Hey guys,
I am currently debating on which school I should attend given that I am trying to major in Mechanical Engineering (as a plan B in case medicine doesn’t work out) and my built up hopes of pursuing a career in surgery.
The schools I am considering are:
Cal Poly Pomona
San Diego State
Long Beach State
I am worried that some med schools might prioritize students from certain colleges. How would you approach the situation, and which college would you choose? What should I do throughout college to increase my chances of getting accepted to a med school (besides academic success and high MCAT score)? What would make me stand out from the rest of the applicants?
Medical schools get applications from students all over the country. If they’re going to give preference to anything, it’s going to be a state school giving preference to a state resident. Grades and MCAT scores are what does the talking. That being the case, you’re a lot wiser than most premeds. It’s hard to get into medical school, and you can’t to much with a biology degree.
As long as you meet the medical school’s prerequisites, you can major in anything you want. That’s the tricky part, though. Schools vary on what the prerequisites actually are. Biology degrees usually cover the prerequisites for any school. For a degree in engineering, it just means you have to be selective about what medical schools you apply to. There are plenty, you just have to look around. Medical schools get bored of looking at biology majors. When they see someone with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, you immediately stand out, because you’re versatile.
What will each COA be? You’ll want to keep debt low, since medical school is very expensive. And which one do you like best? Attending school where you feel most comfortable is a good idea.
Unfortunately California medical schools do not offer much in the way of an instate preference in applicants. (Exception: UC-Riverside admits student with strong ties to the Inland Empire area.)
Also because California produces far, far too many highly qualified applicants for the number of med school seats in CA. You will need to apply widely for med school and the odds say should you be accepted to med school it will be at an OOS program. (2/3rd of successful CA med school applicants matriculate OOS.). OOS adcomms won’t know the difference in academic reputation between Cal Poly and Long Beach (any other 2 CSUs) so don’t worry too much about that.
Med schools don’t give bonus points for tough majors. A 3.4 in MechE isn’t going to be favored over 3.9 in gender studies.
It’s next impossible to stand out in med school applications unless you accomplish something extra-ordinary: publish a first author paper in Nature, win an Olympic gold medal, headline at the Met, be award a Silver Star, find a cure for cancer… But you can strive to be a “average excellent” applicant. Average excellent applicants make up the vast majority of this accepted to med school.
Besides maintaining a excellent GPA and scoring high on the MCAT, you should seek out opportunities to demonstrate your leadership skills, to do community service with disadvantaged populations, to obtain clinical experience which puts in close contact with patients, and to shadow physicians in variety of specialties, especially those in primary care fields.
There is one engineering focused medical school, Carle Illinois, a small new school that admits only those with engineering/CS/Physics/mathematics type degrees. Should you get to the point of applying for med school, you might want to keep that school in mind.