<p>Is it possible to do an Aerospace/Mechanical engineering degree and Premed preqs?</p>
<p>I went to this thing over at UCONN and they said there is some overlap in the science and courses and that the only real problem is BIO and Organic Chem.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if Biochem is prereq anymore or if it even was because one of the med students said they didn't have to take it to get admitted.</p>
<p>would not be possible where i went to school.</p>
<p>i’m sure it is possible at some places. then you have to ask yourself why it is possible. it is because you will be mediocre (or poor) at both fields. there is no way of becoming proficient in both fields in a mere 4 or 5 years.</p>
<p>now if you took 6-7 years to do it i’d say that you may have a good shot at be good at both. otherwise, no.</p>
<p>(we weren’t exactly sitting on our hands for the 4 years it took to get our general engineering degree. we worked our a$$es off day and night the whole time)</p>
<p>It is possible, but it happens very infrequently. From what I have heard, med schools actually like to admit engineers because of their somewhat unique approach to problem solving. The problem is, the engineering programs don’t overlap that much with pre-med requirements, so there is a lot of extra courses that need to be taken, plus it would make an already difficult engineering curriculum even more stressful. Other than that, it is still very possible, it just may take you a little longer and it is certainly difficult.</p>
<p>I actually know a guy who was a mechanical engineer as an undergrad, did med school after that and is now a very well known heart surgeon who is now a gazillionaire after he patented some form of artificial heart valve that he invented.</p>
<p>“I actually know a guy who was a mechanical engineer as an undergrad, did med school after that and is now a very well known heart surgeon who is now a gazillionaire after he patented some form of artificial heart valve that he invented.”</p>
<p>that’s so funny because my bro is an md and he has been trying to convince me to go into biomedical engineering for that exact reason. i was like, “dude, i’ll help you figure this stuff out but i’m not going to give up my real passion to make a bazillion dollars!”</p>
<p>Yeah, I am a strong proponent of doing what you love, not what makes you the most money. I feel like I am doing that, but the problem is, every time I watch NOVA I feel like I should have been an astrophysicist. haha</p>
<p>I just don’t want to sit there wondering what could’ve been. After hearing so many different perspectives, I just don’t want to be the guy who gave up when s*** got tough. I’ve already messed up in HS and I want to make my UG so great that I’ll remember it for years and years to come.</p>
<p>For me college is going to be place where I learn as much as I can but also make sure that when I graduate I can actually make a couple bucks. I don’t want to have regrets when I leave with my Engineering degree.</p>
<p>I want to help people which is my main reason for liking both fields Engineers(indirect) and MD(Direct).</p>
<p>“Yeah, I am a strong proponent of doing what you love, not what makes you the most money. I feel like I am doing that, but the problem is, every time I watch NOVA I feel like I should have been an astrophysicist. haha”</p>
<p>LOL. i feel ya. i honestly believe that anyone with a solid technical foundation and an open mind to strange physics (which you’ll have to pick up) can do those sorts of things even without credentials. it really isn’t too late to start! nothing has to be exclusive…</p>
<p>and then when you own the material and start talking to people in the field they’ll go “man, you know what, that guy is pretty smart and has an interesting perspective.” then they’ll remember you and perhaps even consult your opinions on few things. bam you’re an astrophysicist.</p>
<p>Midknite, to be honest, you need to do what you think you will enjoy if you ask me. If that is MD, then great. If that is an engineer, then wonderful. Shoot, if that is working on a road crew, then I salute you for doing what you want. Honestly, you have the potential to help more people as an engineer than a doctor.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you what it is you will and won’t regret, but I can tell you that once you figure out what it is you want, you should pursue it with all the devotion that you can.</p>
<p>rocketDA:
If only I had the time to be an aerodynamicist, astrophysicist, soon to be husband and someday dad, all while having some free time, then that would be great. Think they will extend the length of a day to 48 hours any time soon?</p>
<p>“If only I had the time to be an aerodynamicist, astrophysicist, soon to be husband and someday dad, all while having some free time, then that would be great. Think they will extend the length of a day to 48 hours any time soon?”</p>
<p>Well, the day currently being 24 hours won’t dissuade someone from changing it to 48 hours in our line of work, would it? Just keep launching em rockets in counter equatorial orbits and soon you’ll find things will slow down a bit here…</p>
<p>But in all seriousness, I am in the same boat (imagine that, again!), except for the soon to be husband thing. I give it 5 years or so before that happens. I want to be a AI scientist (high level auto algorithmic), astrophysicist, aerospace engineer (sorta have this one down), and musician/composer. Also, dad, husband, upstanding citizen, and superman.</p>
<p>Ah, I forgot Superman!</p>
<p>Replace AI scientist with world traveler and musician with professional golfer and you basically just described me as well.</p>
<p>It’s possible, and med schools like seeing engineering applicants. Pre-med is an absolute joke major, and if you do have med-school plans you should absolutely major in something else (bio, chem, engineering, etc.) so that if you don’t get into med school or decide you don’t like it you have other options. A pre-med degree by itself is worth about as much as a communications degree.</p>
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<p>At most schools, AE/ME premed is possible, but it’s not common for the reasons you mentioned (bio and chem requirements add a lot of hours onto an already intense program). The students I’ve seen do that are the ones that decide later in college that they want to attend Med School. </p>
<p>ChemE and BME are the more popular pre-med majors, as they already have the O-Chem requirements built into the program (as well as the Biology requirement, frequently). Often, a premed ChemE/BME doesn’t require any additional credit hours.</p>
<p>IMO, I would not recommend taking engineering as a pre-med. Even as a ChemE. You will take so many classes that will not help you in medicine. Whatever you do to prepare for pre-med will detract from your engineering career preparation. You may have heard about the “gazillionaire” doctor mechanical engineer mentioned earlier. Well, that is one atypical experience.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I would say you should go with engineering premed only if you are BRILLIANT or are torn between engineering and medicine. If you are sure that you want to be a doctor (have researched it and looked at posssible careers) then just to premed.</p>
<p>I’m pretty torn between the two.</p>
<p>I can wait 10-14yrs in medicine waiting to become a person who can help people directly or do 5-6yrs and get my masters in engineering and help people indirectly.</p>
<p>I want to do engineering to understand why and how everything works.</p>
<p>I want to become a doctor mostly to help out the local community.</p>
<p>I have more reasons but they’d just clutter up pages.</p>
<p>So I should put off those premed requirements until after I do engineering? Though wont that make it just that much harder to get into med school?</p>
<p>I’m gonna post this thread in the premed forum.</p>
<p>Midknite, you ask really good questions! My son is facing exactly the same dilemma. He’s decided to start out in biochemical engineering, but switch to biology if he doesn’t enjoy the engineering classes. He loves science AND math, so it’s a hard decision.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Midknite, I noticed your comment “I want to do engineering to understand why and how everything works.”</p>
<p>I fully empathize with your desire to understand how everything works. I was the same way. But it is impossible. Have you ever met anyone who knows how everything works? You can only go deep into one specialized field. Especially in engineering. If you want to be a good mechanical engineer, for instance, you will devote your life to advanced topics in heat transfer, fluid flow, or something else. But you won’t have a practical training in many fields like electrical engineering, chemistry, etc.</p>
<p>Also, are you sure a master’s degree is a good idea? You may learn once you are in college that there is not much of a market for masters degrees. There may only be a market for PhD’s. (The case for ChemE’s)</p>
<p>To MaineLonghorn:
By the time your son takes the more unenjoyable classes in biochemical engineering he might be a junior, which is probably too late to change a major. Chemical engineering, which may be similar to biochemical, doesn’t have much of its core classes in the first two years. At my school, you only take two or three ChemE courses in the first two years. The rest are chemistry and physics, which are not representative of the engineering career.</p>
<p>If you know chemistry then how hard can it be to do organic chemistry?</p>
<p>How hard is general bio? I thought that was the easiest class for med students, and it only gets difficult when you get in deeper?</p>
<p>The major problem with engineering and being a pre-med is that you need to keep up your GPA and have extra-curricular like shadowing doctors, clinical volunteering; basically stuff that shows medical school admissions committees that you know what you are getting into. I have heard that engineers don’t do as well during the first two years, as it is lots of rote memorization. Apparently we really excel during the clinicals, where problem solving comes into practice.</p>