<p>I am about to graduate with a BS in mechanical engineering this spring, which means I have to decide within the next two months what I want to do with my life. It's scary. I really don't know if I should go for an engineering job now and make a career out of it, or spend another four years in graduate school (at least) to get a PhD in medical physics. Deadline to respond to graduate school offers is April 15...</p>
<p>The reason I am having such a dilemma is that each path offers a different lifestyle, but I'm not sure which one I want. If I go for the engineering job now, I'll get paid pretty well, but I hear that engineers work a lot of overtime especially with more experience (which is not what I want). However, if I go for the medical physics PhD, I'll have another 4-6 years of getting paid *****. The upside though is that I will eventually work in a hospital (with regular hospital hours!) and have a PhD title next to my name (not that important, but cool to have anyway). On the other hand, I would really like to settle down and start a family before the age of 30, so choosing to be a full time engineer would probably be the best for that.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or suggestions?</p>
<p>You could always try working for a year or two, and if you aren't satisfied you can go back to school.</p>
<p>No clue what a medical physics degree is, but don't many people that work in hospitals work rather extensive hours have have to be on call at all times?</p>
<p>Sorry let me clarify...a medical physics degree allows me to specialize in cancer therapy or diagnostic imaging, depending on my specialty. They usually work at the radiation oncology department in public/private university hospitals or other cancer clinics. This is not to be confused with being a radiologist, who are physicians and have more patient interaction. Anyway, my point is that medical physicists don't work on call and usually have regular (9-5) hours.</p>
<p>If you're uncertain about what to do do not go to graduate school. It's a huge commitment, and you won't have the same financial flexibility as with working.</p>
<p>vik_tor115 - a Ph.D. is not required for medical physics - a M.S. and board certification is required. Have you met with people in each field to see what is involved? Many of the Ph.Ds in med physics got Ph.Ds in other fields then turned to medical physics for more stable funding/income. Where are you located? Have you checked out this website?
<a href="http://www.aapm.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.aapm.org/</a></p>
<p>vik_tor115 - I also wanted to mention that medical physicists do indeed work on call and/or late in the big cancer centers. Certainly their hours are not as bad as a physicians' but their presence is required for many procedures. Patients are often treated late (10 or 12 hour schedules to maximize the machines), emergencies and squeeze ins lengthen the schedule. As with most patient related services in a hospital setting, you often have to stay until the patients have been treated. Most physicists are salaried, not paid by the clock....In diagnostic imaging - you often cannot get at the equipment until after all the patients have been treated.......you should talk to some physicists, visit a few centers, if you haven't.</p>
<p>Rileydog- I think you responded to my previous thread when I asked a similar question about medical physics. Isn't your husband currently a medical physicist? This could been someone else...</p>
<p>Yeah, I visited a few cancer treatment centers, mostly university hospitals, but I didn't get the impression that they worked on call when I talked to them. The two who I talked to, one in therapy and the other in imaging, both only stayed late because they were very into their research and equipment was only free to use at night.</p>
<p>I was hoping all of my responses would be skewed so it'd be an easy decision. However, I'm still leaning towards the medical physics PhD route because I can't even imagine what my ideal first mechanical engineering job would be. Plus, I have guaranteed funding for 4-5 years. Help me...</p>
<p>vik_tor115 - I probably did. If you want to PM me I can put you in touch with him, if you like. I am not sure where you are located - lifestyles and workstyles are often different in different regions. However, one of the reasons why I switched positions years ago was that my husband's hours were not predictable enough to help with daycare pickups, etc (and neither were mine at the time). However, his were impossible to control. Presently his physics group is rotating late shifts as they are treating patients more than 8 hours/day. This happens when there is a treatment machine down, when they are putting in a new machine, when there are more patients than they can treat in 8 hours, etc - it happens a lot in other words (smile). However, he is also on site early for certain procedures in the OR as well. He carries a beeper. He is not often called but it happens. Most of the time he just consults via the phone but sometimes he has to go in. If you are not going to do clinical work you may not deal with this but most Ph.Ds do a mix of both clinical and research - I am sure that varies with place as well. Of course, I am not a medical physicist so I am more of an observer. </p>
<p>We have many, many engineers in our family. I still don't know what all of them do. But, I just went through the college search process with son2 who believes wholeheartedly that he wants to be a mechanical engineer. I think it's also an exciting time to be an engineer from the presentations I saw, and the research he has done. I can tell you that salaries in med physics seem to be much better than in mech engineering but we did not want that to enter into his decision-making. My husband is still hoping that son2 will find his way to medical physics from engineering. Many of my husband's coworkers have navigated to med physics from different fields. </p>
<p>Congrats to you on the funding - that is wonderful. I am sorry if I am repeating myself. There aren't too many students on this board expressing interest in medical physics so the topic caught my eye - again!</p>
<p>Rileydog- If you could put me in touch with him that'd be great. One of the main reasons I want to talk to a practicing clinical physicist is that I am looking for potential topics for my PhD thesis (doesn't hurt to start thinking ahead!), so problems that he observes during practice could be worthy of investigation.</p>
<p>I plan on doing half research and half clinical work so you are probably right about the typical lifestyle. However, I think the compensation, work environment, and job security are probably better for a medical physicist than for an engineer in industry. This of course is only speculation, but I have to make a decision about my future soon! Also, the amount of funding I receive compared to the cost of living around the school makes me pretty well off, so it will be hard to give up! </p>
<p>By the way, I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and I hope to work at a big research hospital after I graduate, though not necessarily in the Bay Area.</p>