In Between Two Worlds

The engineering major is thought by most to be a rigorous, nerdy, and with few options for deviation; something that I learned to be true. In my mechanical engineering department I quickly learned that the advisers didn't know a single thing about pre-med, they didn't even know who the school's pre-med advisor was. This being with the fact that the son of the department head is pre-med. Normally engineers don't do minors/second majors simply because the course load is large. Then there is the fact that engineering students hate science, as indicated by their hatred of general chemistry and physics. Because of these things our department simply never had experience with students who were interested in medicine.

I was in uncharted territory, a mechanical engineer doing pre-med. The main task and a big worry was to determine how much time would be required to fit pre-med classes into my schedule. After all was said and done, and a couple of months of playing with the schedule, I determined that I would need an extra two semesters on top of my degree. This brings me to an important point, it is not possible to be a pre-med engineer and do everything in 4 years. The amount of courses doesn't fit into that schedule, and when you add volunteer/lab work then it becomes impossible for even the most hard working. So for a while I was stressing out about going for an extra year, as if that would hurt my chances of admission. Eventually I figured out that this was not a problem, and the main thing is for a student to be ready.

Any engineering degree covers chemistry and physics, but biology and organic chemistry are left out. I ended up taking biology and organic chemistry my junior year, along with 6 labs and 3 engineering courses. Yes, I had 6 courses fall semester and 7 courses spring semester. This schedule was in my opinion very difficult, simply because of the number of labs and classes I had limited time to study. But I pulled through, and got As in both Ochem's, so you see it can be done.

Over the last couple of years I have come to feel as the anomaly of our department. I didn't really want to be an engineer, but I wasn't doing science either. I had to constantly deal with the problem of not having fellow engineers who were going through the same problems as I was. I also found myself to feel uncomfortable revealing that I am doing pre-med, being afraid of the ridicule of the engineering nerds. I can vividly remember the questioning looks I got in my mechanical design class when I would come in carrying my ochem book.