<p>I'm in high school right now, and am debating mostly between two majors: engineering ( prob mechanical, maybe aerospace? ) or pharmacy school.</p>
<p>I enjoy math a lot, and am in the most challenging class this year. I have gotten an average of a B+. I also enjoy physics ( most parts ). My dad is a semiconductor engineer, and he can provide some insight. Engineers start @ ~$50K? But how much room for advancement ( mostly $$$ wise ) is there?</p>
<p>On the other hand, I have been looking at pharmacy school, and to be honest, mostly for the better income. Pharmacists seem to make a lot more money right out of school, but don't really advance much.</p>
<p>Engineers seem like they don't get paid too much in proportion to the work they do.</p>
<p>CLiffs: Like Math/Science, but Engineer's salary seems to be too little
Pharmacy school is another option.
Anyone want to just pitch in and say something? I know this seems pretty vague.</p>
<p>Don’t pick a job for the major. But since you asked, depending on the engineer and the school, you should make about $65,000 - $70,000 out of college, and be in the $100,000 - $110,000 range after about 5-7 years of experience.</p>
<p>A pharmacist makes about $100,000-$110,000 on average and requires 4 years of additional college (beyond what is required for the degree.</p>
<p>So by age 28 - 30, you’re probably making the same amount per year. But with a PharmD, you’re coming out of school with more debt and less historical income.</p>
<p>You’ll also want to consider working conditions (many pharmacists work weekends and nights), job satisfaction (with engineering you can move up the ladder, and you’re constantly facing new and challenging problems), location (pharmacists can work anywhere, engineers are usually limited), and job stability.</p>
<p>But probably the biggest difference is that you’ll only make good money as an engineer if you go to a good school. You can go to any pharmacy school and make about the average.</p>
<p>Right, that challenge is kind of what I seek.</p>
<p>I know someone who is going through med school right now, and he makes fun of pharmacists because “all they do is count pills and they get paid $100K.”</p>
<p>What are these “good engineering schools” you talk of? Specifically?</p>
<p>Also, a pharmacist would be a more stable job, correct? Since people always need their medicine…</p>
<p>“you should make about $65,000 - $70,000 out of college, and be in the $100,000 - $110,000 range after about 5-7 years of experience.”</p>
<p>That’s saying you’ll get almost a 10% raise every year for 5 years. I don’t think there’s too many companies out there right now offering 10% annual raises.</p>
<p>Most engineering companies, at least larger ones, have automatic promotions based on tenure early in your career. So at 1 year, you usually get a small raise ($5,000-$10,000), at 3 years you get a larger raise ($10,000-$15,000), at 5 years you get the same ($10,000 - $15,000) raise, etc. After about 7 years, you level off and get into merit promotions. </p>
<p>Consulting companies have similar sequences - at 1 year you’re promoted, then again at 3-4 years of experience, then again at 6-7 years of experience.</p>
<p>That’s the way it works, and competitors have to honor it (short of collusion). If Exxon stopped promoting like that, all Exxon’s engineers would quit and go to work at BP, and Exxon would only get the leftovers.</p>
<p>Many Schools such as Rutgers University or the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences offer a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in a six year program. You usually have to apply directly to that specific program. Keep in mind Pharmacists are in great demand in hospitals, out patient clinics and at drug companies as well as retail locations.</p>
<p>“Many Schools such as Rutgers University or the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences offer a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in a six year program.”</p>
<p>Also keep in mind you need to keep a 3.3 freshman year and a 3.5 overall for your first two years to be admitted to the grad program in your third year. Not an easy task especially when youre just adjusting to college.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that there is much of a difference in engineering salaries based only on the name of the college. From the comparisons I have done, they are really pretty close for identical degrees.</p>
<p>There is much more room for advancement in engineering than in pharmacy.</p>
<p>It varies greatly as you travel from tier to tier. For example, an engineer from TAMU and an engineer from UT-Austin will make similar salaries. An engineer from TAMU and an engineer from Lamar will not.</p>
<p>I think I’m qualified to answer this question since I’m am a pharmacist and my DH is an EE in aerospace.
If you like/enjoy math then pharmacy would not be much of a challenge. You only have to take one calculus course and will only use algebra/trig for calculating anything in pharmacy (i.e. pharmacokinetics). One year of elem. physics is needed as a prereq. for your science classes (bio, chemistry). So no extremely difficult math or physics classes needed.
True, pharmacist start off in calif making over $120k and the typical student take 8 years to finish through the whole program (4yrs undergrad, 4 yrs RX school and maybe a years clinical residency). That’s what I did. I did make more than my DH for the first few years (about 4 years)but he now makes 15-20% more than I do. Plus he gets raises of 8-10% yearly and a bonus, plus no nights/holidays. I get a measly 2-3% yearly raise simply because hospitals don’t pay great due to dependency on medicare/insurance payments. And I’ve had to put in my share of nights/holiday due to the nature of the job.
Plus he got a retension bonus of $50k when he wasn’t happy with staying in his department! I get calls from headhunters all the time for exp. pharmacist but nowhere near that kind of sign on bonus money.
Pharmacy is a job that you be really anally retentive. You do alot of repetive jobs (i.e. clarifying doctor’s orders, drug dosing etc.) Nothing really exciting though an important job
in protecting the patient, maximizing drug therapy, appropiate drug use.
So in short, choose what interest you because you might be doing it for a long time…</p>
<p>G. P., What companies are offering this $65k-$70k right out of school with the 10% raises every year? I kind of feel like I have been barking up the wrong trees if that is what you consider AVERAGE engineering salaries. Last time I checked the BLS ([Engineers](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings]Engineers[/url]”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings)</a>), the national average for a starting mechanical engineer was about $54k a year and the overall average was about $70k. I know that here at UIUC the average starting (again, when last I checked) was around $60k-$65k for mechanical engineers.</p>
<p>Of course I also have friends who go to work for oil companies, and they pay out the butt for new blood. One friend of mine is making $80k starting to work for Conoco, though I can’t say that his job sounds interesting in any way to me.</p>
<p>^^ Good point, bonehead. Many of the oil companies offer incredible starting salaries, signing bonuses, relocation pay, etc, but the opportunities were less exciting sounding than some other possibilities that may have paid less. There are differences between “upstream” and “downstream” jobs in terms of both pay, potential and interest. If you want to be a petroleum engineer, there are great opportunities in the oil industry. If you want to do renewable energy, there are opportunities too, but you may first have to pay your “dues” in the petroleum side of the house. At least this is what my s felt when he looked at these jobs. He turned down the 80K job offers for about a 15% lower paying but higher interest/fun job. And he’s gotten a raise.</p>
<p>Two years ago, I hired at UIUC for mechanical engineers and offered $71,000. Our standard raise schedule was 10% at the first level (1 year), 15% at the second level (3 years), 10% at the third level (5-7 years depending on performance). That wasn’t arbitrarily set: it was the going rate for an engineer with a 3.2+ salary. </p>
<p>The oil companies go after the ME/ChE/EE crowd, but the downstream companies have to keep pace at that salary level, or they’ll lose the best engineers. The companies that really start to drop off on salary are the ones not shooting for the top talent (it’s a common strategy to shoot for a 2nd tier student at a lower wage) or that have some sort of “hook” (e.g. they’re hiring locally, they offer an international position, etc)</p>
<p>When considering the “average” salary, you have to consider that the better engineers with the higher GPAs are bunched at the high end of the salary range, while the low quality engineers (of the 2.2 - 2.4 GPA variety) vary greatly ($35,000 - $55,000, I’ve heard of some 1st tier engineering school students being offered as low as $25,000 with performance incentives), taking down the average. Schools should report median numbers.</p>
<p>Well shoot, I don’t know where you work G. P., but had I not decided to go to grad school first, it sounds like I should have at least been looking at your company, whatever that may be. haha.</p>
If you apply to a 6 year PharmD program like I did, you’ll be saving a lot of time and money.
I’m not paying anything for my PharmD because I’m also in the NJ Army National Guard with a commissioning date of September 09. State tuition waiver - a public university cannot charge you tuition for any degree and any number of credits as long as you are an active drilling member in good standing.
As for pay, you can get a job any place in the US and the standard offer is 100-120k/year, 3 days or 36 hours/week, and full benefits. Some people do choose to work another job (for a total of 75 hours a week) and they can easily make > 200k/year. As an engineer you don’t have that much flexibility or control over your own earning power like a pharmacist.</p>