I’m currently a high school senior in an early college program, which is like dual enrollment but with more college credits covered by the school. I have a 13th ‘super-senior’ year, so I won’t graduate or apply for colleges until 2025, even though I’m technically part of the class of 2024. I’ve taken a bunch of gen-eds to buy some time in hopes of figuring out a major, but I haven’t yet. I am between pre-med and engineering (CS/EE/maybe CE) majors since I am in between those but, I’m still unsure about my future major. I could technically peruse an engineering major and get my pre-med pre-recs along the way, but then I think I’ll be spread too thin (time wise and ECs wise when choosing between ENG. internships / science research / Clinical experience).
My upcoming winter semester is the last one where I can choose courses that go into both fields, but the problem is I don’t have a major yet. Typically, high schoolers are advised not to worry about their major and to figure it out during their first two years of college, the “gen-ed years.” However, I’m already in my “first two years” as a high school senior in this program. I’d appreciate any advice or suggestions on how to approach this situation.
Then why are you doing an additional super senior year?
Many students enroll in college without knowing what major they want to pursue. You, unfortunately, seem to want to do two things that are hard to do if you don’t start as a freshman. My engineering major kid started the required courses for an engineering degree as a freshman. And it took her four years to complete the course of study. Engineering majors don’t just have gen ed. they also have required science and math courses that are in a sequence. I’m not sure you are doing that…so please clarify.
Are you planning to graduate from undergrad in 2 years …or what?
I’m honestly perplexed by your current plan.
ETA…you are what…17 or 18 years old? Many folks your age don’t have any firm idea what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
Being ahead in college courses as a college frosh does not require you to choose a major any sooner than otherwise (although at some colleges, you may have to apply specifically to a major or division; this is common with engineering majors). It can also give more space to complete pre-med courses as an engineering major.
Academics wise, which courses did you like more and do better in?
Chemistry and biology (pre-med course work will emphasize these, but also include math, physics, English, and other subjects).
Math and physics (engineering majors will often need to take chemistry and computer science as well).
Career wise, which do you think interest you more?
Solving design programs using math and science principles. (i.e. engineering)
Working as a physician. (but most pre-meds do not get into any medical school)
Working in some other health care field. (somewhat common for pre-meds who do not get into any medical school)
Working in something unrelated to health care. (also common for pre-meds who do not get into any medical school)
How does your educational funding look?
Engineering majors can work in engineering after their bachelor’s degrees.
Physicians need to pay for expensive medical school, which can take a long time to pay off the debt of, even at physician pay levels (which do not become large until after 3-7 years of residency after medical school.
Other health care fields may also require expensive education after a bachelor’s degree.
We might want to think about why you would want to consider either of these general areas.
Regarding premed: Do you have experience shadowing in a medical environment? Do you like dealing with people? Are you comfortable with what I might call “blood and guts”? Why are you considering medicine as a career?
Regarding engineering: How are you at math? Have you taken calculus and calculus-based physics? If so, how did you like them? Do you like solving puzzles? Why are you considering engineering as a career?
I have known people who changed their majors early in university with no problems. I have known people who changed their majors late and the main implication was that in some cases it took them longer to graduate.
Looking at your post, the main thing that comes to mind is that you might end up taking the full four years to graduate from university in spite of coming in with many credits. The other thing that comes to mind is that both premed classes and engineering classes may be tougher than you are expecting.
I do not understand what the reason is for your “13th” year of school (the “super senior” year). What will you be studying during this year? Why are you doing this?
Also, how are your grades up to now? Do you feel stressed about the work load in high school so far?
Thank you for your response. Thank you for your reply:
I am doing a super-senior year because that is the way the high school program, I am in is. It’s a five-year program that lets me take college courses at my community college cost-free and at the end, I get my high school diploma and an associate degree (An associate degree isn’t obligatory, I can just do a bunch of credits and just graduate with a high school diploma and transfer my credits to a 4-year institution). Starting Sophomore year, I was given one or two college classes per semester, and now I am only taking college classes as a senior and will do so super-senior year as well. The whole idea of this is the program lets you start accumulating college credits early and for free and you end up finishing your bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four (Super senior year + 2 years at a four-year institution).
Grade wise, I have gotten all A’s except one B+ in my college courses and course load isn’t too bad. I am taking my courses at a community college, so courses tend to be a bit easier.
Your response said the part I didn’t want to acknowledge out-loud. My whole worry about not having a major decided yet is that I might end up taking classes that won’t go to whatever major I eventually decide on. But I guess one can look at those classes as a way of exploration rather than wasted credits, and worst-case scenario, I will graduate college at the same time a regular high schooler my age would instead of the anticipated one year earlier. I’ll surely reflect on the questions you gave and try to get more exposure such as job-shadowing in the medical field in the meantime.
For clarity, do you receive your high school diploma after your 4th year or your 5th year? If you receive your high school diploma after your 4th year, most colleges would consider you a transfer because of taking the college classes after graduating from high school, and are likely to be much less generous with any merit or financial aid.
For many students, college is an absolutely fabulous time of life. There is so much NEW to explore. New subjects, new people, new ideas, new experiences. Unless there’s a significant financial issue, I would not rush through this experience, as it doesn’t really come around again (certainly not for many decades). Grad school is a completely different experience than undergrad. And working full-time is a completely different experience.
This is a chance to delve into topics that you may have been curious about, or that you know nothing about but have heard that it’s a cool class. This is a time to help build a solid foundation for your overall knowledge and well-being and not just as a precursor to a particular vocation. Enjoy it.
For at least most programs like this, the diploma is awarded after the fifth year. I was an early college student who also did a fifth year and ended up getting my associates.
I vote the engineering major. I’m a doctor, and I know a number of other doctors who got their bachelors in engineering fields. They have all done very well as doctors–some are just regular practicing doctors, but others have moved into leadership, or industry (biomedical companies.) In all the cases, they did NOT try to fulfill pre-med requirements at the same time, they just focused on the engineering degree. You can always take the missing pre-med classes later if you so desire. But you may find that you like engineering enough that you want to just stay with that. Engineering is a great degree because you can get a well paying job right out of undergrad. But something like a Biology bachelors (the most common pre-med major) doesn’t qualify you to do much beyond pretty low paying lab tech jobs. Also it’s easier to be an engineer and take a few extra classes and go to med school than switch from being pre-med to being an engineer.
So if you have any inclination to study engineering, I say go for it!
Many med schools view pre-reqs taken at a CC as being less competitive/challenging than coursework taken at 4 year college. Most med schools require or strongly recommend that all CC classes be supplemented with additional upper level coursework in the same department as the CC credits if one wants to be considered a competitive applicant for admission.
Also be aware, that unless your DE program is completed at a CC which has an articulation agreement with the 4 year college you transfer to, your credits may not be accepted as fulfilling graduation requirements for your major. This is especially true if you choose a private college.
As for your major–if you even think you might want to go into engineering then that should be your major.
Engineering has a very lockstep curriculum that makes it difficult to change into after freshman year. It’s much easier to transfer OUT of engineering than into it.
Med school admission is highly competitive and there are no guarantees that you’ll get an admission. (Every year only about 40% of those who apply get an acceptance. Even 20% of those with perfect 4.0 GPAs and MCAT scores > 95th percentile don’t get accepted.) So every pre-med needs to have a back-up career plan since most will never get accepted.
Two other things to consider–
it has become increasingly uncommon for students to matriculate into med school from undergrad. More than 2/3rd of successful applicants take 1 or more gap years between undergrad and applying to bulk up their ECs and clinical experience.
med schools are highly skeptical of younger-than-typical applicants. They question their maturity, their ability to meet the Expected Pre-med Competencies, their understanding of what a medical career entails, their lack of life experience, and the role of undue parental influence on their career choice. Proving one’s fitness for medical school is 100% on the applicant.
So I’m an engineer but if I had to do it now I’d move to Data Science and Machine Learning (which I did eventually).
Data professionals are required in all fields and all industries. The roles are generally high-paying and the work is extremely portable because versions of the same solutions can be applied to many different problems regardless of industry. There are data scientists all over medical topics like image analysis of tumors or modeling diseases.
Both engineering and data science require strong math but the data curricula are usually not as restrictive as engineering and leave some room to to obtain domain knowledge as a dual major in a subject field like science, business, etc. so that could dove tail with pre-med. The engineering courses can be very “heavy” and may also affect your grades.
Are you set on going to the 4-year university your CC has an agreement with? (What is it?)
Do you know your EFC/SAI and can your parents afford it?
An savvy, elegant solution if your parents make less than 75-125k a year would be to apply to highly selective private colleges that meet full need. Your DE classes would be the expected academic background and may grant minimal advanced placement but you would still have gen eds to take, hence, time to decide what you want to do and what major to choose.
Seconding the idea of looking into the data science major.