Need outside input: engineer or doctor

College Search & Selection
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<p>I am a senior in high school in the process of applying to schools (none submitted yet) and I'm spit between what I want to do in college: either engineer major of some sort (go in undecided engineering and chose a type in college) or biomedical engineer undergrad and then med school. So basically its either engineer or doctor. I could REALLY use some outside input. These are my pros and cons for each:
Engineer:
Pros: Physics was my best science course in college which is big for engineers (I got an A+ in honors physics last year and a 760 of Physics SAT). Also I am good at math, I was a year ahead of the normal path honors students take in my high school, finished AP calc AB last year, got a 5 on the AP test and a 800 on Math II SAT. Engineering just seems like a good fit.
Cons: Compared to being a doctor I don't think engineering is as rewarding(both emotionally like cause I'd be helping people and I'd make more money as a doctor), as exciting, or as respected</p>

<p>Doctor:
Pros: Being a doctor would me much more exciting, rewarding (personally getting to help people and more money), and more highly respected. Also I haven't taken chem since sophmore year or bio since freshman year and during those years I didn't manage my time as well or try as hard or something compared to junior year because my GPA went up a ton junior year (from about 4.2/4.3 freshman and sophmore to a 4.75 junior year out of 5 obviously) so I might actually be just as good/interested in bio and chem as physics but not know it and these are obviousy big for doctors
Cons: I don't know how much I like/how good I am in bio and chem and I know I can take these in college and find out but like I said I want to gear my college choice towards what I want to do, it takes a lot longer to become a doctor, it costs a lot more money which wil be very hard even with loans because my family isn't poor but we're not that wealthy and I have a single mom since my dad died six years ago. Also the hours can be very bad for some doctors</p>

<p>There might be other pros and cons but that's all I got for now, plus this is a long post haha. I can really use outside input from anyone so thank you to anyone who can help!</p>

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<p>go in as either undeclared engineering or BME or ChemE and you can take your freshman year required engineering courses along with the 1st year general biology ahd chem courses. after your first semester (or year) you can decide to pursue one or the other.</p>

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<p>Engineering whatever for now. You can figure out whether or not you want Med school later on. Lots of people don’t even decide that until they are out of college, and then they go back to school to pick up any pre-med coursework that they are missing.</p>

<p>As for emotional rewards, there are plenty of jobs out there that require an engineering background where you would be “helping people”. As to whether or not you would actually take home more money at the end of the day as an engineer or a doctor is debatable. Medical school is very expensive, and the debts linger for years. In contrast, if you were inclined to pursue a Ph.D. in engineering, you would most likely be paid to go to school (with a teaching or research assistantship) so you’d finish that degree with no new debt.</p>

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<p>Sounds to me like the BME/Bio/Chembio + Pre-Med route is what you want to do.</p>