Second Year Computer Science student --- Is it too late to follow the Pre-Med Track?

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'm an upcoming sophomore at USC majoring in CS. Things have been going well -- got good grades, 3.75 GPA, and was fortunate enough to land a sweet internship in the tech industry, and overall I'm content as an engineer.</p>

<p>Now, you can call this overconfidence or naivety, but despite all that, I've always wanted to be a doctor and go to med school. Is it too late to start taking General Chem classes, Bio, O-Chem, etc..? How would I go about trying to get experience in the medical field over the summer despite needing experience in the CS industry on top of that?</p>

<p>If anyone is wondering why I suddenly changed my mind, a lot of it has to do with my internship. While I do enjoy doing CS, the work environment did not appeal to me at all, but I'm still willing to give it another shot later down the road which is why I intend to keep a CS major.</p>

<p>Or am I just trying to tackle too many things at once? Any help is appreciated.</p>

<p>And, I would love to hear from someone who’s gone down the same road (late switch to pre-med!).</p>

<p>It is great to learn what you love and don’t love at an early age. Some people spend decades being miserable before they prompt a change. It is not too late. I know athletes that spend the four years tackling an undergrad degree that is not medical, then knock out the bio/chem and other pre-med requirements in a 5th/6th year and prepare for MCATs. Of course they will be 30+ before they are practicing instead of late 20s. Certainly one year into college is not too late. But doing it with a CS degree, that could be tooooooo much. Check out the string of 5 day a week classes in the bio/chem areas - some are only offered in fall or spring but are prereq’s to a lot of others in a chain. The lab commitment is huge, while I don’t like to be too strong in opinion, gosh, I am not seeing you pull off both unless you add semester(s). Oldest tried to balance pre-med and another major deciding between them at the same time his first 3 semesters taking GEs that fit the science track but at some point it was too much and had to pick cause of too many different requirements — and CS is not a cakewalk demand wise, there are not many free spots to use for premed classes. Other problem was inorganic chemistry, for example was very limited in its time offered and it conflicted with something else he had to have in the other major, those kind of things become issues. </p>

<p>My inclination is to say you can do pre-med, it is not too late. It is a career you will have for 40 years, so it is good to be happy with your degree when done. But it seems doing both would be too much??? Would bio engineering have more overlap or interest you, idk. I am NOT an advisor - but USC has great ones, make an appt and talk it out with them. But look at requirements of both before you do, so you get most out of your time with them. There is a talk they give about the odds of med school, I saw it at orientation, it is good to know what you are up against there as well. Understand the costs of going into medicine time wise and financially…the political environment for medicine and what is changing…you have lots to evaluate, getting opinions from those down that path is a good start. If you are friends or close to your own physicians, pick their brain about their life/day. Luckily we have some great friends, my student spent individual days with a surgeon, an ER chief and an internal medicine guy to see what being a doctor was like…talk to everyone you can…good luck! Hopefully some students chime in…</p>

<p>You have time-D had all her med school pre-reqs done in two years at USC- but will require doubling up on science classes along with your CS classes. That will be stressful, but possible, depending on your work ethic. You will also most likely need to apply after graduation and take a gap year during the application process. It would be very difficult to get everything in to take the MCAT your junior year to apply then. </p>

<p>In addition to all the pre-reqs, you will need to shadow physicians, volunteer (both clinical and non-clinical volunteering), show leadership somehow, be involved in research (depends on specific med school- not all need this), and ace the MCAT. This takes a considerable amount of time and effort-- but is necessary to get into med school. </p>

<p>Sure, there’s time. I would suggest talking to a few doctors and doing some shadowing prior to making any big decisions. The work environment for doctors, and doctors-in-training might not appeal to you, either…</p>

<p>You have a long road ahead of you. Remember that you don’t have to go straight from undergrad to med school. You’d probably need a fifth year to do what you want anyway. Down the road you might want a Master’s degree in Comp Sci or a health related discipline, which helps med school chances. Gather as much info as you can before making such a big decision about going pre-med. </p>

<p>Note that, similar to the disenchantment you’ve had with CS, lots of pre-med students drop out when they realize it’s not what they want, it’s too hard, it takes too long, it’s not what they expected, etc. Just in case, consider how you would feel if you go pre-med and then after a year (or two) decide it’s not what you want either. If you’d still be happy you tried, then go for it. If you’d feel it was a waste, then you really need to examine if you want it and what it entails.</p>

<p>It seems like you’re questioning how happy you’d be in CS due to your current internship. I’ve been in many different work environments and it’s taken me a handful to figure out which I like, but there are so many and each place is different. It’s possible a different CS job down the street has the right environment for you, and hopefully work (tasks) you like too. If you like the work, you can find the right environment, which is better than a lot of other fields that don’t have such a spectrum of offices and teams, from startups to corporations to research.</p>

<p>Lastly, if you go pre-med don’t get so overwhelmed your grades suffer or you’re a subpar programmer because then getting into med school will be a nightmare and you won’t pass technical interviews.</p>