So I’ve been accepted into UT Austin with a major in electrical engineering, but my ultimate goal is to get into medical school and become a physician. However, a lot of people are telling me that juggling a major in electrical engineering and the required pre med courses for medical school holds a serious risk of burning me out. Engineering also holds significant interest for me, and it’s something I’d like to do if I can’t get into medical school, but getting into medical school is more important to me. I’m looking into biomedical engineering (BME) as an alternative, but I hear that it’s basically a worthless degree if it’s not a PhD. I still have time to change my major, but at this point, I’m at a loss as to what to do next.
People telling you that you can’t do both are probably right; unless you are superhuman. Both paths are tough. Together, about impossible.
One real problem is that any engineering program is tough. Maintaining a GPA that will get you into med school is tough enough by itself. Combined with engineering is just way too risky.
Many students have a hard time finishing a BS in engineering in 4 years. Taking all the extra classes for the premed option will cost you in time and money.
I think you need to make a choice.
Bme isn’t worthless without a phd. Needs a masters most likely though, but a good school like UT could get you in the door with good internships and you could get a job with bachelor’s however a masters would probably help you out. Nevertheless, if your main goal is to be a doctor don’t study engineering. If you aren’t confident that if you work your hardest that you can make it, there is a decent chance you probably shouldn’t do it either. Tough choice on the table however a good tough choice to have since UT EE is a great program. Best wishes
I’m not sure I could pick a worse pre-med degree than engineering, basically for all the reasons @HPuck35 alluded to. Med School admission is about three things, GPA, pre-requisites and MCAT. You’d literally be better off as an Art History major. The issue comes in when you pre-plan for a career if you don’t get in. Art History sucks, engineering is awesome. You just have to live with the Catch-22 that ANY engineering degree will make it tougher to get in. If you’re interested in engineering, that’s great. If it’s medicine or nothing, I’d switch out of engineering completely.
Well, damn, this is probably the toughest decision I’ve made so far in my life. I imagine that even if I go for engineering freshman year to test out the waters, it could still make a sizable dent in my GPA. I think everyone’s right, probably best to switch out of engineering and focus on keeping up the GPA for medical school.
The question is an oxymoron!
I see lots of students who take the BME degree specifically for the purpose of getting into medical school at my university, Illinois Tech. Yes, it is a bit less demanding than EE but it is far more challenging than some of the other common pre-med degrees. My rule of thumb when asked this by students is if you want to be an engineer, then study engineering but if you want to be a physician, then focus on a major that gives you the best chance at getting into medical school and then make sure you do all the other things that medical schools like to see from their applicants. I am sure there is a pre-med advisor at your school who can give all the relevant information and help you find opportunities.
Ditto what HPuck, Eyemgh and Xraymancs said!!! Engineering disciplines are not the ideal undergraduate majors for an aspiring medical school applicant.
In this day and age, it is difficult to go this route. But not in the past. I know three people, all Purdue engineering undergraduates, who ended up in medical school. But that was several decades ago where medical admissions may not have been as competitive. One of the three is an ophthalmologist and the other an orthopedic surgeon, and both reported the engineering education helped immensely (both BSME’s). But that was then…
At Alabama, the premeds in engineering all seem to ChemE majors. I think that’s because, in addition to the university accepting a huge number of AP credits (giving these students advanced standing), the premed requirements to a great degree overlap with those of the ChemE major. @mom2collegekids has a son who did just that and went on to be accepted to a number of medical schools, I believe. (He’s at UAB now.)
Aside from a situation like that (how many AP credits does UT accept?), it does seem like a high-risk proposition to study engineering with the goal of getting into medical school.
It is hard, but not impossible. If you spread it out over five years and maybe take summer classes, then it’s more manageable. Taking more than a fourth year is not frowned upon, as long as you don’t frequently drop classes or only take minimum credits.
However it is very true that trying to fulfill both requirements will leave you unable to take fun classes. You might even miss out on engineering classes that appeal to you. By doing an engineering major, you already have very few free elective hours to begin with. Chances are all of the pre-health requirements can only count as free electives rather than some sort of useful graduation requirement. If you want to do both, even if you are fine with taking an extra year, this requires very careful planning right from your first semester freshman year.
@SarcasmBroken, just like @turbo93 said, it was not unheard of years ago to major in engineering and go on to medical school. My DH graduated in 1990 with a degree in civil engineering and went on to medical school. In fact the MCAT at the time had sections in physics and quantitative analysis in which he got a near perfect score (which he attributed to the tough classes in engineering). A friend of his is on the selection committee of a large public university medical school, and said that he and my husband would have had a harder time getting in today. Our son is going to be a freshman engineering student next fall, and also thinking of the possibility of med school. Sorry this wasn’t much help. Good luck, whatever you decide.