Hello!
I’m currently a junior in high school, but I’m really excited about starting college. And I’ve been thinking about what I want my major to be. At the moment I’m in between biomedical engineering and chemical engineering. I would love advice on which one would be a good major or anyone’s experience doing them.
Also, I do want to go to medical school and become a pediatric oncologist! Let me know if it’s realistic to go to medical school and still major in engineering!
Thank you!
People do major in engineering and then go to medical school, but it isn’t common and isn’t recommended owing to the fact that US medical schools value GPA above all other considerations. Meanwhile, engineering is notorious for being rather rough on your GPA.
How is engineering harder in terms of courses? Is it because of the math and science classes that are required? Also, one of the colleges I’m interested in offers chemical engineering as a major with premed emphasis. Would it be wise to to do that since I could fulfill engineering and medical school requirements?
Engineering is ALL math and science, far more complicated than anything you’ll run into in HS. I think that even the most talented HS students get at least a little jolt when they hit college, and the coursework just gets harder from there, MUCH harder.
It won’t be easy to fulfill the prerequisites at most schools and graduate on time because most curricula don’t have many free electives so you’ll need to take things beyond your curriculum.
The people who do best in engineering are those who are excited about the math and want to be engineers. It would be an absolute slog of that wasn’t your end goal.
That said, IF the rigor doesn’t ruin your chances, engineers can make really good doctors. It teaches critical problem solving skills and med school will be easy compared to your undergrad.
Good luck.
On a side note, pediatric oncology is a noble calling, but dealing with adult patients that die is hard. Dealing with kids that die is harder. You’ll confront that on a regular basis. Few are really cut out for that reality as they only see the hero angle. Be aware, it’s not all that, not by a long shot.
The basic problem with being an engineering major and wanting to go to medical school is that the engineering degree will require some tough courses that are not required for medical school. In addition, you’ll probably have to take some pretty tough classes for medical school that are beyond what is required for the engineering degree.
It isn’t that you can’t do well GPA wise, it is just the shear magnitude of of your schedule that makes it difficult. You are much better off taking those classes required for medical school and only those classes.