Is engineering a good undergrad for law/medical school?

<p>Would this be a good major to into if you want to go to law school or medical school?</p>

<p>Medical school requires completion of a core set of pre-med courses which you can do easily with any chem or bio engineering major and still do with others but not quite as easily because of the need to fit some of the courses in to an otherwise tight schedule. Outside of that, engineering would be an excellent major for either law school or med school with one major caveat: admission to law school school and med school relies heavily on having a high GPA and test scores. Engineering is one of the hardest undergrad majors in which to accomplish that "high" GPA.</p>

<p>Lots of people up here at RPI major in engineering in the plan that they will go on to do Patent Law.</p>

<p>Engineering and Law school would be fine as long as you want to do patent law. Pretty much any enigneering major could do it but the more science related like chemical and electrical might be better choices than civil or matsci. Schools often have patent law programs in the General Eng classes and you might want to take some business and teachnical writing courses. A high GPA is required for law school so engineering would be a hard choice.</p>

<p>Med school is a little different because not only do you have to complete the engineering curriculum but the pre-med as well. If you are doing bioeng or chemE this won't be a problem. The problem lies in competition with the less difficult majors of biolgy and general chem where it is easier to get a high GPA (a requirement for med school). Engineering is hard and can easily lower GPAs in the first 2 semesters right when it is prime time to boost as padding for later semesters.</p>

<p>I just realized that two of the other people wrote pretty much the same thing. Oh well just enhances the agreement I guess.</p>

<p>What about business school? Do you need a high GPA to get into a MBA program?</p>

<p>And whats the salary for patent lawyers? (what do they do?)</p>

<p>Quote from another post:
"$200,000/year starting? No one told me that! It is high, but I don't think it's that high. A large firm will pay you about $125-$150k/year, but I've never heard of $200k starting - maybe if you have a Ph.D. or something, but I've never heard of that. It's still a ton of money though, and, unlike engineering, it goes up a lot from there.</p>

<p>Patent attorneys, from what I understand, do either patent prosecution or patent litigation. Patent prosecution is not harassing people with patents; it basically is writing patents and applying for them from the US PTO. Patent litigation is suing someone who infringed on your client's patent, or defending a client from the suit. Infringement = using the same or similar technology without a license to do so.</p>

<p>You may need to pass the patent bar to be a patent attorney; this is an exam issued by the PTO (Patent and Trademark Office) and has fairly strict requirements about who can sit for it. You need to be an engineer or a scientist, and some types of engineering (architectural, biomedical for starters) and science majors are excluded. You can do a google search for the list - but chemE definitely qualifies. The good thing is that, as so few people can sit for it, patent attorneys are in high demand."</p>

<p>Plus: ". . . lawyers make better money. They start off slightly higher, but it just goes up. Patent attorneys, for example, start around $150k/year and hit (reportedly) a half-million annually by their mid-30s. A professor's friend is a patent lawyer who has seven cars (things like Porsches, BMW X5, etc) - probably a million dolllars worth of cars. You ain't gonna get that on an engineer's salary. Then again, most engin. jobs don't have you working 80 hours a week. It's a trade-off.</p>

<p>Anyway - private practice attorneys make more than engineers, esp the ones who work in law firms. Given the huge variation (large standard deviation) in salaries among lawyers and the very small deviation among engineers, it's hard to quantify - but I leave you with that. Engineering is the road to a solid career, interesting work, good job stability, and reasonable hours for a solid salary - but it's not the road to riches."</p>

<p>so that should answer your question on patent attorneys. As far as MBAs go. You might want to go into the working world and have them pay so you aren't overqualified for an entry level position. You could go straight in though, the first option just might be the better one though. I don't know about GPA for MBAs tho. Sorry about that. I'll ask my friends who are trying to do that.</p>

<p>"What about business school? Do you need a high GPA to get into a MBA program?"</p>

<p>GPA needed varies among the MBA programs. What really differs is that MBA programs tend to take few right out of college and most applicants are people who have worked two years or more after college and work experience is a very important factor to admission.</p>

<p>I probably want to do patent law... IF this is the MOST LUCRATIVE field in law.</p>

<p>Would going into easier field for higher GPA be better than engineering?</p>

<p>Patent Law requires a previous degree in a science or engineering. Engineering of any sort will basically explode in the next few years so choosing a wise undergrad will only help later.</p>

<p>Which engineering specialty is predicted to explode in a few years?</p>

<p>biomed is a hot field for IP and my dad who is an IP lawyer predicts it will remain that way for a while</p>

<p>Chem E because almost everything can be solved using chemE or it's applications, I dont trust anything with computers but what will always be big are compE/EE, and mech E should always be in need. Basically anything that is broad and not too specialized. and bio med but the lbtg already said that.</p>

<p>Is it smart to go the specialty based on the highest starting salary according to NACE?</p>

<p>Because I'm thinking about CE or EE because its higher paying. Also I like electronics/games.</p>

<p>What's NACE?</p>

<p>national association of college and employers</p>

<p>they tell you what your going to make out of college in a specific major. and from what i've heard its accurate.</p>