Eventually I hope to be in med school and become a doctor one day.From what I’ve learned so far, if I for some reason don’t get into medical school, a bachelors in biology will get me a crappy job. Right now I am considering in majoring in electrical engineer and wanted to know if that is a good choice. If not what major and or minor will fulfill all med school prerequisites but will also allow me to have a good back up job if for some reason i don’t get into med school. I just started college and I don’t want to start with undecided as my major.
The simple fact is that (most) Engineering Majors can’t keep up their GPA to get into Medical School. I tell just about everyone to, either get a good job with Engineering and hope for the best with Medical School (because most won’t get in) or put it all on the line and take Biology (because almost everyone can keep a higher GPA in Biology than in Engineering). You can’t get everything unless you give up something.
Thanks a lot for the info. I understand from your standpoint that engineering is a tough major to keep a good GPA on but could you recommend a better alternative, since biology may not get me anywhere if I have a hard time getting in med school.
You can always do a business type degree. I didn’t mention it since most people looking at science would not want to do business for a major and you won’t be properly prepared for Med School (in my opinion) though. Another good option would be an Agricultural Major (great job prospects with local,state and federal governments as well as farming), I think the cumulative GPA is kind of low if I remember correctly so that may be a problem. There is also Biomedical Engineering, many of them make it into medical school, but there is still the issue with GPA.
The best option I can think of off my head though is K-12 teaching. A lot of schools offer Biology with a teaching track so that may interest you (depending on your states requirements for teachers).
The last option is getting a Biology degree and if Med School doesn’t work out you can get an MBA.
If a major in biomedical engineering is available at your school, it would be a better choice for med school, but not as good as electrical engineering if you did not get into med school. The previous poster also had a point worth considering about the difficulty of maintaining a high GPA in an engineering major.
If you major in a bioscience field, you have the possibility of entering other health professions if you do not get into med school. You can consider programs in physical therapy, nursing (MSN), physician assistant, laboratory medicine, nurtrition, speech pathology/audiology, and public health. All of these would require some postgrad training, but they would be shorter than medical training.