Hey everyone! I’m a junior who obviously isn’t currently applying to universities, but I have a question about my prospects. So during freshman and sophomore year, I was infatuated with becoming a medical practitioner of some sort, so I took health classes (currently taking clinical rotations where we go to an actual hospital and shadow people). I’m also in HOSA (health competitions in which you can go to area, state, and national level) and I’m trying pretty hard to accomplish something in it.
I’ve thought about future career opportunities throughout the summer, however, and I’ve kinda decided that medical school and careers just isn’t for me. I love physics and chemistry, and the idea of becoming a chemical or mechanical engineer sounds pretty nice to me.
Will this focus on health that admission officers see in my classes and extracurriculars hurt me when trying to get into an engineering major? I was stupid back then and didn’t know what I was getting into, and since I can’t reverse my decision, I might as well try hard in HOSA to win something.
As for stats, I have a 2290 SAT, 4.0 GPA, bunch of AP classes, officers for clubs, blah blah blah. I’m interested in going to UT (live in Texas) and other goods schools. I’m black if that matters to haha.
I’m assuming that you are worried about applying to specific engineering schools or programs (rather than universities where no one applies by major). Even for engineering schools, there is absolutely no way that it will hurt you. If you feel that it might look odd, then use it as an essay topic – how you did all of this work and it led you to realize that your interests are in engineering rather than a health care field. Colleges want to see personal growth and will certainly understand why a student might start high school thinking they want to go to med school, but discover its not what they want. I was at an admissions session recently at which the admissions director asked the students how many of them knew their major – and then replied “no you don’t” (encouraging them to keep an open mind and not limit themselves). They’ll appreciate that you’re miles ahead of the huge percentage of first-year college students who describe themselves as pre-med, but who won’t end up in any health care related field.
You’re welcome. I’m not an admissions expert, but I know most of them on my campus and I don’t think any of them would disagree. Your record is outstanding; just let your personality shine through and I’m sure you’ll have a lot of great options. My son is also a junior who wants to be an engineer and I’d be thrilled if he had that kind of academic EC.