<p>I was just wondering what you guys think. For a while (throughout high school and most of my first year), I've been thinking about going pre-med but now I'm thinking about going for Engineering (not completely sure which kind but something along the lines of bio, biomed, or electrical engineering). I would also plan on going to engineering grad school afterwards. </p>
<p>The main reasons for all this include getting out into the job market 6 years earlier and avoiding an extra 6 years of tuition for medical schools (which can be really expensive!). Of course, the downside is that (according to what I've heard), the job market isn't as stable for engineering as it is for pre-med.</p>
<p>I can kind of (not 100%) see myself doing either one, and I don't necessarily see myself as better off doing one over the other (I think I'll do equally decent in both). </p>
<p>Anyways, I wanted to know, what do you guys think? What about the job market for engineering (especially outsourcing problems)? Is that job market fairly stable? Or is it worth it to spend all that extra money and time to be a doctor?</p>
<p>A little OT, but the pros and cons of what you describe makes me think you would like pharmacy. Pharmacy has more stability than engineering in terms of outsourcing and the training is not as lengthy as medicine.</p>
<p>I think you need to concentrate less on how much money you’ll make and when you’ll make it and think more about what’s important to you in the long term. Try to find people in the fields you’re interested in and ask them what their lives are like and see if you can see yourself. In many areas of medicine your life is not your own, but if you’re passionate about it, it’s worth it. And yes, you have to sacrifice many years to get there. An engineering career can go in many directions (including to medical school!), and take you lots of places. It really shouldn’t be all about the money, it’s about you and what you value.</p>
<p>I say start out in BioE and see how it goes. You essentially cover all the pre-med requirements in BioE. Right now I have done all the pre-med requirements as a bioengineering major and it’s only because it’s all in our curriculum. If you decide that BioE really isnt your thing, you can always switch.</p>
<p>However, it is A LOT harder to start off as pre-med in the Arts & Sciences school and try to transfer into engineering. It’s much easier the other way around.</p>
<p>And the engineering market is doing very well right now, so I’m not sure where you heard that from. Our engineering school has great placement for engineering students. And for our students that co-op, the placement rate skyrockets to about 98%. I’d say that’s pretty good. And if you get a master’s degree, your chances are even better in the market.</p>
<p>I would like to mention though, that for pre-med it’s about keeping your GPA high because medical school admissions is very numbers-oriented. Though starting out in engineering sounds great in theory, the courseload you’ll be taking as an engineering major would be more demanding than the average premed’s (more math classes, science classes specifically for engineering majors instead of the general class).</p>
<p>Very true, but if the idea is to truly figure out what you want to study and be happy in, I believe that trying engineering first is the way to do it. Once you start out in pre-med, it’s very hard to switch to engineering if you change your mind. So in the poster’s situation, I would still start off that way and see how it goes. </p>
<p>If the poster was super adamant about being a doctor, I would suggest doing an arts & sciences major. But since he/she is on the fence, I think the way I suggested is best. The worst that can happen is that you figure out you don’t like engineering and drop out after freshmen year (engineering gets super hard sophomore year). Plus, if you figure out you hate engineering you’re still on track for pre-med so it doesn’t hurt you too bad in terms of classes to take.</p>
<p>Of course if you stick with bioengineering until sophomore year, your GPA will most likely take a blow, so you want to decide which track is best when you are done with freshmen year.</p>
<p>But there are plenty of pre-meds in bioengineering. The plus to being a bioE in pre-med is that it prepares you very well for medical school. Then of course you have to weigh it with the GPA situation. But there are those who still do it… and make it to med school! It all depends I guess.</p>