So, I have a dilemma: there are two colleges I simply cannot choose between for undergrad.
See, I want to go to medical school to become a cardiologist, but I also want to major in mechanical engineering to have a good degree to fall back on in the event I don’t want to become a doctor/don’t like med school or whatnot.
The first college is South Alabama; they have the med school I want to go to. Either way, I should be headed there at one point. They also have an early acceptance program that I already fit the needs of, and I could go there, do MechE, and get into their med school with ease. Of course, I have to maintain a decent GPA and do well on the MCAT, but generally, I’m pretty much guaranteed a spot if I’m accepted.
The second college is Mississippi State. I wanted to go here for MechE because their engineering program is the best in my state, all my friends are going there, and I’ve generally wanted to go there as long as I can remember. The thing is, if I do MechE there, a HARD major, along with pre-med, I might not have the GPA to be accepted into medical school. My weighted GPA right now is a 98, but there are kids I know with 102s and 103s that still complain how hard it is to be accepted places.
Should I not risk going to MSU and instead take the safe route at South Alabama? Or, do you think taking the risk wouldn’t be that bad? Also, is it too crazy to try MechE for a pre-med major, and should I opt for something easier?
Just remember, you are looking at TWO educational paths that that many people start but don’t finish. Would you go to USA if it wasn’t for the early acceptance program? If it is the only reason, I would advise against USA for undergrad because you are very likely to change your mind about medical school.
South Alabama’s Early Acceptance program for medical school requires that you maintain a 3.5 college GPA, including 3.4 college GPA in BCPM (biology, chemistry, physics, math) courses. In addition, you must score 504 or greater on the MCAT.
While this is not as difficult as the usual route to medical school (applicants with 3.40-3.59 college GPA and 502-505 MCAT score had only a 27.2% success rate of getting into any medical school in 2016-2017, according to https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf ), it is far from guaranteed. Remember that a 3.5 GPA is typically significantly more difficult to earn than a 3.5 GPA in high school.
Doing mechanical engineering with pre-med can be difficult because mechanical engineering course plans leave little or no space to add the pre-med courses that do not overlap (typically organic chemistry, biology, and often upper division biochemistry). For example:
South Alabama does accept AP credits “with proper denotation on the undergraduate transcript” (which you have to find out what it means and whether your undergraduate school does this), according to http://www.usahealthsystem.com/how-to-apply , but many medical schools do not, so you may have to take more advanced courses in the same subject area if you skip some lower level BCPM courses with AP credit.