why programming was relatively easy for me), only if I'm doing massive problems with them. I'm also able to derive information faster than others (from what I've experienced) if the information I learned was concrete in my head.

My original plan was that since I have so many spare classes I could do and either way it'd take me 3 - 3.25 years to complete a CSE degree, I could easily double major with something like Japanese. This idea had two majors that I was passionate about, but now I feel it's just superficial. Thus, I'm thinking, since I'm 18, I can still do a full 4 years somehow, I still have some time to change gears and go to a major I really want.

Thus, what should I do? I have no idea what to do if I do decide to pursue medical school. I have to declare my major at 105 credits, or next quarter since I'm given a quarter before I must declare. I have not even attempted to study for the MCAT because I'm still adjusting from getting out of HS.

For those that didn't think TLDR (too long didn't read) and didn't skip the whole thing, thanks.

With all due respect, you have yet to do anything related to engineering. Absolutely get an engineering degree -- it will be the best decision you will ever make. That degree will distinguish you and make you employable to anybody for the rest of your life. Grad schools (med school included) will drool over you if get a 3.5 GPA.

and THEN, do a co-op with an engineering firm that does work that you are interested in. This is the ONLY WAY to know if you will like being an engineer. Make sure they give you actual work to do also, sometimes they just put co-ops in front of a computer and leave them. Do actual engineering work and see. Everybody hates the classes, and the intro classes you have had so far really don't have anything to do with real-world engineering at all.

Do what I did, get an engineering degree, travel, study abroad, work for 3-4 years, make some good money (engineers start at $60k/year with awesome benefits and 40/hrs week), have fun, be young, then do med school.