<p>medical, what did you eventually choose? I am in a similar situation and would like to know where you went and why</p>
<p>^684149, what options are you weighing? The OPâs case is rather simple because it is between two very different choices in terms of quality/prestige/opportunities. Are you also in a similar situation like Union/AMC vs. top Ivies?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>OP hasnât posted since Dec, their posting history indicates that they matriculated at H.</p>
<p>I am currently attending Harvard and love it. In all honesty, looking back at all my posts, I have realized how childish and insecure I was. However, college is really about setting your mind straight and the independence really causes one to mature up. </p>
<p>For all of you debating between Harvard or top school and BS/MD program, I would say go to Harvard. The opportunities here, the prestige (I hate to be shallow), will really give you a boost in life. </p>
<p>If you have any questions, please post in this thread.</p>
<p>What if itâs UCSD Med Scholar vs. Big H?</p>
<p>Harvard. I mean seriously when else are you going to get this chance? You will get the chance to be a doctor again.</p>
<p>Goal of â3.6 GPA, +32 MCATâ will limit your choices of Med. Schools greatly, unless hooks like URM statusâŠetc.<br>
Are you accepted at both Harvard and combined program? Also, this particular combined program is very restricting according to your description, does look flexible at all. My own D. is graduating from UG, having been in combined program which has been very flexible in regard to major(s)/minor(s) combo, number of years in UG. She had normal college life, including travels abroad, Greek, which has been one of her best experiences at college. She was able to apply out and still retain her spot at Med. School in her program (she was the only one who applied out of her combined program, others did not want to bother, they will go straight to Med. School without going thru pretty grueling process, but my D. prefers having choices and she has very good ones now).<br>
If you sure that you can get college GPA 3.8+ and MCAT 35+, good number of medically related ECâs and enjoy life in UG, I would advise go to Harvard, unless you are accepted to more flexible combined program. I have never advised that, after D has had very good experiences in combined program, but your program is way to inflexible.</p>
<p>@medicaldoc23:</p>
<p>So after one year of going to Harvard, how do you feel about the academic atmosphere (is it competitive, hard to get a good gpa etc.) and regarding those fears (having to do cookie cutter resume builders/not having enough time to balance work/life, mcats?). Are you still doing premed or have you decided to do something else?</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation with Brown PLME, Harvard, and possibly UCSD Med scholars. I have many of the same concerns that you posted about a year ago</p>
<p>medical, I would also appreciate your input in my situation. Iâm debating between Caltech/UCSD medical scholars and Stanford, MIT, Cambridge. I think my situation is a bit unique b/c Caltech/UCSD allows you to apply out and Caltech is by no means a bad school⊠it just might be a bad school for pre meds 
Your thoughts?</p>
<p>Corpuscallosum: Caltech/UCSD, like Rice/Baylor, is a very rare combination of top undergrad and top med school in a guaranteed program. Actually engineering, if that is what you would do at CalTech, is excellent preparation for the discipline and problem solving skills that will serve you well in medical school and might be the tie breaker to match in a top residency.</p>
<p>Engineering is actually a very poor major for medical school. Traditionally engineers have the roughest transition because the skill-sets do NOT match up very well. My medical schoolâs orientation, in fact, gave a warning to engineers and non-traditional students before we started, since those are traditionally the two groups that have the most trouble.</p>
<p>^^ I would have thought that engineering provides the foundation of problem solving, i.e. diagnosing the symptoms, identifying/analyzing the root cause(s), coming up with various solutions, optimizing the solutions, and fixing the root cause(s). Wonder about the kinds of mismatches in skill sets & the issues likely to be faced by engineers in transitioning to medicine.</p>
1 Like
<p>Youâre probably right about engineering, but thatâs not what medicine is about. Medicine is about following a list of steps to get the information you need, running through a list of possibilities to get the most likely diagnoses, and then following a list of steps of things to do.</p>
<p>In other words: you have to know the lists.</p>
<p>Warning - Iâm over-generalizing here (as there are all kinds of medical careers, some with limited patient contact): Trinity, you never get to those questions unless you can take a medical history and communicate your findings and advice with the right amount of persuasion and tact. âPeople skillsâ trump all. </p>
<p>Engineers can do these things, too, but they donât necessarily learn the skills as part of their degree plan. Put another way, finding and knowing the ârightâ answer is just part of the process of delivering medical care. The âhumanâ side is the rest.</p>
<p>bdm:</p>
<p>what is your thoughts on an engineer who wants to conduct research? Still a difficult transition to med school?</p>
<p>I donât think a research background is going to help much. Medical school is about knowing the facts, plain and simple. Thereâs just not a lot of thinking things through thatâs going to help.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Very true. During my panel interview at Northwestern, the faculty members grilled my partner because she was an engineering major. The opening question to her was: Engineers generally make lousy medical students, so why do you think we should accept you? -(she had a great comeback and ended up getting accepted :))</p>
<p>It is still not very clear to me about the mismatches for engineers transitioning to medicine. ÂMedicine is about following a list of steps to get the information you need, running through a list of possibilities to get the most likely diagnoses, and then following a list of steps of things to doÂ. That looks like what maintenance engineers normally do. They follow a strict protocol to fix complex breakdowns. </p>
<p>Application engineers interface with clients (end users) to understand and fulfill their requirements. People skills are very much in play here. </p>
<p>I think engineers transitioning to medicine should be no different than, say, scientists in physical sciences, making a change in their careers. True they need to develop doctor patient relationship skills, and hopefully it is taught as part of their training in med school.</p>
<p>
Maybe, but itâs not what undergraduate engineering students spend most of their time doing.</p>
<p>^ Agree. Undergraduate engineering students likely do many problem sets on a daily/weekly basis.</p>
<p>I always thought many (but not all) branches of undergraduate engineering, maybe with the exception of the senior year in college, are sort of like an extension of applied physics. Whoever are good at solving word problems in secondary schools tend to have an easier time in the first couple of years in many engineering programs. The skill of absorbing/memorizing massive amount of (seemingly unrelated) facts in a short time is generally not needed for an UNDERGRADUATE engineering student.</p>
<p>For some engineering students who are very good at problem solving, they often put their emphasis on the problem sets. They may just browse through the text briefly in order to save more time on polishing their skills in solving those tricky problems at the end of the chapters ( quickly and without calculation mistakes.) Try this study style on tackling the encyclopedia-like tome of medicine books!</p>