Hi everyone, I just entered into the University of Pennsylvania as a Comp Sci major two weeks ago and I am aiming to finish the pre-med track. A lot of people ask me to explain my reasoning for it so here goes:
I have loved programming and problem solving since I was a little kid. It was just the art of programming that convinced me that this is something I want to foster throughout my life, not necessarily as a job, but rather as a hobby to exercise my mind. In high school, I found ways to use computer science to benefit my local community. It was around this same time, I became really interested in biology, research, and clinical interaction. I did a 3 year program at a local hospital where I did research and clinical hours and saw that same theme of problem solving come across in medicine, except in a more applicable and impactful way. I loved to interact with patients and find out about their backgrounds and lives. It was then I decided that, although I had loved computer science, I wanted to be a doctor.
So now I’m in college as an engineer. I am pursuing computer science as my main degree because I want to learn as much about it as I possibly can. At the same time, I am fulfilling my pre-med requirements so I can apply for med school. However, I know that engineers will have a low GPA and I am totally prepared for that. If I were to get rejected from all the med schools I apply to, CS is a great career to fall back on.
My question is, will medical schools hold an engineering degree against me? The last thing I want happening is a school rejecting me because they dont think I am serious about medical sciences due to my major being in computer science. Should I angle my ECs to be more towards medicine to remedy this?