My daughter recently graduated from a big state school with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a very high GPA. She had some doubts about an engineering career during her undergrad years but decided to finish the degree. She has worked for a year as a Mechanical Engineer for a large company and is considering going back to school for either a grad degree in engineering with a ‘medical’ focus or taking pre-reqs for medical school. My question is regarding how engineering grad schools will consider her if she pursues pre-reqs for med school and then later decides on seeking an engineering grad degree and not pursuing med school. She has already done shadowing of physicians as well as under grad research in engineering so she has some exposure to what may lie ahead in either area.
Thanks in advance.
They won’t care as long as she also meets the requirements for their program and has good letters of recommendation.
As for making the choice between the two, it really boils down to interacting with people. Does she want to see patients or not?
Thanks for your reply eyemgh. She does understand that a career in clinical medicine would be quite different from a career in engineering research. The question is whether top engineering grad schools would have a negative view on the post-bac year of pre-med courses. Her thinking was that additional coursework in biology and chemistry might be beneficial if she pursues an engineering grad degree with a medical focus and she could also get involved in some research in the engineering department that is more biological or medical.
Does anyone know of others who have gone back for post-bac classes and then been accepted into a top engineering grad program?
One of my classmates had a degree in ME. He worked for HP 1 year then applied to medical schools. He was accepted to JHU Med School if I remember correctly.
Hi cool weather,
Good to know that your ME friend was accepted to med school. There seems to be plenty of information about non-traditional paths to med school. My post was about non-traditional paths to engineering grad school. I haven’t found much info on that topic.
Is there any way to fulfill the med school requirements as part of a masters program in her engineering flavor of choice? It might take 2 years instead of 1 but would save some time in case she decides to go the PhD route instead.
Hi boneh3ad,
I was hoping to hear from you as I find your comments on this forum to be most insightful and helpful.
And yes, the option of combining the med school pre-reqs and a Masters program has been considered. It would definitely add a year of study.
Do you have a take on how a grad school would view an applicant who completed a year of the med school pre-reqs without being part of a Masters program?
I don’t know that they would really care as long as they have some reasonable level of confidence that she won’t just bolt for medical school if it comes calling.
It seems a bit odd that she would be interested in both this late in the game. They are very different career paths most of the time.
I did this path by applying for a Masters degree in engineering first, I was worried my professors might not remembering me. Once I was accepted I delayed enrollment for a year. In the gap year, I took premed classes but later on I changed my mind about Medical school. I calculated by the time I would be accepted and enrolled, I would be too old at the age of 25. So I didn’t follow through. I hurried up and finished my Masters degree in one year, taking 3 classes in one summer. It wasn’t fun but I did it.