<p>I am currently enrolled in "Engineering Science" Program at University of Toronto. I finished my first year with GPA of 3.5 (I know it is not impressive but will improve to atleast 3.7 at the end of the undergrad). I am planning to choose biomedical engineering as my speciallization for my undergrad. I applied to MIT for my undergrad but didn't get in. So at first I decided that I will try as a transfer student but after my poor 1st year GPA, I think there is no point. </p>
<pre><code> Note: Engineering Science is one of the most intense and academically demanding
program in Canada
</code></pre>
<p>And during this summer, I am working as a research assistant on project about 3D photonic crystal.</p>
<p>Currently I am planning to go to either medical school or graduate studies in biomedical engineering and will start preparing for both GRE and MCAT. So is it a good idea to try for both? And what should I do to get into a good medical school school (John Hopkins, Stanford..) or a good engineering school (MIT, Stanford, CalTech..)? And is there any point to apply as a transfer student right now??</p>
<p>Thanks for reading my post and for any advice that you are about to give.</p>
<p>First of all, on a 4.0 scale a 3.5 is usually “Dean’s List” material - give yourself a pat on the back and stop calling it unimpressive.</p>
<p>Second, make your case and try for the transfer if it is that important to you - don’t skip trying just because you may not succeed.</p>
<p>As to your longer-range options, the big question is what you want to do with your life - be a doctor, an engineer, or both? The outgoing president of Hopkins held an MD and a PhD in EE - it can be done. The main advantage of doing so is to actually work at the interface between patient and technology, performing clinical trials, etc. Just remember that you only need the MD to treat patients - not to design medical materials.</p>
<p>If you want to directly treat patients, get the MD. If you want to design medical implants and tools, go engineering. Only if you want to do both simultaneously in research should you pursue both courses.</p>
<p>Maybe you could relax about your future plans until closer to the end of college. People change dramatically between the end of freshman year and the end of college. </p>
<p>If you don’t know which dramatically different field you are interested in- engineering or treating patients, perhaps you could go out of your way to volunteer at a hospital as well as get some solid experience in research. Being around professional physicians and professional engineers may give you a little more insight into what would be the best fit for you.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice. </p>
<p>I don’t know how the admission committee of US grad school take academic record into account. Like do they give more focus on upper year GPA or do they look at the overall GPA? And I heard unlike undergrad, grad school admission committee don’t take extracurricular activities that seriously. Is that true?</p>
<p>In general, they focus mostly on your major gpa as well as your last 2 years - the overall gpa is of less interest.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars do not matter in grad admissions. They are not looking for “well-rounded students who will contribute to campus life and activity”, they are looking for lean mean research machines.</p>
<p>Grad schools are interested both in your overall GPA and your major GPA. Your transcripts, both in what you’ve taken and how well you’ve done, will be a key component of your application.</p>
<p>And don’t bother to transfer to your intended grad school as an undergraduate because historically grad schools take very few of their own undergraduates. </p>
<p>The only good reasons to transfer are: 1. the academics aren’t challenging enough or 2. you are unhappy.</p>
<p>Mom, I would agree on the transfer thing, but he is looking at MIT - if he can get in there it carries a lot weight in and out of academia. And the top schools take more of their own (and each other’s) grads than other schools do - it will not hurt that much, if at all.</p>
<p>This is all assuming that he can do well at MIT, which is another question entirely - many demonstrably talented people do not fit well there.</p>
<p>So does that mean that I will not have a good chance as an undergrad from Canada, even if my undergrad program is a very challenging one?</p>
<p>Farhan, the top schools in the US, including MIT, take comparatively few transfers. Their standards are extremely high – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get in. A 3.5 in engineering is generally seen as a good GPA. Is it high enough for MIT transfer? I can’t say. I</p>
<p>I’ve given more thought to my answer following cosmicfish’s comments. While I will say that it will be difficult to go from MIT to MIT (unless you are one of MIT’s top students), going from MIT to just about any other university will be much easier than from University of Toronto. HOWEVER, when applying to grad schools, your GPA and your letters of recommendation will weigh heavily on your admissions, even more than the undergraduate school that you attended. That said, letters of recommendation from nationally and internationally known professors always carry more weight than those from lesser known ones. Wherever you go, you want to work with the best.</p>
<p>When you apply for transfer, keep in mind several points: transfer students don’t get the kind of FA that admitted students get. Since you’re international, you’ll have even less of a chance. If FA is critical to your attendance, you may have to stay in Toronto.</p>
<p>University of Toronto is hardly an obscure university. It is well respected as a premier Canadian university, so attending it won’t hurt you in grad school admissions.</p>
<p>A 3.5 is not a poor first year GPA. Don’t think of it like high school – here, the highest you can get is a 4.0, so a 3.5 is mostly As. A 3.7 is excellent; a 3.5 is still good.</p>
<p>I agree with cosmicfish. If you want to go to MIT, go ahead and try to transfer. All you’ll be out is the application fee, but if you don’t apply, you’ll always wonder whether you can get in. But the University of Toronto is an excellent school, so if you don’t get into MIT, don’t worry about that. Just try to get involved in some research during your sophomore year (it doesn’t matter whether it’s biomedical engineering research or straight medical research, although the BME might be more useful to both places) and make connections with some top professors at your school, and keep your grades nice!</p>
<p>Thank you all for advice and comments. I have few more questions to ask:</p>
<p>Cosmicfish said, “extracurriculars do not matter for grad admissions”. Does that apply to medical school admission too? And is there any similaritiy between MCAT and GRE? Like if I prepare for MCAT, will it be any help for GRE? And when should I start taking these tests?? And is admission into a top medical school harder than admission to a top engineering school?</p>
<p>Extracurriculars DO matter for med school. I suggest going over to the Medical School forum to find out more details about the med school admissions process because it is quite different from other kinds of grad schools. For one, the process begins at the end of junior year (to begin med school the fall after graduation).</p>
<p>The only things I know about the MCATs are that it is generally taken at the end of junior year and that it tests on subject matter knowledge such as cellular biology, physics, organic chemistry, etc. – all the sciences that a med school applicant is required to take prior to application. The GRE is much more general and tests different skills. The two tests are not interchangeable. My D, who will be applying to biomedical PhD programs in the fall, has encountered PhD programs within medical schools that will NOT accept the MCAT. GREs only. (Not that she has taken the MCAT.)</p>
<p>I’m not an expert on this, however. Do check out the medical school forum for more information.</p>
<p>One last question: Should I start preparing for GRE or is it too early?? And do u have any suggestion for GRE prep; like which prep book should I use or something like that?</p>
<p>
Incidentally, not that this is the point, but MIT is a strong exception here – MIT loves academic inbreeding, and MIT itself is the most common graduate school destination of MIT undergrads. About 20% of graduating undergrads head off to graduate school at MIT immediately after graduation, and even more undoubtedly return after a few years of work.</p>
<p>Wow, Mollie, that is indeed an exception. I would have guessed 5%. Maybe because there are few institutions like MIT? I know that there is Ivy-inbreeding – for example, if you do undergrad at Harvard, you’re more likely to get into Yale grad school – but it’s rare to go to grad school at your undergrad one unless you’ve entered a special program. </p>
<p>Again, though, if the OP cannot transfer to MIT, the University of Toronto is still well-respected. Mollie, maybe you could help the OP a bit by sharing where some of the non-MIT admits in your program studied.</p>
<p>Well, for any program that gets funding from the NIH (and I believe many biomedical engineering programs do), admission is tough for international students because the program must fund them through non-NIH departmental funds. My program (which is a biomedical sciences PhD program) is only about 15-20% international, but I gather that this is somewhat low for programs in biology. I am not sure about the situation in programs with an engineering focus.</p>