What Major Should I Consider Between 5 of these Major. I Need Help Lowering It Down To 2-3.

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
1

Hi guys, hope you guys are having a wonderful day. I am a sophomore and I finally know what I want to do with my life. I want to create medicine, improve it as well as make new ones to cure other sickness. Here’s the catch, I also want to create robotic arms, for people who have no limbs, but also help the disabled who are blind. Like implement a chip inside the brain to help blind people see once in their life or other things like that while creating medicine.

I know pharmaceutical is creating medicine but I don’t know what creates medicine like pharmaceutical but also creates devices for the people who are disabled or have lost their limbs.

I am at Iowa State. Iowa State is known to be the top 100 universities for engineering. Again I was going to go biomedical engineer but we don’t have a hospital nearby, but I will be minoring in biomedical since we do have a minor, and go into grad school to complete my biomedical engineering degree. For now I need an Undergrad major that could help me get where I want to be. So my options are Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering.

A senior in college walked me over to the Biological System Engineering because he thinks that’s the major I should go to, as well his advisory was in that main office building to lol. I don’t think it is. Probably, anyways I need help guys, I appreciate it if you can narrow these major down for me, or add some more majors to it, and get rid of one’s that won’t help me get to where I want in life. Also if I have to go into med school alright, but still need to pick a major. Lol, Thanks Again Guys!

2

I think you’re going to have to narrow your focus down a bit.

You can do either pharmaceutical r&d or you can do prosthetics r&d. I don’t see any way for you to do both as the same time since both require very specialized, highly in-depth education (typically a PhD) & experience to do anything beyond low-level tech-type work.

And if you want to improve medicine & healthcare, then there’s also fields like epidemiology, bio-informatics and public health.

And I’m confused–

Do you want to go to med school? Or are you aiming toward a PhD in a biomedical field?

You only should consider going to med school if you want to practice clinical medicine (i.e. see and treat patients on daily or near-daily basis). If you want to be the lab guy, the breakthrough researcher, you don’t need med school. You need a PhD.

And what does not having a hospital adjacent to your undergrad campus have to do with either of the above?

Even if you decide you want to do pre-med, you don’t need a nearby hospital. You can do you clinical volunteering at a stand alone clinic (free county health clinic, Planned Parenthood, Healthcare for the Homeless, etc), a nursing home, a hospice center, a dialysis center, an in- or out-patient rehab facility, a group home for the mentally ill or physically disabled, an EMS service, summer camps for chronically ill/disabled children, or even in a doctor’s office.

Depending in what your end goal is, any and all of the potential majors you listed will get you there. And I’ll add a few more to your list for consideration: computer science, biological neuroscience, brain & cognitive science, mathematics & statistics, physics, biophysics, bioinformatics.

BTW, medical schools don’t particularly care what your undergrad major is. You could major in English lit or forestry and still go to med school so long as you complete the necessary pre-reqs classes med schools require.

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BSE does not sound like the right fit for your interests - more focused on the external environment and systems than on the internal human systems.

Biochemistry and Mechanical Engineering seem like the closest fits for your aspirations.

One possible post-graduate option for you would be pursuing a degree in bioentrepreneurship instead of biomedical engineering. I know Johns Hopkins and the Karolinska Institute have programs; there are likely others. As a bioentrepreneur, you could be coordinating the efforts of multiple types of engineers & scientists to solve complex human medical problems. It seems like something you might find interesting. If so, do some research on the best undergraduate fields of study for admission to such programs, and that should help you to narrow down your choice of UG major.

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I meant by we don’t have a hospital to teach us biomedical engineering.

Yea, I know the that premed does not care what major you go into. As long as you have your pre-requisite. That is why I am undecided on what to do, then Dream here helped me out by narrowing it down to 2.

Maybe this will help, I want to make a better medicine and make new ones. I feel like it is possible to do both, but for now I just want to focus more on medicine and later down the road, go back to school and learn how to make robotic arms for people to use with their own brains and help make new technology to help the disabled. I don’t want to actually go see people face to face. I want to stay in one area, and try to find the solution to a disease that everyone is dying from like ADHD or Ebola.

5

Ha - pretty sure he meant HIV or AIDS.

6

LOL, woops I meant HIV yep.

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@10s4life Well, alright sounds like I just need to get some internships and see where I like it most. Talked to my advisers and they didn’t seem that it wasn’t impossible, they just knew I was really interested in saving lives by medicine and creating technology. They recommended me to minor in biomedical engineering and take either biochemistry or an engineering field.

I am more interested in medicine but I would like to understand and learn how they make artificial organs and such so I can do it on my own or with medicine as well but damn apparently you can’t have the best of both worlds. Currently I’m working at the pharmacy as a tech guy right now, and later on in my junior year go to the hospital or some other place that let me look inside what pharmaceutical scientist do each day. Then see what biomedical engineers do as well.This will help me to pursue my career hopefully.

Also it sounds like I’m not going to pre med unless I go to pharmacology, but more like I’m doing research so getting a PhD might be required of me to where I’m heading.

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ALL I WANT TO DO IS MAKE MEDICINE AND MAKE ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, BODY PARTS, AND MACHINES FOR DIAGNOSING MEDICAL PROBLEMS!

Lol sorry this is frustrating.

I appreciate the help you guys, not many people could just sit down on the computer and just say hey this is what you should blah blah blah. Thank you very much!

9

“ALL I WANT TO DO IS MAKE MEDICINE AND MAKE ARTIFICIAL ORGANS, BODY PARTS, AND MACHINES FOR DIAGNOSING MEDICAL PROBLEMS!”

I think you are way ahead of yourself. Your target is not realistic for some one who has not even start the college to think of artificial organs or cure for aids. In the USA, if you want to do what you described, it will take at least 15-20 years to even start those “target”. You may need an MD/PHD for what you are thinking. So relax and think what interest you most right now, instead of finding a major to meet your target. Your interest in medicine may not exist in that time frame.

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@artloversplus You’re right, since I am working at pharmacy as a tech, and actually like my job I’m more interested in just doing and making new kinds of medicine so that leaves me too, biochemistry, and chemical engineering am I right or just biochemistry?

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You will find out after you are in college. Since these two majors are so close to each other, just go to a school that has those two majors and you can decide in your junior year to declare your major.

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@artloversplus I’m already in college. I am a sophomore right now and need to find a major that fits within this category as quick as possible. That is why I need help. I don’t want to take the wrong path and do it all over again. Just read my first post should of said sophomore in college sounds like I am in high school. Woops.

13

Thank you guys for the help I have narrowed it down even more if you guys would like to help me I’m about to choose my major but here is my recent post http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/careers-medicine/1908155-biochemistry-or-chemical-engieering.html#latest. Thank You again guys!