James Loy 

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Marguerite Smith 

I'm a senior. I'm about to graduate, and I've done a lot of cool things in college.

Nyah Smith 

I never thought that I was going to be an intramural curler. I never thought that I was going to be the student body president.

Orin Edwards 

These four years have been the biggest amount of growth I've seen in my entire life.

Meredith Aliff 

It's not just about the academics, but like, what kind of person you turn into, which is super cool.

Charles Ellis 

I think, a stereotype that I had kind of about college in general, was that it was going to be almost impossible to excel, especially because I came in as an engineering major. And once I got here after first semester, I realized that with hard work, you can accomplish anything, no matter how hard it seems, and someone's done it before, so you could do it too.

Maggie 

Oh, I love that. That's such a great mindset to have, especially in like, a challenging program. I feel like that's so amazing to just remind yourself, someone's done it. I'm gonna get through it just the same. All right. Well, we will talk about that and so much more, because this is major insight the podcast where we help students find their place and purpose on campus. My name is Maggie Snee, and who are you?

Charles Ellis 

Yeah my name is Charles Ellis. I'm a junior Biomedical Engineering major from Columbus, Ohio, and I'm also on the pre med track.

Maggie 

I tip my hat to you every time someone tells me they're pre med, I'm like, You are so brave. You're one of the bravest people I know. I think one of the biggest things that people coming into college worry about is, how do I figure out what I want to do? There's a lot of pressure when you're graduating high school, starting college to kind of figure that all out at the beginning. So what did that process look like for you coming into college?

Charles Ellis 

I definitely didn't know what I wanted to do when I first came into college. I initially, when I was in high school, did want to be a doctor, and I remember getting ready to take some college classes while in high school, and my advisor told me that I should look into engineering, because that's a career where you can help people while also not having to go into school for, you know, the extended amount of time that medical school provides. And it seemed like a really cool opportunity, so I took his advice and signed up for calculus and a computer science course while I was still in high school, and I didn't think it was too bad I was thinking, maybe this is the path for me. I kind of like the way that you have to think when you're solving those math problems and those computer science problems. So this is probably the career path for me. So I wish I would have started as biomedical engineering, because that would have kind of been the mix of engineering at pre med. But I also heard some advice just online and from watching a lot of YouTube videos that if you really want to work in Biomedical Engineering, that probably like, get good at one section of engineering. So get good at electrical or mechanical or chemical, and use those principles to biomedical engineering. So that's why I initially started off electrical engineering, because I thought that I was going to want to do more of, you know, the programming and, like, electrical part of medical devices more. So however, after doing a year of those classes, I just didn't feel like I was satisfied I wasn't doing poorly in them, per se, but it just felt like I wasn't working towards something that I was passionate about. And this idea of becoming a doctor just kept coming back to me, like I was a tutor at Rinella back then, and I remember seeing all the pre med tutors, like helping other pre meds. And I'm like, Oh, I wish I could be there, but for some reason, I didn't make the jump yet, and I actually know the reasons, because I didn't have experience. I had never shadowed in a hospital. I never really saw like what a doctor did in the day, let alone any other medical professional. I never seen a PA really what a nurse does on the day to day. So what I really needed to do was get some experience. So I'm really happy that past me took that time and I decided, Okay, I'm going to start volunteering at the hospital, and I applied at Fort Hamilton, and I also decided to get a job working for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. I ran into the coordinator at career fair, actually, when I was looking for internship, and, you know, super passionate about mental health, so I just stopped by and he was like, Yeah, you know, if you'd like to interview, this could be a good opportunity. And at the time, I was still hesitant about making that leap, but that time over winter break, sophomore year, like, really helped me solidify. Like, okay, we just need to start getting some type of experience to see what we want to do. But overall, after working that job and volunteering at the hospital, that really gave me experience to rely on when I made my decision to fully switch to pre med and to pursue something that I'm passionate about.

Maggie 

Yeah 100% I love that. I think passion is one of. Biggest things in college that you know, if you have something you're passionate about, go for it. You know, control it and shape it the way you want. So you are a biomedical engineering major. You're on a pre med track. Am I right in thinking that that's not the most common way to go into pre med is starting in engineering.

Charles Ellis 

Yeah it's not very common. A lot of people that go into biomedical engineering do it to become a biomedical engineer. However, you do have a few of those freshmen that are considering pre med, since there is a lot of overlap, it is a pretty good pre med degree, because you get all of your chemistry classes done, you get all of your biology classes done. I actually think that the only class is not built into the degree planner, like sociology and psychology, those social sciences. But what allowed for me to go down this path was that I had started out as an electrical engineering major, so I'd already taken, you know, my physics classes that I needed for engineering freshman year, I had already taken circuits. I also had switched my major to A mechanical engineering somewhere in the middle too. So I had taken a class called statics and other like engineering classes that are needed for biomedical engineering. And what it really was is that I wasn't ready to take the leap. So my sophomore spring, as I was getting that volunteering experience. I was working for the hotline. I was still hesitant that I might change my mind, so I dropped two of my mechanical engineering classes to pick up biology and chemistry, which are pre med classes, but I kept two of my other mechanical engineering classes, just in case I decided to go back. I would still be on track to graduate in four years. However, after completing all of that, and I did decide to make the jump to pre med, I was now thinking, what is going to be the best major for me to accomplish what I want to and I had considered switching to other majors, such as biology or kinesiology majors that you know are more they're going to teach a lot more, like the biology type stuff that you would use in medical school. However, after having a serious conversation with my mom about what I've done the last two years and where I want to go, she told me, like, you know, you have enjoyed some of this engineering stuff that you've done, even though it's been hard, it hasn't been so hard to the point where you want it to quit. You're still here. Why give up now? And I don't even want to look at it as giving up if I did decide to make that switch, but I feel like this degree has suited me up to this point, and the perfect middle ground is biomedical engineering. That way I can continue to take these biology and chemistry classes that I'm going to need to apply to medical school, but I can also still continue to take some engineering classes and not forego all of the engineering classes I've already taken. Yeah, and my mom loves to bring up the fact that I've taken four math classes. Yeah, when you're in engineering, it feels like you're always in a math course. She's like, come on, you can't get rid of that. And I'm like, You're right. So yeah, and that's why I'm here today.

Maggie 

That sounds like a very like, not daunting, but definitely like a lot to be thinking of when you're coming in, you're like, I'm in this, like, challenging field, and I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, but I have these opportunities that I'm thinking about. What were some other fears that you had coming in that maybe were unfounded, maybe that were genuine, that ended up playing out? What were some fears you had?

Charles Ellis 

Yeah, I think I definitely had some fears about being behind and in pre med, one of the important classes, or some of the important classes you have to take, are chemistry. And most people start taking chemistry their freshman year so that they can take biochemistry their junior year and take the MCAT so they can start medical school right after undergrad. So by starting chemistry as a sophomore, I almost had this fear that I was behind. I was going to watch all of my friends move on to this next step, and I would have to take another year to kind of get all of my stuff together before I'd be able to do that with them. But after being pre med for a year, I realized that that's a huge myth. So many people end up taking gap years, you know, more than one gap year, to get experience in the medical field or just to see if there's anything else they want to want to do, because the path of being a physician is a really long one, and you want to make sure that that is like for sure what you want to do before you embark on it. So yeah, definitely going into it. I was worried that I was going to be behind, but at the end of the day, no one's really behind, because it's just who are you comparing yourself to exactly?

Maggie 

I totally understand that. Coming in when you eventually did make the decision to you know, you're volunteering at this hospital and you're working for the national suicide helpline. Like, was there a moment where you know, even after doing all that, where you really felt like everything just clicked, or something that happened to you? You made that made you realize this is what I want to do. Like, has that moment happened for you? What was it like? If it has?

Charles Ellis 

Yeah, it happened kind of recently, over spring break. So I also decided to do some shadowing as well. So I've shadowed some physicians in the OR, I've shadowed a gastroenterologist. However, I shadowed a family medicine physician over spring break, and that really clicked it for me, because when I was watching those other specialties, it was a lot more of watching the physician do a procedure, whereas when I was shadowing the family medicine doctor, a lot of her job was talking to the patient, getting their medical history, getting to know them as a person. All of her patients had a personal connection with her, and they could talk about things outside of medicine, such as grandkids, siblings, what's going on in the family. And I really love that connection that she was able to have in her community with her patients. And that really solidified for me that no matter where I end up, I really want a job where I can have connections similar to those.

Maggie 

I love that. That sounds so sweet. So if you could go back, just go back a few years, and you see freshman Charles, you know, sitting in his dorm room, or, you know, in a in an academic hall on campus, and you could give your first yourself just one piece of advice, what would you tell your first yourself?

Charles Ellis 

I would definitely tell myself, get some experience. It is so hard to know what you want to do if you've never seen it before. 100% so when studying engineering, a lot of engineers who don't have internships, or I mean engineering majors who don't have internships, they don't really know what an engineer does unless they have a family member that's in it, or some other person that they're able to see doing the job day to day. But yeah, going into a major without really like, seeing what the day to day is like is really hard. So I would say take that time to reach out to someone in the College of Engineering to see if maybe you could shadow someone. I know our paper science program, they do meal tours all the time, so people are able in that program, are able to see what does a paper engineer do. So I would just encourage myself shadow those doctors, maybe even shadow a teacher. Just start shadowing different jobs so you can start to see more of what is going to fit what you want to do after college?

Maggie 

Yeah, that fear of the unknown coming into especially if it's like, even if it's a field you're passionate about, you know, it, it's scary not knowing what life might look like after graduation. You know, like, because once you start college, you know Thanksgiving, people are like, so what are you going to do with the rest of your life after you graduate? And it's a daunting question. And, you know, sometimes, like, I'll say this till the day I die, saying I have no idea is a perfectly acceptable answer. You know, that kind of pressure, like you said, to excel. And, you know, succeed amazingly all the time. It can be a lot for a college student at any point in their journey, not just a first year student or someone who's about to graduate, it's daunting at any time to have someone ask you, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? I know you just started college, like, two weeks ago, but what do you want to do? It's it's a very daunting question, but it definitely sounds like you've, you know, taken some steps yourself and just really looked into what you want to do and what you want your life to look like. So if you had the chance to go back and change anything, would you or would you maybe just keep your journey exactly as it was?

Charles Ellis 

I think about that quite frequently, and I don't think I would change anything. There are times where I tell myself, oh, you should have started off in an easier major, or maybe you should have done this. But I really think everything happens for a reason-

Maggie 

100%.

Charles Ellis 

-and I mean, I love where I am right now, and I'm happy to see where I'm going to go. So I really would hate to like change that. Yeah. So even though I've gone through a lot of hurdles that maybe not everyone in my same path have gone through. I think it's gonna make me a better person in the end.

Maggie 

I think about it too. Sometimes I'm like, well, maybe I would have gone back and studied for that one test a little harder. But the bigger picture stuff like the the people I've met and the, you know, the experiences I've had, like, I just think, like, they got me to where I am now. And I love who I am. I love where I'm at. I love what I'm doing. So I agree with that 100% I wouldn't risk anything if it meant that my life would look different from what it is right now.

Maggie 

One of the biggest things coming into college that I know, I personally, was very fearful of, is, you know, doing things wrong and not doing things the way I was supposed to, it can be really scary. You don't really know what's going on when you come into college, you come in, an advisor schedules your first semester of classes for you, and then they're like, go be a college student. Here you go. And it's- it's daunting. You feel like you don't really know what you're doing. So maybe someone in that position who is just getting started when it comes to college, you've obviously had a very unique experience in how you've gotten to where you are, the classes you've taken, the journey you've had in college so far has been off the beaten path from some so what piece of advice would you give to someone who's just about to get started, as far as you know, making your own way in college?

Charles Ellis 

Yeah, well, let them know that what you choose as your major isn't that important your freshman year. Really take that time to get some experience. See what you want to do, take classes from a lot of different majors to see which ones entice you the most.

Maggie 

Completely.

Charles Ellis 

And in terms of adjusting socially, I would let them know that it's okay if you don't meet your best friends your first or even second semester. Sometimes it's just gonna take that one club meeting that you go to or eating at the dining hall in that one day to meet, you know, some of your best friends in college. So don't put any pressure on yourself to kind of live this experience that you see on TV or that everyone talks about, because you're going to have your own experience. And I want to end off with one piece of advice that my CEC 101 professor gave me freshman year that I really took to heart was that you don't have to do everything your freshman year, and that's super important. You don't have to join every single club. You don't have to say yes to everything. Now, you should say yes to a lot of things to expose yourself to as many experiences as you can, but freshman year can become overwhelming quite quickly. So if you're feeling like, Oh, I'm probably not going to be able to be able to go to this club every Wednesday night. That's so okay. You have seven other semesters to go to that club. Yeah? So there's no reason to put stress on yourself now.

Maggie 

100%, well, I love that. That's such a great place to leave off. Charles, thank you so much for coming in, for talking with me, sharing your experience.

Charles Ellis 

Yeah, thank you.

Maggie 

Amazing. Charles Ellis is a biomedical engineering major with a pre medical studies co major at Miami University. After graduation, he plans to attend medical school as part of his plan to become a physician. Thank you again for listening to this episode of Major Insight. Many more episodes are always available wherever you get your podcasts.