So I want to major in engineering, but I also want to go to medical school. I know it sounds weird. Will this look bad on my college application?
No.
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Even if I’m thinking of doing Mech engineering or Computer engineering
You are a HS student. You could change your mind 10 times before you declare a college major.
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No. Just like it isn’t weird to play water polo and want to major in engineering. People have varied interests.
And who knows? Maybe you’ll even wind up in a career designing medical devices or something.
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Yeah but I’m thinking about going into computer engineering or mechanical engineering so.
Listen…it’s not weird and it doesn’t matter. You need to let go of this as a problem.
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You’re way overthinking this with your multiple threads. It’s ok to be diverse. You can have multiple varied interests.
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Just know that if you choose engineering or CS it will reduce your odds of getting into medical school. Engineering is hard. Many stellar HS students are brought to their knees. At my son’s school for example, the average graduating ME GPA is 2.7. They only admit about 15%, so all of the students were stars in HS. Food for thought.
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Agree. Our son had under a 3.0 in computer software engineering at Caltech (at ~2.9+)
When applying for internships, everything is done via website applications. Because he couldn’t honestly put 3.0 in the application area, his applications were automatically rejected. The same thing happened for our eldest daughter. She was in the electrical engineering/ computer software program, otherwise known as EECS, and was at ~2.7 applying for summer internships. Below 3.0 doesn’t meet the rubric set up in a software program for job applications and internships. Human resources doesn’t understand this but engineers do. Engineering is brutal because of the amount of information a student must have and know to process and solve problems.
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You are WAYYYYY overthinking this.
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Many kids have ECs in high school that have absolutely nothing to do with their eventual college majors. One of mine had extensive music ECs, and was a swimmer. Kid is neither a musician or professional athlete…or anything related to that.
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You can major in engineering and apply to medical school. Actually, you can major in anything and apply to medical school as long as you have taken the prerequisite courses required for medical school applicants.
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Many…many kids start off thinking they want to be engineers, but switch to a different major. Same with those thinking they want to be doctors. Most don’t even end up applying to medical school.
What colleges do you plan to apply to that you are so…”concerned” about all the things you have posted about in multiple threads! UMD?and where else?
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Very true. My youngest son is a freshman ME major at a Top 30 university. The class average in Calculus 3 this past semester was right at the B/C borderline. He knows several really bright freshman kids in that class who had never made a B in their lives and they were going home for the holidays to tell their parents they made a C or a D.
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My son took honors Calc III his first quarter. He ended up with an A, but he got a 79 on his first test. There was no curve, so he got his first C ever on a math test. When he told us, I asked him what the range was. His reply: “Oh, there were scores in the 30s.” Every student in the class had scored 5 on the BC exam.
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So when my son got his first C ever he told me that was the “good” grade for that class in engineering… Lol. They are all HS superstars until they go into engineering…
To the OP. Having mixed interests can actually “enhance” your chances at a top 30 as long as you have the rigor, grades and scores. Many applying to engineering are in music, band, theater, art, etc. Lots of engineering colleges actually mix.
At schools like Michigan they actually have the engineering students live side by side and on the same campus with the nursing students, Art, dance, theater, etc and they can collaborate together. Mixing the right and left brain… If you will… Just be you and don’t try to influence the AO. Engineers are people too, you know.
As far as using engineering as a fallback if medical school doesn’t work out isn’t a great plan. Yes there are biomedical engineering students that like to take this path but don’t know how many succeed. Also look at Michigan’s conjoined program with engineering and liberal arts (premed)Joint Degree in Liberal Arts and B.S. in Engineering | U-M LSA U-M College of LSA
This is a 5 year program but might take longer. Look at the requirements etc. Then look at the stats at how many kids get a 3.7 or above while doing this. I am sure if you call they might have those stats. Plan on being home like most weekends. This is a very tough program but they have it so somebody is doing it.
You don’t need to start worrying about a major until sometime around your sophmore year in college. Just go into college with an open mind, take classes, and see where your passions are.
Not true if they want to be an engineer, or are applying to a college where one has to apply directly to a school/program/major.
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