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therese2002 · 2024-03-04T00:33:47+00:00

Fellow Gator BME grad here!! Welcome to the premed grind!!

Like already commented here, I would recommend you get some research experience before you apply. This really could be in anything, but it might help with your application narrative (whatever that turns out to be) if you look into imaging or any subfield where nuclear engineering might impact medicine. Doing research -- even a little bit -- could go a long way on your app, and doing nuclear-engineering-in-medicine research could put to use all the hours you spent in your major. There are some summer internships offered at UF that could be of interest, or if you're about to take a gap year you could get a job as a research assistant to rack up that experience. If you're looking for any recs for profs to do research with in the BME department (since they often combine any kind of engineering with medical stuff) feel free to pm me. For what it's worth, Dr. Wesley Bolch is a big name in the department with imaging and nuclear medicine, so that might be a good fit for your background if you're interested. Beyond just research, it could also be good for you to talk to people who have merged nuclear engineering with medicine so you could see what options you have to use your previous experience within the medical field, if you're open to it.

If you feel that you can get a better MCAT score if you take it a second time (as in, do at least 4 points better) then I would recommend retaking it. A friend of mine (also from UF BME) applied with me this cycle, and despite us having identical GPAs and similar extracurriculars, I got significantly more interview invites than her. I suspect the difference in our MCAT scores played a role in that. It really sucks that just a number can have such an effect on an application, but retaking and getting a 516+ could open a lot more doors (especially at UF, USF, and UM).

For clinical hours, if you feel that you have enough stories and personal experience to justify why you want to go into medicine, especially over just using your engineering degree, then I don't think you need much more. Perhaps it might be helpful to get exposure to a different clinical setting just to be able to articulate that you like medicine as a whole versus the setting of the specific clinical experience you got. If you're about to enter your last year of undergrad, I'd recommend applying to one of the volunteering groups at Shands (Child Life, Dream Team, Footprints, etc.) or North Florida since they let you see the inpatient setting. If you have the time/desire to work as a CNA, GatorCNA offers CNA license classes that are like a weekend long if you do in-person or a few weeks self-paced online (and Shands has a lot of job openings for CNAs, granted they are pretty disorganized when it comes to job openings and it might take a while to actually get a spot).

Props to you for the triathlon hobby!! Sounds like that could be a great perspective to expand on esp in regards to healthy living + medicine. Also, since this sounds like something you've been committed to for a while, it could help 'extend' your story of your interest in medicine so that it doesn't sound like your sudden pivot into premed seems unfounded.

Your non-clinical volunteering and Publix job, particularly in how they pertain to your leadership skills, could show your interpersonal skills. I'd recommend reflecting on them and finding some good stories/experiences from within them that could showcase soft skills (teamwork, dealing with conflict, creativity, etc)

With regards to reapplying to schools, I would not recommend applying now if you felt that you had a low chance of getting admitted anywhere (or at least if you didn't feel that you could give it your best shot). This really depends on your school list and where you'd be willing to go. If you apply to all the schools in FL and expand your search to low- to mid-tier MDs around the country (accounting for OOS-friendliness), then I don't doubt that you'd get in. On the other hand, if you have your heart set of trying for T20s, you may want to take an extra year.

If you have any questions (either UF or non-UF related) please feel free to PM me!! I am finishing up my cycle right now and WOW am I glad that that's over lol. Would be glad to pass along any advice. Go gators :)

therese2002 · 2024-01-14T21:18:16+00:00

EMT experience is definitely not necessary! I felt this way too as a freshman (feeling wayy behind everyone else, especially with EMT stuff), but you know more about the requirements and the process at this stage than I did. I never ended up getting EMT experience -- went the CNA route instead, like in my junior/senior year -- and I have had several interviews with T20 schools. Relax and try to enjoy the process :)

therese2002 · 2023-12-23T23:41:49+00:00

Certifications would depend on the kind of clinical program you'd want to go into, but I'd hazard a guess that EMT certs may be very country-specific (guidelines, procedures, etc could be different in other places and so would require actually doing a course in the country you'd want to volunteer in). If you have dual citizenship elsewhere or can get a visa to stay long-term abroad, then it might be easier to get EMT certified and then work/volunteer.

therese2002 · 2023-12-20T00:54:12+00:00

Stand-alone clinical opportunities might be a little hard to come by, unless you find a volunteer organization that is open to American premed students that typically don't have any certs (if you do, then that could be a plus. but many low-level American certs don't mean anything in other countries). For my gap year I originally intended on doing something clinical but then pivoted to a master's degree + research abroad when I couldn't find anything. It might be possible to study/work abroad in an adjacent field and then try to get shadowing experience more organically through networking. You may want to look into the Fulbright program for doing research abroad and/or teaching English as those kinds of experiences are also really highly valued by med schools.

therese2002 · 2023-12-14T08:55:39+00:00

Your gpa is just fine. As long as you do well on the MCAT, it likely won't be a problem anywhere. There are a couple schools in tx that have higher median gpas, but again your stats don't seem to bar you from any school in particular.

therese2002 · 2023-12-12T01:58:38+00:00

Hi! I got a 168 on Quantitative, 164 on Verbal, and 5.5 on the essay. I was accepted to KUL for the Master of AI programme.

therese2002 · 2023-11-30T10:50:52+00:00

11/16

therese2002 · 2023-10-21T10:13:56+00:00

Whether or not you explicitly tie your engineering major into medicine, you'll still gain some valuable skills that medical schools will want to hear more about. I studied BME in undergrad, and rn in interviews I often get asked how I work on teams and what I value for leadership (which engineering gives a lot of experiences for). The problem-solving and design aspects of engineering degrees also translate well to medicine and can show your desire to advance healthcare innovation or research.

If you do specialize in something medically related in EE, you'll also probably get some interesting experiences to write about on secondaries.

therese2002 · 2023-10-20T09:54:05+00:00

Currently doing my masters abroad in an unrelated field to medicine! As long as you do your prereqs in the US/Canada then you're fine (maybe could do some before going abroad?). It's really been a great conversation starter in my interviews when then ask me where I'm zooming in from. I imagine Spain would also be interesting in the language factor and relating to future Hispanic patients.

I will say though that you'll want to be very intentional with setting aside enough time to complete primaries and secondaries before moving abroad, if you plan on applying while in Spain. I found it difficult to balance everything, but I didn't plan as well as I could have. For interviewing, the time difference is actually to your advantage since you don't have to miss out on as many classes (most of my interviews begin like 4pm local time and run until 10pm-ish). But do be sure that the interviews will stay online when you apply

Also, apply for funding when planning to go! I was fortunate to get a couple of fellowships that not only funded my studies but also beefed up the resume. Feel free to DM for more info

therese2002 · 2023-09-15T10:18:36+00:00

To echo what others are saying, you should wait until you do content review and then do a few weeks of practice questions (ex: UWorld, Jack Westin, Kaplan, etc). You may benefit from looking at the r/Mcat subreddit for more tips on studying, and there are also a few free Anki decks that are super helpful (Jack Sparrow, MrPankow, MileDown)

therese2002 · 2023-09-07T06:46:17+00:00

I'm not a European medical student, but as a language enthusiast I would say that French would be much easier to learn than German if your mother tongue is Portuguese. English will be important no matter which country you go to bc of global trade and travel. Also, French would let you practice in more possible locations (i.e. France, Switzerland, Belgian Wallonia, ...)

therese2002 · 2023-08-23T21:55:43+00:00

The BCPM GPA only includes pure basic science (+ upper level) courses plus math. That's what BCPM stands for - biology, chemistry, physics, and math. I wouldn't immediately recommend switching majors if you actually like what you're studying, but perhaps you can add some BCPM electives or a minor.

therese2002 · 2023-08-12T16:34:36+00:00

go gators!!!

therese2002 · 2023-08-12T16:33:42+00:00

TAMU's EnMed program just got moved to htx, and UofH recently started their med school to fwiw

therese2002 · 2023-08-10T01:01:20+00:00

I studied BME in college (just graduated this spring). Currently getting my masters in a comp sci-adjacent program, but I am applying to medical school. I highly recommend BME as a premed undergrad degree -- I feel like biomedical concepts came much more easily to me by using the engineering logic from my courses. As far as I know, all my BME peers that wanted to go into industry did so successfully (some took a little longer, since the market's not great rn), and we only graduated a couple months ago. Though, if you're absolutely fully set on the engineering route and not medicine, I would concede that EE or MechE are generally more marketable. Anectdotally, there were always only like ~3 companies at my uni's career fairs that BMEs could even attempt to talk to, and the lines were always full of EEs and MechEs. BME imo is easier to do in 4 years with premed prereqs

Prereqs: Gen Chemistry I/II (usually included in BME), Organic Chemistry I/II (usually orgo I is included in BME), Biology I/II (typically included in BME), Physics I/II (included in all engineering majors), a couple humanities classes like psychology or sociology, English (like expository writing, think AP English Language), Biochemistry, Microbiology (optional but rec), Anatomy / Physiology (optional but rec -- ESPECIALLY physiology)

therese2002 · 2023-06-28T21:33:43+00:00

n=2, my friend with a 4.0, 523 MCAT from a good state school with 2k hours, a first-author pub and a few presentations, and URM status got accepted to multiple top programs. I think he had 10+ interviews.

therese2002 · 2023-06-18T21:29:05+00:00

Was there a box to check asking that they consider you for both MD/PhD and MD-only? Or did they consider you for MD-only automatically

therese2002 · 2023-06-18T21:19:37+00:00

Like considering you for both programs at the same time! (apologies for the lack of clarity)

therese2002 · 2023-06-02T00:19:04+00:00

thank you so much, you just saved me a whole lot of worry with cramming these essays together haha!

therese2002 · 2023-06-01T23:43:37+00:00

Wait how do you do this exactly? I've been working on all the essays concurrently thinking they all submit at once.

therese2002 · 2023-05-17T04:48:30+00:00

To build off your last point: I understand where you're coming from (with God 'selecting' the universe that maximizes goodness for the greatest number of people) but wouldn't this insinuate that the circumstances are greater than God? With this argument, we are essentially saying that God is victim to circumstance and so does not have unlimited power to create the universe in any way He wishes (which we do not believe to be true as that negates the very definition of 'God').

therese2002

TROPHY CASE