Pros and Cons of Various Engineering Majors

<p>This past weekend as I was finishing up college applications, I was stuck when I came to choosing my major. I am really interested in pursuing a career in the med. field; my aspirations include becoming a surgeon. But, I know that the MCAT is changing its format and that getting into med. school is becoming tougher year by year. So, I decided that having a chemical or biomedical engineering major would be beneficial in case I scored poorly on the MCAT and did not get into med. school. In that situation, I could potentially utilize my engineering background to get a job or pursue further studies in the engineering field. However, I am not sure whether to choose chemical or biomedical engineering. Can somebody give me insight as to what kinds of classes are taken with these majors and how difficult each is?</p>

<p>Doing the pre-med courses while pursuing an engineering degree is very, very difficult since engineers have few electives where those courses would fit. This would likely stretch out your coursework to at least five years, which many engineers already take anyway because of the difficulty and number of courses just for a BS in engineering, so pre-med in addition could possibly extend it to 5 1/2.</p>

<p>In addition to courseload, you’ve got to worry about GPA. Medical schools don’t give you a break because you picked one of the most difficult majors around, you’ll be up against all the English and history majors on an even playing field. (Apologies to all the English and history majors, but those are easy compared to engineering.) If they’ve got a higher GPA and the same MCAT score as you, you’re at disadvantage. Not really fair, but that’s the way it works.</p>

<p>So, great idea about doing engineering leading up to medical school, and great if you can pull it off. Anyone with an engineering undergrad and an MD will be highly valued by someone. It’s just not that practical to do unless you are truly gifted intellectually, and even then, may not be a wise course if you’re serious about not blowing your medical school chances.</p>

<p>Thanks for the information; that does seem particularly unfair. If I were to pursue a chemical or biology major and I did not get into med. school, what could I do then?</p>

<p>"If I were to pursue a chemical or biology major and I did not get into med. school, what could I do then? "</p>

<p>That is a legitimate concern. From some of my son’s friends who went that route but haven’t been accepted (yet!?) to med school, the job prospects are dim. Not a lot of jobs and those that can be found don’t pay too much (laws of supply and demand in work).</p>

<p>A good GPA is gold when applying to med school, so combining engineering (as others have pointed out) is tough on your GPA. Tough choice!!</p>

<p>Interesting that my GP doctor got his BS in electrical engineering from a top engineering school (no easy feat) and then worked in that field for a while. He didn’t like it and so went and applied to med school. He’s one smart cookie.</p>

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I would recommend looking at the websites for one or more of the colleges you are considering - they will list courses, descriptions, and projected schedules. As to how difficult… consensus seems to be that engineering is harder than most or all other majors, but how much is very much a personal thing. I would say that engineering is certainly manageable provided you take your studies seriously - most other majors are much more forgiving of “casual” students.</p>

<p>I would echo the observations that fitting med school requirements in around an engineering degree can be tricky - you might have an easier time with biomedical engineering, but I would recommend picking a major which you would be happy sticking with if med school doesn’t work out!</p>

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There are lots of other options, depending largely on whether or not you want spend more time in school. Most of the jobs available with just the BS are lab tech jobs (or similar) which you might not find very desirable, but you could go to graduate school to transition into engineering or into another area in the medical field, like being a nurse or physician assistant (who get paid pretty darned well!).</p>

<p>The awkwardness of combining pre-med with engineering various tremendously depending on the college. At some colleges, engineering majors require more credits than can be completed in 4 years with a typical schedule. And at some colleges, engineering majors require few enough credits to easily fit the extra pre-med courses in electives.</p>

<p>The OP mentioned he was still in HS. A large portion of high school students change their mind about their career path during college. Many start out in pre-med or engineering, then after taking a few classes decide that something else is more appealing, sometimes a field that they didn’t even know existed when they were in HS. If you are attending a college that has open enrollment between majors and are truly interested in engineering (not just doing it because you think it is a more practical career than bio/chem), then I’d recommend taking the prerequisites for both engineering and pre-med during freshman year, and later deciding what you’d like to pursue after you have some more experience in both fields. They’ll likely be a lot of overlap early on between engineering and pre-med, with both requiring math, physics, and likely chem (depends on field of engineering). </p>

<p>When I was in college, I was in a similar position. I originally planned to go into engineering when I was in HS. My engineering adviser recommended that I take the same chem classes as the pre-med students during freshman year. I found chem to be really interesting and did well, so I continued with the pre-med classes, as well as with engineering. I didn’t enjoy biology as much. I found the material dull (particularly plants) and disliked the emphasis on rote memorization. However, I loved my intro to electrical engineering class. This led to pursuing graduate work in EE instead of medicine. I completed almost all of the pre-med track during my underclassman years, yet it did not hold back my engineering graduation. Instead at the end of my 4th year, I had completed both a BS and MS in EE and had started a 2nd masters in MS&E, while maintaining a decent GPA (well above the average GPA of Stanford students who are accepted to med school). I often took heavy course loads and completed a lot of college credits in HS via dual enrollment, so my experience isn’t typical. It’s more to show it is possible to simultaneously pursue both and do both well.</p>

<p>OP - For a moment, let’s forget the engineering angle. How much have you researched the surgeon choice? I’ve read about a lot of students that decided med school (and law school) require too much debt these days considering the difficult path before and after graduation.</p>

<p>Thanks everybody for your insight on this topic. I have been thinking about this some more and realized that just having a chemistry or biology major isn’t bad either. </p>

<p>Colorado_Mom - I have done a lot of research concerning the surgeon choice. I know that it will be a long and rocky path but I am ready to put in all the effort necessary. Ideally, my dream occupation is an orthopedic surgeon, but with the new MCAT format and friends in college informing me about competition, I just wanted to throw out the idea of having engineering in the background as a safety net for something to fall on.</p>

<p>ds - We have a relative that is an orthopedic surgeon, and he took the engineering path. He did BSME and then masters in robotics. After a few years of work / research, he went to med school. (There may have also been some other courses prior getting med school prereq courses completed). He has huge debt, but I think his employer is helping pay it down. Good luck!</p>