I am currently a freshman at Penn State University in undergraduate studies of Engineering. My original plan throughout most of high school was to go get a mechanical engineering degree and then years later work my way into engineering management. I am strong in science and math, particularly Physics, Chemistry, and Calculus. Although i am still kind of unsure of if i truly want to do this for the rest of my life. Part of me wants to go on and pursue more such as being a doctor. Radiology interests me greatly because I’ve broken dozens of bones and been x-rayed plenty of times. I think it is a very interesting profession to. I feel like i can relate to that profession. People warned me that engineering is a difficult major with a high drop out percentage but i’m not worried about the difficulty. My biology skills are decent but its because of my interest in biology not because of my ability to retain information. My question is first off, is medical school worth the time and money? Can one still dislike biology but be interested in their field? and compare how rigorous the work load of an engineer student is to a medical student. That may be a dumb question but that’s why I am here because i am unsure. Thank you.
1…Med school worth the time and money… It’s a vocation. You have to want this.
Dislike bio... There are some doctors that have said that they really didn't like bio or even sciences for that matter but they knew that they could tolerate it enough for their goal career. I would say that you shouldn't hate it or be lousy at it (same as with the other science courses)
3… Eng’g student vs med student…Well my son is a 4th year med student, who was also a Chemical Eng’g major. My gut tells me that the rigors of eng’g was “good prep” for the rigors of med school. Not only do med students have a lot of info thrown at them, but there’s a need to process that info and come to conclusions…which seems to me to be a skill that is developed as an eng’g student. Simply memorizing isn’t enough. One has to use data to come to answers/conclusions/plan.
That said, being an eng’g premed can be a thought row to hoe since getting a high GPA can be a challenge.
BTW…my son’s goal is to be a radiologist, too. He’s currently in the interview process for that specialty, and will find out on National Match Day where he’s been matched.
I’ve though about biomedical engineering but you basically take the premed classes but don’t get the doctorate position. It is not out of the question though.
The best way to decide if you want to pursue medicine as a career is to get involved with clinical volunteering. It takes a special kind of personality to be around the sick, injured, dying, mentally ill, and physically/mentally disabled everyday. It's not something that everyone can handle. Working around sick people is best way to discover if it's not for you.
"Worth it" is in the eye of the beholder. It's a career that requires a a very long training period (radiology will be at least 9 years past undergrad), many personal sacrifices and a willingness to be of service to others. But medicine is calling--like a call to the ministry. If you feel the call to the profession, any sacrifice is worth it.
You don't have to love bio, but you at least need to not hate it. (Hate it and med school will be miserable.) You also need to be good at bio and earn excellent grades in it.
To succeed in med school, one needs to have strong self-discipline, excellent study skills, be a self-teacher, have strong critical thinking & analysis skills and have an excellent memory. (Lots & lots & lots of memorization in medicine.) You can develop these skills with any major, but engineering/math/physics type majors force you to develop them or you won't survive undergrad.
But also to succeed in med school, you need to have excellent people skills and excellent communication skills. It’s important to develop those too–and engineering doesn’t foster those as much as do some other majors.
As to the rigor–med school is like taking 30+ credits of science coursework/semester. (BTW, as both my daughters have lamented–they were both math majors–there is no math in med school.)
RE: radiology. You’re a long, long way from picking a medical specialty and the average med student changes their specialty pick about 3-4 times during med school. Keep an open mind.
Doing an engineering degree is a good option. It is now becoming more and more common for engineering students to apply to med school. For radiology, electrical engineering is a good choice, due to the signal and image processing involved. However, you can major in anything you want, as long as you get all of the prereqs done.
You definitely need to be able to tolerate and get through bio, but you don’t need to love it as if it is your life.
Engineering is no joke. At umich, they aim for only the top ~3% of engineering students to graduate with a 3.75+, and top ~10% to graduate with a 3.5+, You are going to need to be able to maintain a high GPA in not only your premed prereqs, but also your engineering classes. So many people apply to med school for so few seats that I highly doubt they have time to account for differences in what is considered a good GPA across different schools and majors, thus your GPA will most likely be taken as face value.