I recently committed to Northwestern University with a full ride for Chemistry. I really like chemistry and all the different potentials and versatility. I also want to pursue medicine in the future. As a chemistry major, I thought that would align well with my goals. However, another one of my goals is to research medications and make them safer/more efficient, using chemistry. For example chemistry is currently being used to make opioids less addictive, by changing what pH they react to. This goal, was one of my leading reasons on chemistry, but I learned about biomedical engineering and chemistry engineering being potential better options to pursue that goal and premed. I am not very good at calculus, and never saw myself as an engineering person, but I am really interested in those two fields and they have much better job prospects if I don’t do medicine. What should I do? I plan on maybe talking to an advisor this summer, but I wanted to see: What do you think?
I think you can pursue those longer term goals with either a Chemistry or Biomed/Chemical Engineering degree because you are talking basic research. While certain types of jobs will prefer engineers, I am not sure that is what you are after. My D was a Chemistry major and worked for 2 years with a well known research institute based in Boston on finding avenues for treatment of disease at a cellular/molecular level and is doing her PhD now in the same general area. Having a career in research like that will likely require a PhD whether or not your undergrad degree is engineering based.
As a practical matter since you have a full ride for Chemistry, what are your realistic options? I would not second guess this great opportunity you have to get a free education at one of the best US universities.
As far as a premed track, it won’t matter. That comes down to fulfilling the med school requirements, getting great grades and doing well on your MCATs.
I wouldn’t go the engineering route if you want to be a pre-med. It’s too hard to get good grades. Your math background will make it even more challenging. Physical Chemistry is widely considered to be the hardest Chemistry class. It’s on par with average engineering classes. Stick with Chemistry.
There are many disciplines that are working on the problem you are interested in (i.e. safety and efficacy). Pharmacy, statistics, genetics, psychology, biology, nutritional science, to name a few.
There is no single path to an answer to such a complex interdisciplinary problem.
If you find you are less interested in becoming a physician and more interested in one of these other paths, then being a chem major is a great place to start.
thanks! yea I was scared about job prospects, but it is good to here how I can still achieve my goals without encountering multivariable calc
You would encounter not only upper level math in engineering, but a bunch of classes like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics that use it.
Stick to chemistry, there’s no upside to switching to another major if you’re interested in medicine and research. 