I was thinking of being a bio-med engineering major in college, and then going to medical school. The only problem is I NEED to get a job after I graduate from college because I’m the oldest in the family and I need to support my family. So I need a major that will fulfill med school requirements, but also has available jobs as an undergrad. My goal in the long run is to attend medical school and be a surgeon, but in case that doesn’t work out I need to make sure I can make a living with whatever major I pursue in college. Would Bio-medical Engineering be a good major for me? If not, what are some majors I should consider? (It needs to be a science major)
Chemical engineering has better employment prospects with bachelors than does BME. ChemE covers most of the required pre-med classes, except for bio.
There’s a glut of bio and chem grads so employment with either of those majors can be dicey. There are jobs for those majors but it’s up to you to make yourself an attractive applicant by developing a suite of lab & programming skills needed by research labs and/or industry. There are very few jobs for physics bachelors unless you have programming and data analytic skills and are willing to change fields. (The physics majors I know are now mostly employed as analysts in the financial and airline industries.)
Mathematics, statistics, actuarial science and comp sci all have good employment prospects, but have less overlap with pre-med requirements. Also information science and software engineering have good potential employment post-graduation, but again, much less overlap with pre-med requirements.
If you want something more hands-on–clinical laboratory science (aka medical technologist) has very good employment potential.
Is this going to be an issue w/r/t med school? It’s going to be at least 7-11 years (4 year med school + 3-7 years residency training) after college graduation before you’ll be earning a salary big enough to contribute to your family’s support. And then you’ll likely have substantial debt of your own that needs to be paid off ASAP. (Average med student debt upon graduation is ~$200K plus whatever you owe from undergrad.)
In one sense, medical students need to be selfish. They cannot support their family AND go to med school at the same time.
If immediate salary support for your family is a priority may I suggest something other than medicine: http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html
By choosing pre-med track, you deprived your income for more than 10 years and you likely will incur a student debt of around $300K. before paying back. While IWBB’s article pointed out the earning constraints of a physician, however, if you are successful in medical practice, the earning potential of a physician is much better than an UPS driver. My successful ENT physician friend made more than $1M with 4 offices and several doctors working under him twenty years ago. He bought a 23 bedrooms mansion with 40 acres of land, his party guest includes the Governor of the State.
Nevertheless, every profession has average work bees and star queens. So, choose your profession carefully based on your needs and interest.
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I’m the oldest in the family and I need to support my family.
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Why is that???
If you need to support your family, then becoming a doctor would mean that they would have to wait a VERY long time for such support. What is going to support them during the next 10+ years???
BiomedE isn’t a major that leads to a job right out of college…consider ChemE
I know this is anecdotal, but D is a biomed engg major. She had no problems finding jobs (in fact, she had several offers to pick from back in December). Several of her friends were also able to land jobs fairly easily.
@arisamp That is great for your D and her friends. What type of companies hired them?
Also what school? Eg as an Ivy Leaguer many of my English, history, arts major friends also didn’t struggle for jobs.