<p>I am not sure where to go for my future. </p>
<p>Which one do you think is cooler? </p>
<p>I personally believe that life is only once and although there will be risks I'd go for engineering and contribute to the world, but I'm not sure. </p>
<p>Becoming a doctor might give me more safety U know?</p>
<p>If you can't decide...go to undergrad for engineering. You could always decide to go to med school later. I personally know quite a few undergrad engineers who plan to go to med school.</p>
<ol>
<li>Do Biomedical engineering and then decide.</li>
<li>Do engineering with bio classes so you can succeed on the MCAT</li>
<li>Do a double in engineering and biology</li>
</ol>
<p>It's not hard, many kids from my college do things like Creative Writing and take Bio courses and are now in top med schools. Others do a minor in biomed or a double in engineering/bio.</p>
<p>Being a doctor may be safe...but the hours are horrible. </p>
<p>You won't make as much money in engineering, but the lifestyle is much better.</p>
<p>The work's interesting and rewarding in both, though. It just comes down to what you want out of life.</p>
<p>::edit::</p>
<p>I forgot to put this, but the man who basically put my mom's foot, ankel, and leg back together after a very serious car wreck got his undergrad in Chemical Engineering. He's an extremely talented surgeon...unfortunately all he does now is hip replacements and the such because of the crazy insurance crap that's going on...but that's a whole different topic.</p>
<p>Since you're interested in both, you should definitely go for an Engineering undergrad and decide at the end of that whether med school is right for you.</p>
<p>I'm thinking that whether medical doctor makes more money or an engineer makes more money would depend on their abilities.
If the engineer invents something and sets up his own company, wouldn't he be much richer than most doctors???</p>
<p>I'm talking about normal engineers and doctors, not exceptional ones. My AP Physics teacher owned his own medical lab before he retired (he sold the lab) and became a teacher, though. I obviously don't know what kind of money he brought in, but he has his own plane and some amazing stories from his travels...not to mention whatever he made off of the sale of his lab.</p>
<p>Anyway, considering debt from med school, the years they were acquiring that debt instead of bringing in an engineer's salary, and various other things like hours worked the gap between engineers and doctors may not actually be that big of a difference over a lifetime. I don't care to try to estimate everything out, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to get a rough number.</p>
<p>In fact, I was checking out the approximate starting salary of a BME (what I'm going into) with a BS, no experience, in Dallas at a mid-sized company and it was $54,290. Not too shabby, right? I got that from <a href="http://www.engineersalary.com%5B/url%5D">www.engineersalary.com</a> if you want to put in your own variables.</p>
<p>Your average Doc will earn FAR more than your average doctor in a lifetime.</p>
<p>I think you should consider what you will love doing. Whether or not it makes "more money" or "looks cooler" shouldn't enter into your decision. Remember, as a physician, you will be eating, sleeping, breathing your job for many, many years and the learning will never stop - only people who absolutely love it should enter into the profession.</p>
<p>A doctor's job is much harder than an engineer's. Only if you are a dedicated worker, take up medicine. I think an engineer has more relaxing time since it is just like other normal jobs. The family life is less stressed. My dad is an engineer. He took a few years off his career, we all lived abroad, while he taught maths and science in a highschool for fun. Now he is back resuming his career. A doctor can never stay away from his practice. It will be doomed if he takes significant time off because the his patients will probably be dead when he returned :-)</p>
<p>Yeah, you might earn more money as a doctor, but an engineer lives quite comfortably. That is all that matters, int he end. A comfortable life. Not just a lot of money.</p>
<p>So my vote: become a lawyer!</p>
<p>"Your average Doc will earn FAR more than your average doctor in a lifetime."</p>
<p>I'll assume the second doctor should be 'engineer.'</p>
<p>Anyway...I'm talking once you factor in the money you didn't make while in school, the debt you have to pay off, and the hours you work as far as the comparison. Anyone can see a doctor makes far more money on paper, but I'm not so sure they make a ton more after all the other things. </p>
<p>A BME with 10 years experience is valued at over $70,000 a year on that site I gave before...with only working the normal 40-50 hour weeks. A doctor can easily end up working twice that much.</p>
<p>If you decide to go to med school....you can kiss like 13+ years of your life away to school. With engineering, you don't have to.</p>
<p>Do you want to start immediately? </p>
<p>Do you want to have a family, or not? I'm not implying you can't have a family if you're a doctor, but you won't always be there, if you decide to become a family man/woman.</p>
<p>Which do you like better: math or science?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah...13 of the BEST years in your life....basically you sell your soul to become a doctor...
We need doctors...but the poor people who become one...
I admire you guys so much...</p>
<p>I go to a medical magnet school, and it has taught me many things, but the most important: I don't want to be a doctor.</p>
<p>Every year they stress the commitment one must make- - -I'm too spontaneous to stay in school THAT long. Law school isn't as long :)</p>
<p>I know that Med school takes many years away from you, but I think engineering major takes almost as many years away. </p>
<p>Engineerring graduate school takes about 4 years too anyway, and if you wanted to research somewhere for experiences, it would take as much time as intern and residential years for doctors... ???</p>
<p>If you make engineering longer than it is...that's your deal.</p>
<p>It takes an extra 4 years....there.</p>
<p>Who says you have to go to graduate school for engineering? I'm pretty sure I'm not going to waste my time with it...it just doesn't seem all that practical for what I want to do.</p>
<p>If you really wanted to get your Masters (in either engineering, business, whatever), though, you could do that in a year and a half.</p>
<p>Only a year and a half? I thought Engineering graduate school takes like 4 years...??</p>
<p>For a PhD...probably.</p>
<p>For a Masters? Heck no.</p>
<p>If my goal is to invent something, then probably PhD would help me much better than Masters or just college credit right???</p>
<p>You can easily work for companies inventing new technologies or whatever with a BS, but I really have no idea what kind of education and resources it would take an individual to invent something on their own.</p>