my heart is telling me yes but my brain is saying no…
since i was little i wanted to be a doctor bc i want to work in a hospital, help people, and mostly conduct surgery and operate on humans and cure problems. my parents and relatives and family also want me to be a a docotr and most of cousins think i will be one. I also dont want to be a nurse
however recently i am still consdiered.
i want to be one but idk if it is practical
i am decent at science and really like STEM
however i feel like im too dumb to be a docotr- i wont get a high undergrad GPA and high MCAT
i will try my best tho
and also it is extremely hard to get into a med school so if i drop out with a degree in bio or somehting i wont have a stable job. I might even do bad in med school if i make it.
if i don’t get into a med shcool i won’t have a solid job
however if i major in a good backup like engineeirng med school is harder to acheive.
anyways, the real reason why im kinda against med/ or dentistry is because the LOANS
i mean 100k per year plus interest and since i wanna do surgery it will be hard ofr over 10 yrs
and my first couple years will be hard as i have to pay off debt and live cheap and family starting is very difficult.
i wanna get a job and have a house and car and stuff
im also recently interetsed in engieering (chem or materials)
what should i do?
focus on med school during undergrad or focus on engineering?
You can major in engineering and go to med school if you take the prerequisites. You can major in ANYTHING as an undergrad as long as you take the prerequisites. Bio majors who don’t make it to med school are very common, and it is hard to find a decent job.
That said, engineering is a hard major and GPAs are often low. Even without med school prerequisites,you could very well struggle to get a good GPA (for med school or job hunting). But you can generally get a decent job with a middling GPA in engineering.
There also are a lot of jobs in medical care besides doctors or nurses. Physicians assistant, pharmacy, various kinds of lab techs, administrators, medical device or computers system manufacturing, etc.
You’d better off to become an Engineer than a Surgeon, You only need 4 years of UG in Engineering to find your first job, OTOH, a Surgeon will take about 10 to 12 years of education after graduation from UG. Many surgeons could not make it because physical problems in those 10 to 12 years.
Your dream is just a dream, most dreams cannot become true. But, you still can try frew pre-med courses to see if your interest still lies in that direction.
well i want to be a doctor or dentist more than an engineer.
so should i major in chemE or materialE and take few premed classses to see if i would do good and like them.
the good thing is if i do bad in premed i can use engineering as a backup
but what if i DROP OUT of engineering?
i heard materials and chemical are one of the hardest forms of engr and chemE has a super high weedout rate.
so if i cant handle engineering as well what do i do?
Imho
@SREE33
You can take any major in UG as a premed. But, if you drop Engineering because you cannot handle the work, your chances to med school will not be that much better.
“i wont get a high undergrad GPA and high MCAT”
I think you’ve answered your own question.
i mean i will try very hard and study like that.
but what i mean is if i major in a basic major like Bio i dont want to be in a bad situation if i dont get accepted
i really want to do medicine- but i only mentioned engineering as a backup plan
You have decide which is more important: Getting into your choice school or getting into your choice major. No one can predict your future. Pick the schools you would be happy attending and the major that you think you will want to pursue for the next 4 years.
It is always easier to switch majors from a more competitive major to a less competitive major if you find that Engineering is difficult.
@Gumbymom is right. 75% of freshman pre-med end up never applying to med school. (And not just because of academics.) Pick a college that fits you and you like.
Switching into engineering is hard. Engineering has a lockstep curriculum that’s hard to pick up later if you start in different major. If you have any thoughts about wanting to pursue engineering, you need to start out as in engineering freshman year.
And if you’re really interested in material engineering, you don’t need to major in material science/engineering. That’s more a graduate level program anyway. A physics, chemistry, or chemE major will serve just fine if you want to work in materials. (Dh was a physicist and spent most of his career doing material science/optical materials.)
If you’re interested in pursuing BME, one option would be double major in bio and mathematics or major in bio/minor in math in undergrad then pursue a MS in BME. You’d need to take calc-based physics in college and you’d need to make up about 4-5 core engineering courses (that most colleges will allow you do while enrolled in your grad program), but you could be provisionally accepted into a grad BME program. (Know this for a fact since both of my daughters had this option. D2 double majored in bio & math; D1 double majored in physics & math w/ a minor in chem.)
I am a Chemical Engineer major with pre-med track, and I am strongly considering to work in biomed research or pharmaceuticals instead of going to medical schools after seeing how much money and time I have to spend in AND after medical schools. There are a lot of ways to contribute to medical field without being a doctor.