Hello, my name is Maya and as of August 2016 I am an incoming junior in high school. I am in a very rigorous school program that focuses on math and science, but in senior year focuses on medicine, since this is a medical sciences program. I recently went to a pre-college program at Stevens Institute of Technology for pre-med science. If you are unfamiliar with the school, it is a really good (mainly) engineering school in New Jersey. Anyways, after being at Stevens, I realized that there’s more to life than medicine, and I would want to look in to engineering. But I don’t know much about engineering. I barely know what it is, basically that it’s a lot of math and innovation. What can I do to learn more about engineering so I can consider it as something to pursue in college?
It’s not too late to learn – a lot of engineers don’t even know that’s what they want to study until they take their first CS class in college.
You can play around with some programming languages in your spare time. There are tons of free tutorials and guides online (W3schools is good for beginners). Java is a pretty common first language that many CS majors start with.
If you’re able to take a computer science course at school or at a community college that’s an option as well.
Can you try an engineering program next summer? Rose-Hulman has Operation Catapult, for example. Or maybe try something like Girls Who Code (free, I think, and a way to try out CS).
You’re still a young pup in dog years.
If you are remotely interested in engineering, you should start in engineering. The curricula are VERY sequential, so switching into engineering basically puts you back to square one. Switching out however is easy. Learn what you can now by doing a web search on what different engineering disciplines do and choose a school that offers more than just engineering. Good luck!
Pre-college programs do not lock you into a particular major. What you need to get into an engineering program in college is a strong mathematics background in high school. As long as you have that you can start an engineering program.
The question of deciding if engineering is for you can be approached as others have mentioned. Look into you local robotics club too.
You can major in just about anything to prepare for medical school as long as you complete the core requirements. An undergraduate engineering degree has many advantages and is a background that often makes the best diagnosticians and surgeons. The only disadvantage is that it is the most rigorous undergraduate degree (often graded on a curve) and although you are better prepared, your GPA may be lower. Biomedical engineering is a feeder for medical schools especially at colleges such as Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth and UPenn.
From a family of Stevens graduates, it is a great place to get an engineering degree and you can relieve stress by dipping into NYC at any time. After just completing the college search/application process with a daughter who is studying Chem eng (focusing on the biomolecular side and always leaned towards medical applications), you may want to look at colleges with a hospital on campus. Your exposure and research opportunities will be plentiful. Deciding to apply to medical school is years away. If you decide no, your engineering degree will provide the most career options.
Just remember that the medical field is broad. All of the equipment in the hospital and drugs are developed and manufactured by engineers and scientists.
I switched my major like 3 times in college before I even realized there was such a thing called environmental engineering. So in my opinion you are already on the right track. I agree with one of the comments above, do your research. If I wasn’t constantly searching the Web I would of never come across what I wanted. Actually an amazing website to start is Engineer Girl. http://www.engineergirl.org/