Okay, so I’m a senior in high school, but my dream is to get into med school at UCSF, attend a 3 year residency and a 1 year fellowship, then take my exams and become a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist. However, with the majority of med schools having a 2-8% acceptance rate, getting in is MUCH harder than it seems. So let’s say that I don’t get in. There isn’t much work that you can find as a regular biology major. So in the event that I don’t get in, which major has all the premed required classes, pays around 60k and up and has an abundance of job opportunities. I have been think VERY hard about majoring in BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING. However, I hear that the rigour of that class is EXTREMELY difficult and can bring down your gpa. And we all know how important a gpa is in getting into med school. So I would appreciate it if any of you could help me out.
I think what you’re looking for is a unicorn – i.e. it doesn’t exist.
The majors that have the most overlap with pre-med requirements are chemistry, biochemistry, BME, chemE, biology.
Except for chemE, the job prospects in all those majors are mediocre. BME jobs often requires a master’s degree for entry level positions. There are job available for individuals with degrees in bio, chem, biochem that might pay $60K, but these would be commission-based jobs in pharma or med equipment sales that would be dependent on your ability to close deals.
There are things a chem, bio, biochem major can do to improve their job opportunity outlook after graduation like developing computer programming skills and accepting industrial internships during college, but there are no guarantees about what kind of jobs you could get or what you’d earn. The job market is highly variable and prognosticating 4-6 years into the future is foolish…
One alternative with a better job outlook would be to major in a field like applied math & statistics, business, computer science or some other high demand major and take your pre-reqs on the side. That is a viable option if you want to hedge your bets.
Of course, you could go ahead and major in chemE and hope that you’re a strong enough student to get those needed As for med school admission. Only you know if you’re capable of that–and I assure that there are plenty of engineers in med school who do earn those As. But I can’t tell if you’d be one of them.
BTW, you're wrong about the length of residency for anesthesiology. Anesthesia requires a preliminary year (clinical base year) before starting the categorical anesthesiology residency. Then add 1-2 years for a fellowship subspecialization. So a total of 5-6 years to become a anesthesiology subspecialist.
It's also extremely foolish to plan your entire medical career while you're still in high school. You haven't yet had sufficient exposure to clinical medicine to even know for a fact that you want to be doctor.Yeah, I have a lot of gas resident friends and thought OP’s numbers were off.
Also, it would seem to be that if anesthesia is your passion and you can’t get into medical school that CRNA or other operating room staff positions would make most sense and certainly a bio degree would be competitive for those training programs.
With regards to GPA and admissions, having a high GPA is necessary but not sufficient for being admitted to medical school.
If for some reason you do not get into Medical School, there is an option where you can become a Anesthesiologist Assistant (AA):
You can work in 16 States as a AA. AA do pretty much what CRNAs (Nurse Anesthetist) do and make the same salary. They have to work under the supervision of an Anesthesiologist, so they do not have the level of autonomy as CRNAs. Most (?) CRNAs work for Anesthesiology Groups, where there is a 4:1 ratio of CRNAs to 1 Anesthesiologist (the Anesthesiologist is really in a supervisory role and doesn’t really perform many cases themselves). AA barrier to entry is lower than CRNAs (work experience, RN license, BSN, etc.), requiring a undergraduate degree and meeting certain prerequisites.
Thanks so much for your information. You seem to know what you are talking about. However, I am very sure that I would like to either be a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, stock broker, or an entrepreneur. All have interested me since I was 10. I have taken around 10 AP classes and have skipped a grade so I will graduate and receive my 4 year degree when I turn 20. After that, I would LOVE to go to med school. I have already seen what cardiothoracic anesthesiologists do from videos and have volunteered at hospitals to get a closer look. I’m kinda obsessed with it lol. But thanks for responding.
There’s no a whole lot of overlap in these career paths. You’re going to need to commit to one of them sooner rather than later.
It’s true, getting paid 6 figures to do crossword puzzles and occasionally glance at a monitor while the heart surgeons work their magic is pretty amazing 
Crosswords? I thought it was sudoku!
[Anesthesiologist Calls for STAT Sudoku Help in OR 3](Anesthesiologist Calls for STAT Sudoku help in OR 3)
Hmmm, might be a regional thing.