<p>I am a first year aerospace engineering major at Cal Poly but I have been wondering lately about the possibility of going to Med school. As I understand it, to get into med school, it doesn't make a huge difference what your major is as long as you take and do well in the required pre-med classes. I was hoping to hear some opinions about this from other engineering majors who are interested in medicine and how they chose to pursue this situation.</p>
<p>My son is a Chemical Engineering major and (yay!) he’s been accepted to med school. So, yes, it is very possible. </p>
<p>The key is keeping your GPA up. Not only keeping your BCMP GPA up, but also your cum GPA. It’s a lot of work, but it can be done. </p>
<p>What is your question?</p>
<p>My parents are both cryogenic engineers, specializing in mass cooling and mass refrigeration. I’m going to digress away from your question and just provide some input about engineer -> med school.</p>
<p>After taking a look at my parents work and what they have to do/solve, all I can say is that engineering in general is probably the hardest, but most rewarding, path to take in the hopeful chance of getting into med school. Why I say this is because the classes required for engineering are just downright rigorous, and combine this with premed classes, keeping a high gpa becomes a burden for most students. </p>
<p>Major doesn’t matter. My friend from U Chicago had a degree in econ and got into U Chicago med school. You can study anything you want. Also, I’m guessing you’re choosing engineering in general, like most other people, because it’s one of the most beneficial (pays the most and has plenty of employment) degree for only four years of college in case you don’t get into med school. How do I know this? Other than online reports, my parents both make over 6 figures working in their respective engineering occupations; you seldomly find that in any other undergrad degrees. </p>
<p>If you can handle the engineering while completing premed, go for it. Most students, probably myself included due to my hate by the thought of so much physics, would burn out by trying to handle both and as a result will have a much lower overall gpa had we chosen a different major to pursue.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>OP–it’s quite possible to go to med school from engineering. I know a couple of doctors who did that route. My D1 wasn’t an engineering major, but was a physics & math major and is now a MS2 (second year med student). GPA is important, so is doing well in your pre-reqs.</p>
<p>One thing you should do is consult with the health professions advising office at Cal Poly as the content of the MCAT is changing beginning in 2015–which will be right about when you’ll be taking the MCAT. There will be a new human behavior section covering topics in sociology, psychology and medical ethics. And the biological science section will include biochemistry as well as OChem and general biology…</p>
<p>It may be a challenge trying to get all those courses covered by the end of your junior year. It might be worth delaying your med school applications until after graduation and taking a glide year before med school.</p>
<p>However, note that aerospace engineering has less overlap with pre-med requirements than chemical engineering does, so putting together the schedule may be more difficult.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>This is true…</p>
<p>My son’s ChemE degree requires Gen Chem I and II, OChem I and II, and Bio I…but AeroE only requires Gen Chem I. Of course, both disciplines require Physics I and II and more than enough math. </p>
<p>So, unless your school allows you to use AP credits for Core/GenEd Req’ts, it may be hard for you to add in Gen Chem II, Bio 1 and both OChems into your schedule.</p>
<p>My son majored in Mechanical Engineering before going to medical school. He ended up taking a fifth semester of college in order to fit in a few more humanities courses. (He’d already done all the biology and chemistry requirements along with his engineering program.)</p>