Not sure what's going to happen after college

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi. First post so I'm not sure this is on the right board. If not sorry, I'll repost it elsewhere.</p>

<p>Basically I'm a senior in college, about to graduate in a few months. I go to Emmanuel College in MA which is a small liberal arts school and I've majored in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience, and am floating around a 3.7 GPA, depending on my grades from this semester. Within the past month or so I've decided I would be keen on studying neural engineering (Neural engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and possibly go into research as a career. This is obviously something that I'd need to go on to med. school to study.</p>

<p>My GPA is decent and I'm confident my MCAT scores will be fine as well since. My concerns come that I haven't taken ANY type of engineering classes in undergrad, unless you count level 100 physics and Calc II. I also haven't done any research in school.</p>

<p>My question is what do I do next, and is is conceivable I could go to med school by Fall 2011? I obviously need to do research for the credentials, but neuroengineering is a very specific field that requires a bio and engineering background. So I'm assuming I would have to take some math classes next year to get caught up with engineering students, so I'd be able to do some research somewhere, and then be able to apply to med schools, right? What would these classes be specifically? I've spent the past few hours googling my arse off and I can't find any resources to help me</p>

<p>And for anyone who has been in a similar situation or knows anything about it, would I be able to do research in biomedical engineering (which isn't so math-intense), get caught up with the necessary classes on the side, and then apply to a med school with the intent of becoming a neuroengineer, even without research in that specific background?</p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated, I'm extremely nervous about all this. I'm a hard worker and I think of myself as a good student, but I was stupid for waiting this late to think about career. I always thought one would find me and not the other way around.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>I guess I’m not quite sure why you feel you need to go to medical school to study this.</p>

<p>Generally, I feel that people should only go to medical school if they have an intense desire to learn how to diagnose and treat patients. Those are the skills that medical school teaches, and if you don’t need those skills (which I’m not sure you do), then you don’t need to go to medical school. This is especially true if you want to end up in some very specific field of biomedical science like you do. </p>

<p>There are many reasons for this opinion. Primarily, medical school is a long, broad based path. As a medical student you’re going to spend a lot of time on body systems and patients that have nothing to do with neurology/neurosurg. And I’m not sure that learning about pregnancy, gall bladder disease, heart attacks, bronchiolitis, colon cancer, taking a sexual history, and properly palpating a spleen will help you towards your goal. </p>

<p>On top of that, it’s long - 4 years for medical school (7 or 8 if you do an MD/PhD), and 4 years of a Neurology (or 7 years of a Neurosurgery) residency. You could get your PhD and be doing research well within that time frame, for less cost and time spent (Neurosurg is the only residency in which every residency program has applied for and been granted an extension to the 80 hour work week cap for residents - they’re allowed to work 88 hours a week on average). </p>

<p>Third, it’s likely easier to get into a PhD program that fits your needs than to go through the ringer of med school admissions and then residency match. Since you seem so set on this neural engineering pathway it seems like a waste that you might get through 4 years of medical school but then not match into neurology or neurosurg. Further, there are a lot of PhD’s who do clinical trials as part of a team with MD’s, MD/PhD’s and other PhD’s. You can definitely be a part of such a team and get to do the research you desire without being an MD. </p>

<p>I think you need to talk to your mentors and advisors, consider what your ultimate goals are and before just jumping into medical school, make sure that’s the right step towards your career goals…because I’m not sure that it is. Really ask yourself, do I need to be able to diagnose and treat patients to do what I want to do? If you need those things, then for sure, try for medical school. If not, then you’d be better off looking in a different direction.</p>

3

<p>You don’t need med school to do research in neural engineering. Lucky you.</p>

4

<p>Well this is news to me. What would I do next if not medical school?</p>

<p>Sorry that I’m so uninformed about this, but everything I’ve read about people in biomedical engineering-type professions had to go to med school?</p>

5

<p>Definitely not. Search Google for “phd biomedical engineering.” There are a lot of programs - none of which involve getting an MD.</p>

6

<p>

!!!</p>

7

<p>Again, to reiterate the point:</p>

<p>If you don’t need to know how to diagnose and treat patients, then you don’t need to go to medical school.</p>

8

<p>Well now that I know this isn’t something for med schools, this board might not be the best place to ask this, but you all seem friendly enough. Here goes:</p>

<p>Do I have any shot of getting into a biomed. engineering program without any background in engineering/computer sci. in undergrad? Some people on sites I’ve been reading say there aren’t any set requirements for an undergrad degree, but lots of school sites make it sound like applying students need to have a very specific resume.</p>

<p>E.G. on the Tufts website it says:</p>

<p>“Applicants to the graduate program are expected to have a degree at the level of Bachelor or Master in engineering or basic/applied/health sciences. Requirements include a basic knowledge of biology, math through ordinary differential equations, and some basic engineering courses (for example, fluid mechanics, properties of materials, thermodynamics, circuit theory). Students who do not meet all requirements may be admitted into the program pending the successful completion of courses aimed at the fulfillment of the requirements. Tufts will offer the opportunity for students accepted into the graduate program to attend courses specifically designed to provide appropriate background in areas such as biology, mathematics, circuit theory, chemical engineering, etc.”</p>

<p>Does this mean I could still apply with just a B.S. in bio and minor in chem, but they would have some sort of program for me to ‘catch up’ on the engineering classes?</p>

<p>Also, would I be required to take a GRE subject test in engineering/computer sci before I can apply?</p>

<p>Again thanks for any help, I made an appointment to talk to my advisor about all this on Friday</p>