Hello everyone,
I’m a student at NorCal CC for transfer. My GPA is about 3.80 and I’m not strong with extracurricular stuff. My original plan was to go biomedical engineering for bachelor and then med school, but after reading some of the advice from other posts I kinda hesitate about my plan.
First, is biomed engr ever a good choice for premed? I knew GPA and MCAT are the decisive factors for med school and engineering is difficult, but won’t majors that are more related to bio/med be selected for for med school admission? I thought about biomed engr because I heard pure bio majors are super competitive because there are filled with pre-med students.
Second, does undergrad school matters for pre-med? It’s easier for Cal CC transfer to UCs so it will be my main focus, but I also thought about applying for U Michigan Ann Arbor, Cornell and some other private school in east coast (my dream schools) that have a relatively high acceptance rate for transfer admission. Is it worth trying? My consideration is to get undergrad degree from a better school as the backup plan for not accepting by med schools.
Thanks in advance for all your inputs. Much appreciated!
First, it appears that medical schools are undergraduate-major-agnostic, as long as you complete their pre-med requirements with high enough GPA and MCAT. Also, some medical schools frown on taking all BCPM* courses at community colleges, so having some at a four year school (which may include upper division BCPM* courses for your major) would be preferable.
*BCPM = biology, chemistry, physics, math
Second, there is nothing wrong with UCs, and being in California would make traveling to UC medical school interviews easier and less expensive (however, due to the high competitiveness of UC medical schools, many California pre-meds have to apply to private medical schools that may be out of state, so travel becomes more of a problem, and cost of medical school would be higher). Since medical school is expensive, you also want to consider cost of undergraduate and minimize debt and save money.
There’s a saying that a competitive GPA and MCAT will get you to the door, but it’s the rest of your app will get you through the door. So although strong GPAs and MCAT are very important, they’re not “the decisive factors.” Assuming you have competitive GPAs/MCAT, med schools will then look at rest of your app (eg ECs, LORs, PS) to see if you fit with their mission statement and to see if you have qualities that they believe MDs should possess (eg compassion, altruism, etc). And even with all that, a poor interview will kill your chance at that school. That “extracurricular stuff” is important.
Med schools don’t care what your major is. A Spanish Lit major say is just as good as any bio major. Most premeds pick some flavor of bio partly out of interest, partly because it satisfies most premed reqs and major reqs at same time whereas with a Spanish Lit major one has to find a way to fit in premed reqs into schedule. Since most premeds will never see the inside of a med school, people also may pick a bio major as a Plan B strategy (eg stepping stone to PhD.)
Although not of zero importance, as long as you don’t attend Podunk U, where you go to school is not a big factor. Understand in last reported cycle, over 60% of those that applied failed to start anywhere and of the CA students who applied, it was closer to 64% failed to start anywhere and only approx. 15% actually started in CA med school. There’s just not enough room in CA for all the qualified CA applicants. As med school is very expensive, you want to try to graduate college with as little debt as possible which is your case is probably a UC. It’s not the name of the school you attend, but what you do while at that school is what counts. Good luck
To me at least what this says is you haven’t really looked much into the medical field and/or don’t have much of a comittment to it. Its almost a reflex action among HS kids, they think of medicine and its “I’m pre-med!” And it sounds like you’re saying if you don’t get into med school you’re ready to walk away.
Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, physician assistants, to name but just a few. Spend a few hours browsing on http://explorehealthcareers.org Those with a real passion for the health-care field have explored lots of ways to get into it. They may be aiming to be a doctor but if that doesn’t seem to be in the cards they have thought about some of the other options above. I think it says something here that you’ll bail instead.
Unless you’ve considered the alternatives and have spent time actually working in a health care setting (which is an unofficial requirement to get into med school, BTW) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision. Which seems to go hand-in-hand with your statement " I’m not strong with extracurricular stuff". What you probably aren’t aware is that exposure to patient care is an unofficial requirement to get into med school; they want to make sure future doctors understand what they are signing up for. So without this your chances of getting in, regardless of gpa and MCAT, are very low.
mikemac I definitely understand your concern. In my defense though, despite not disclosing in my questions I did consider a wide range of health care related career, including PA, vet and pharmacy, which is particularly related to biomedical engineering.Thanks for the resources.