What path should I take after high school? Science or art?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

I’m a high school senior so I’m graduating soon. I’ve got acceptance to a good amount of colleges that provide very good engineering, pre-med, chemistry, and biology programs. I’ve already narrowed my choices to a specific college (thankfully) and I’ve chosen to pursue Biology (Pre-Med track) and to either minor in Engineering Physics or to just take engineering electives. After undergraduate work and research, I hope to go into a PhD program for Biomedical/Biological Engineering or for Biomedical Science. But here’s the problem…

As a kid (about up until I started high school), I’ve always had a thrive to pursue visual arts, specifically game art/film concept art. At the time, I’ve always wanted to become a production artist for a film or game studio. My ultimate dream was to become a Senior Concept Artist or even an Art Director for a studio. Every since I started high school, that thrive started to fade as I opened my shell and pursued many STEM-related programs and science/mathematics courses. During high school, I’ve taken art courses every year and participated in art exhibitions/shows that either my school or community has. I’m even part of my school’s National Art Honor Society, but I’m also part of the National Science Honor Society as well.

It wasn’t until my family took a trip to a city that had a one of my dream art colleges located there. I got to visit the campus, get some of my work reviewed, got to meet a really great professor, and even got offered admission and a pretty nice scholarship from them. After seeing the environment and opportunities at this school, my mind was in dismay, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life anymore.

As odd as it sounds, I want to go head-on into research in Biomedical Engineering during/after my prospective PhD program but at the same time, I want to spend a weekend at an E3 event, testing out video games, or at a Comic Con or Tokyo Game Show, talking to fans/consumers about new releases and current projects. Then again, I would love to share any research about my current findings on better technology for diabetics and blood sugar testing with a group of broad-minded medical enthusiasts.I also like drawing full-blown technical drawings of future prosthetic or medical technology that I would love to research and even construct. I’ve already done a few projects like this with my FTC robotics team; from building a robotic arm to a sweeping robot (similar to a Roomba) with storage capabilities.

I can also do art on the side if I choose the biomedical path. I would also love to work throughout the globe but I’m not sure which path has more abroad opportunities. I love languages and hope to be able to use it in my career.

Any opinion that can help me determine my plans future will help…and sorry for such a long post :frowning:
And sorry if my thread is on the wrong forum, I was confused on what category my situation would fall under.

2

Wow - you sound very multi-talented!!! We have a daughter who is only a freshman in high school but is interested in biomedical engineering and art as well. From what I have been told, the vast majority of people who are interested in the engineering piece are not artists. To be able to do both the science/engineering piece and the art piece is an extremely unusual and valuable combination. Have you considered medical illustration as a side interest? I could visualize you doing videos for physicians/bioengineering companies/etc illustrating the biomechanics of devices,etc that are being researched - wouldn’t that be a great way to combine your skills? if I were you, I would consider loading up on traditional fundamental and figure drawing classes - you might want to google the atelier style of art instruction, which is all about precision and scale. Perhaps you can gain some skill in this area even before college. My understanding is that art classes can be pretty labor intensive in terms of lab time in college - perhaps now, while the school load is lower would be a good time to play around with it. We just got a flyer on a free MOOC class through Otis School of Design in CA, which might be right down your alley! I know they won’t allow linking, but it would be easy to find through Otis. Here’s a copy of the description, which might be less likely to be deleted by the board administrators: " Provided by Canvas, an easy-to-use, cloud-based learning management system designed specifically for K-12 teachers and students, serving more than 12 million users worldwide. The Canvas Network offers free online courses and classes from the world’s leading universities. Otis is one of only two independent art and design colleges among them "

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@shoot4moon First of all, thank you for your response!

I’ve heard of the Otis School of Design before and have been looking into applying for one of their summer, pre-college programs.

My prospective university actually has a pretty good visual arts department as well and I’m planning to pick up a few art classes during my undergrad years so that I can improve my skill just in case it becomes handy in my future. I’ve looked into medical illustration and it’s actually something I would love to do as a side job or something to retire into.

I guess I’m trying to find a way to formulate my passion for art and science into my future career.

And I’m glad that your daughter is interested in biomedical engineering and art as well!

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The summer pre-college programs look great, but the MOOC is free and uses one of their instructors. We’ve never done a MOOC before, but supposedly she can scan her art and get feedback from the instructor. Not as good as the 5K program, but easier to do during the school year!This summer, she is signing up for the Figure Drawing class at Laguna College of Art and Design, which is where her current teacher teaches. He said that the fundamentals and figure drawing teacher is fantastic, and spends a lot of time on the atelier style.

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curious - where are you from, and what college did you decide on? We just might be a couple of years behind you!

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I live a little out west from Atlanta, GA (which is technically suburban Atlanta). And sorry, I kind of want to keep my prospective university confidential in order to prevent people from criticizing my college decision instead of helping with my problem at hand. But it’s a small liberal arts college within Florida :slight_smile: