Chemical Engineering - need thoughts regarding a disappointing visit

MemphisGuy
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:36:19 +0000

Another parent of a Junior ChemE, and PreMed, student here. I have heard nothing from DS that would back any of the statements of the prof you met with. I will verify M2CK’s statement on the REU’s, if a student is PreMed then REU’s will be of more value than a traditional internship. Internships are good if a student is looking to go into the business world as you can show at least some experience, but research experience will be of more value for post grad work or medical school.

To that end I can say that DS has had no problems at all from a research perspective. He decided to go the Emerging Scholars route and has been in the same Biology lab since Christmas of his freshman year doing Toxicity studies on Nanoparticles. During the summer of his freshman year he was accepted into the HHMI program (with Sniner’s DD) to stay on campus and continue the research. During the summer of his sophomore year he was accepted into the DAAD Rise program and did Nanoparticle research at the University of Cologne in Germany. So he has had no issues finding research opportunities at/through Bama.

Competitive? YES…welcome to the world of PreMed and preparing for med school admissions, there aren’t many lightweights applying for these programs…

As for the STEM/MBA program I am not even sure why it would have come up in the conversation. Since your daughter is looking at premed why would she be looking at a MBA? You should look closer at the University Scholars program. DS is participating in that and is working his Masters in Biology as he completes his undergrad degrees. I would think that a Masters in a STEM field would be a better fit for premed than a Masters in Business.

PM me if you have any specific questions.