Thoughts/opinions for pursuing a major in engineering or studying premed?
You can always major in engineering and still prepare for medical school. There is no “premed” major.
the 2 trendiest fields? I suggest investigating both to understand what the careers are like and figure out if they might actually be right for you
So how do you feel about 4 years of medical school after college and then a residency (2-6 years depending on the specialty) before you actually start practicing? How do you feel about paying $160-240k for those 4 years and then earning not that much while you’re a resident? How do you feel about studying and working really long hours for most of your 20s and probably your 30s too (with some exceptions)? There are much easier ways to earn a living. S envies his engineering friends who have their evenings and often their weekends free. They get a better offer somewhere or decide that it would be nice to live in Seattle for a while, and they’re off to a new job. But he loves medicine…wouldn’t give it up for any amount of money or more personal time.
If you are really committed, medicine is a great career. If you could be happy doing something else, then maybe you don’t want to make the sacrifices.
But isn’t it hard to get a good GPA in engineering? And isn’t GPA really important in medical school? At least that’s what I’ve gathered from other posts on this website.
Yes, it’s hard to get a good GPA in engineering. And yes GPA is really important to medical schools. But if you want to keep both options open, that’s what it takes. Otherwise you choose…
@fogcity But why would I study engineering when I plan to be a physician?
Yes, it can be hard.
My son was a Chemical Eng’g major and premed. He worked his fanny off to maintain his GPA.
If this is something you want to consider, I wouldn’t go to a high-stress undergrad where everybody is an ACT 34+.
@mom2collegekids Thanks for the advice. What is he doing now?
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S envies his engineering friends who have their evenings and often their weekends free. They get a better offer somewhere or decide that it would be nice to live in Seattle for a while, and they're off to a new job. But he loves medicine....wouldn't give it up for any amount of money or more personal time.
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lol…When my son was graduating from his undergrad and seeing some of his ChemE classmates walk right into high paying positions, it did give him a moment’s pause knowing that he was facing 7+ more years, but he too loves medicine…always has. From a young age, we always knew that he was going to become a doctor. The rest of us cringe at the sight of blood or at any of those TV shows showing actual surgeries, but there he’d be, inches from the TV set taking it all in.
He’s thrilled to be past the first 2 years of med school, which is a lot of classroom work, and now in rotations.
because this is now your plan as of 1:36pm. Earlier at 9:01am you wrote
which seems to imply an interest in both
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@fogcity But why would I study engineering when I plan
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Well, if you’re in high school, then please understand that 75% of freshmen premeds will never apply to med school. And of those that do apply, only about half will get accepted to at least one US MD school. There is a lot of harsh weeding that goes on as a premed.
So, it’s a good idea to have a Plan B. The Plan B doesn’t have to be eng’g. What else interests you? I know someone who is an Accounting premed. I know another who is a MIS premed. I know another who is a math-stats premed.
What would be your Plan B?
I was considering going into medicine, so I researched it a bit. There’s a book called “How to be Pre-Med,” and it’s about ten dollars on Amazon, but if you’re seriously considering med school, it’s a great read. The amount of effort and the selectivity of med school turned me off from the path, so I’m no longer considering going into medicine. I suggest you read books regarding the two professions. Take intro classes (e.g. at my uni, they have an Intro to Engineering course) and you can take a science like Bio. See what you like to take and what genuinely interests you. And of course, you can always be an engineering major and apply to med school. It’s difficult but not impossible. As others have said, pre-med is not a major (at least not at any reputable school). Research! Try edX and see if something interests you from there. If you decide you really want to do medicine but don’t want to deal with the stress of med school applications, you can try applying to something like the Sophie Davis six year program at Brooklyn College or the REMS program at University of Rochester.
Good luck!
@mikemac It was suggested that I major in engineering AND study pre-med to take the MCAT. This implies that I would be going to med school and becoming a physician. My question was what is the point of engineering then assuming that I took the mcat to go to med school?
Secondly, I said major in engineering OR study pre-med.
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@mikemac It was suggested that I major in engineering AND study pre-med to take the MCAT.
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I don’t know what E discipline you’re considering, but in many ways you would not be “majoring in eng’g AND studying premed” as if you’d be adding in a bunch of extra classes.
Do you know what it means to be “studying premed”?? The classes are the regular classes that many eng’g students already take…bio, chem, ochem, calc, and physics.
When my ChemE son was premed, I don’t think he had to add any classes. All the premed prereqs were already in the ChemE curriculum. Now, he’d have to add in Psych and Sociology, but he would have had AP Psych credits for one of those.