Hi everyone! I am currently a rising sophomore majoring in chemical engineering at the University of Rochester. I’m torn between several different career paths because I cannot figure out what to do. I have always dreamed of pursuing medical school and becoming a psychiatrist because I love learning about psychology. On the other hand, I love being able to apply calculus, chemistry, and physics so a career in chemical engineering seems perfect. My problem with pursuing medical school is that next semester, I would have to overload in order to ensure that all my pre-med requirements are met by the end of junior year. I am signed up for six courses during the fall (General Biology I, Organic Chemistry I, a Chemical Engineering course, Linear Algebra & Differential Equations, an advanced psychology class, and a resume/internship based writing course). I ended freshman year with a 3.60 (is this an alright starting point?) cumulative GPA (fulfilled General Chemistry I and II, Physics I, Calc I and II, English Composition, Statistics, General Psych, chemical engineering courses). While I would love to someday become a psychiatrist, I just don’t know if I can start my career as one when I’m basically 30 years old (4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, 4 years residency). Whereas, if I decide to just pursue chemical engineering, I can choose to either get my masters in grad school or look immediately for employment opportunities before I graduate. Another concern of mine regarding med school is getting the required amount of hospital volunteering, shadowing, research, and MCAT prep while trying to pursue engineering internships. This summer I am currently doing an engineering based internship but I don’t think I will have the time to do this next year while trying to get my medical extracurriculars out of the way. I’m really conflicted because in the case that I do not make it to medical school, I won’t have enough engineering experience if all my attention is focused on medical school for my upcoming years. Any advice on this situation is greatly appreciated and I apologize for this long post!
OK, a few things…
- how do you know you want to do medicine? Have you done any physicians shadowing or clinical volunteering?)
You cannot know you want to do medicine unless you’ve spent a fairly substantial amount of time working with the sick, injured, dying, demented elderly, mentally ill, physically disabled and their families. Medicine is a tough gig, Not everyone is cut out to spend the rest of their life ministering to others’ healthcare needs. (BTW, both shadowing & clinical volunteering are unwritten requirements for med school applicants. Without them–no med acceptances.)
(I will also point out that psychiatry doesn’t have all that much to do with what you study in undergrad psych classes. Just because you like psych doesn’t mean you’ll like psychiatry.)
Until you’ve done some of both shadowing and volunteering, don’t even consider med school. You don’t know if that life is for you.
- you don’t have to apply to med school after your junior year. You can apply whenever you’re ready. More than 1/3 of med school matriculants take 1-2 gap year after college graduation. (BTW, UR’s health advising office strongly encourages most students to apply after senior year so they can have a stronger application.)
You could certainly graduate, go to work as an engineering and then in a few years apply to med school. You certainly wouldn’t be a the first med school applicant to change careers. In fact at least 1/4 of all med school matriculants are career-changers. (In D2’s med school class of 105 there are at least 2 engineers who had multi-year engineering careers before changing to medicine, plus there are 3 hard science PhDs who had industrial careers.)
- D2 had 2 physical science majors at UR and she overloaded every single semester except her first and last at UR. (D2 is a UR grad and currently a MS3.) Her sophomore year she took 24 credits each semester–she said if she had to do it all over again this would be the one thing she would change. Her sophomore year grades were the lowest of college career (her only Bs). Engineering has a lot of tough classes junior year–think long & hard before you commit yourself to taking on too much. If you tank your GPA next year, you won’t be going to med school.
Med school adcoms don’t give a darn about how hard your major is; they just want to see a 3.7 GPA. (And despite what the tour guides tell prospies and the common wisdom floating around UR, med school adcomms really don’t care that you went to UR. No one is going to add bonus points on your GPA for being a UR grad.)
- As you correctly point out, medicine is a long game. Med school is 4 years, residency will be another 3-5. If you decide to pursue a subspecialty, you’ll need a fellowship that lasts another 1-3 years. You could potentially spend 8-12 years in training post-college before you start your career. This requires sacrifices. You may need to postpone things–starting a family, buying a house, saving for retirement, living a comfortable lifestyle, etc. You need to carefully examine your values and decide if you are willing to defer all these things to pursue medicine. This is a decision that only you can make since it will be different for every individual.
Medicine is calling, just like the ministry or other life of service. It’s a tough life with its own unique sacrifices and rewards.
And one pithy bit of wisdom about medicine as career-- if you can see yourself being happy doing something other than medicine–do that other thing.
Assuming that we pay for school and we intend to work for income over our lives, you might want to take a few minutes to run a spreadsheet for your three alternatives, med school–grad school–work, and see how they play out over the next 5-10-20 years along with any non school/employment goals you may have for yourself
@WayOutWestMom Thank you so much for your reply! I have volunteered at a local university’s hospital since the 9th grade in high school. I volunteered under the Radiology Department. In regards to exposure to psychiatry, I am planning on becoming a research assistant for a clinical psychology lab at UR during the fall. I’m hoping that this could possibly give me a better indication of whether or not to pursue psychiatry. If so, then I will definitely try to gain experience shadowing under a psychiatry department of some sort. I definitely liked your advice about possibly taking a gap year or going straight to employment and then pursuing medicine if I am still set on it! I see what you mean about med school admissions and how important it is for my GPA to be a ~3.7+. It’s discouraging to look at medical school acceptance rates and see that many of them don’t consider the difficulty of one’s major and school. I was also considering DO schools as well, although they are going to require many As as well and lots of clinical exposure. Also, congrats to your daughter on doing well at UR! The classes here are definitely challenging and competitive to excel in. Do you happen to know if most UR pre-meds actually end up being accepted to medical school?
@user4321 Thanks for that suggestion! I will definitely take the time to outline the different paths I can take and the costs associated with each of them.
@WayOutWestMom Also, do you know if there are shadowing opportunities for undergraduates at UR’s hospital during the school year?
@onmywei
I sent you a PM.