When I was younger, I was so sure on becoming a doctor. As I grew older and realized the commitment and financial responsibility of going to medical school, I became weary in my intent of becoming a physician. I’m an incoming freshman, Biology major (pre-med concentration), and I don’t know what other major and career would fit my qualities.
I’m a people’s person and I like to analyze things and learn how it all works. I know that whatever I decide to major in, is desirable enough to acquire a job after graduation with a nice salary, with saying that should note that I come from a working class Afro-Caribbean family. Money isn’t one of the most important things to me but it comes second to my genuine love and interest into whatever I decide to go into. I was thinking of majoring in Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering, but I’ve struggled with math since kindergarten (sn: I failed and retook all of my math classes in HS).
tldr: Don’t want to commit to going to medical school, bachelor in bio sucks for career, should I major in engineering?
There are also a lot of other medical jobs other than MD. Nursing programs are not easy to get into, but are a bit easier and mostly shorter than medical school + residence. A neighbor became a radiology technician (NOT the same thing at all as a radiologist). A friend of my daughter’s went into sports therapy. I am not sure where you would get a full list of medical careers but there certainly are a lot to think about.
Most forms of engineering do require some proficiency in math.
When I was younger I also wanted to be a doctor but found that I was really drawn to learning more about medical devices, implantable stuff, prosthetics, etc. so I turned my attention to biomedical engineering. My university required BME to be a specialization of electrical engineering - so I have a BSEE w/ the specialization. I spent my career working on pacemaker/defibrillators and some clinical engineering in a large hospital when I first graduated. If you do not like math then it could be a very long difficult road to an engineering degree.
One of my best friends from high school went on to Pharmacy school out of college. I had never given becoming a pharmacist a thought as I mistakenly just associated it with pill counting at Walgreens. He has had an interesting career in a large hospital - he sees patients in a clinical setting like a doctor would and helps them manage their dosages (I forget for what disease, but he specializes in something). Anyway, I thought that was an example of careers associated with medicine that require extra schooling but not necessarily medical school. I also think audiology is an interesting career - it expands way beyond hearing tests.
Careers and jobs are driven primarily by your skills and experiences, and not by your major. You could get a job with a BS in biology, if you are truly interested in biology as a major. However, I wouldn’t stick with biology just because you started that way.
So the question is: what are you interested in? You have identified a career that you don’t want to have, but not a major that you do. Majors and careers don’t have to go hand-in-hand; you can pick a major now without necessarily knowing what kind of career you want. What kind of classes do you enjoy? What skills do you want to develop?
Definitely don’t default to engineering just because you think it’s the next best way to make money.