Hi! I am a rising senior in High School and am considering chemical engineering as my college major. I have heard that engineering is a difficult major and it helps you stand out form the other pre-med students with science majors like chemistry, biology etc. However, I am also scared for my GPA if I do chemical engineering since medical schools want a high GPA.Thoughts?
Everyone tells me that medical schools only look at your GPA and MCAT score, and your major is mostly irrelevant. In that case should I even do engineering? I am also interested in biochemistry, so would that be better?
It is a risk. You will have to be deeply committed to your studies to pull off the needed GPA. It does give you a good plan B if med school doesn’t work out, though.
Definitely do not major in engineering (or any major) if only to ‘stand out’ from other pre-meds.
CE is a difficult major and average GPAs tend to be lower than the median GPA of med school matriculants, so you have a valid concern. Research what you can at the school’s on your list–but it can be difficult to find GPA by major, etc.Pick a major you like because then you are more likely to get better grades.
Engineering does NOT make you stand out. Any engineering major has the risks of rigid curriculum and lower GPA. Biochem is a hard major but if you’re good at biochem with strong interest, give it a try. Biochem major applicants tend to score higher in MCAT, but you still need to have 3.7+ sGPA to be competitive. You can give either a try in your freshman year and if you can’t score A’s, back out.
Don’t pick engineering just because you think you will stand out. It is hard to maintain a med school worthy gpa in engineering.
Engineering is not for everyone. D really loved her engineering classes and had she not been premed would have majored in it anyway. She did very well in it but she would not recommend it to students with a goal of attending med school because there is higher risk of messing up your gpa. It is definitely a much more challenging path to med school when it is already a difficult journey anyway. You really have to have a passion for engineering and if you are doing it simply to impress medical schools it will not work out well. Between her classes and ec’s that didn’t leave much time to enjoy the college experience. (social life) It is very easy to get behind in your classes with such a tight schedule. There is no room to mess up because you can’t afford to repeat classes.
If possible I recommend getting exposure to engineering before starting college. She had already made connections with engineering professors and started working on projects before she even started college.