<p>I just have a curious question:
I don't know much about medical, all I know that they study for 8 years to get a license
I have a cousin and uncle going through Medical field. One go to pharmacy, already done 4 years, learning for another 4 years.
I saw my cousin study this MCAT test once, it looks hard too me.</p>
<p>Please answer! Thanks</p>
<p>Do what you think you would enjoy doing.</p>
<p>The only way you could only compare the two is if you look at getting a PhD in engineering since the MD is a doctorate degree. Both are not easiy, however, I think there is a lot more course work and a lot less time to get the MD (have to finish in 4 years vs. 4-7 for PhD). I also think that there is more at stake by getting the MD since if you dont learn the material probably, you could possibly not know what is wrong with the patient. Engineering is important too, however, you dont see the people who's lives are going to be affected by your work in your office.</p>
<p>Both are not easiy. However, my guess would be that an MD is harder because of the number of hoops they have to jump through in a relatively short amount of time.</p>
<p>here is a good truth: two brothers are both studying at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One is pursuing Medicine and another one is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Both brothers do agree that Electrical Engineering is the more difficult one.</p>
<p>In Sweden an engineer study for the same amount of time as a medical student, and here engineering is definitely harder to get a master in. The only hard part with medical is that it is a ***** to get into the classes in the first place, but once you have gotten accepted it is np.</p>
<p>I think it is kind of one of those "to each his own" sort of things. I am just finishing undergrad and going to do a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, while my girlfriend is in the same boat but getting ready to go to med school. Personally, I have noticed I have a LOT more problems that require problem solving and deep thinking, whereas she has a LOT more memorization type of work to do. That makes sense, because if you are going to be a general practitioner in medicine, you need to have all sorts of things stuck in your memory to compare symptoms against to get a correct diagnosis. You have to solve problems about how to go about diagnosing things, but the bulk of the information is memorization. With engineering, if you are getting a Ph.D. then you are doing research, and you need to be more adept at problem solving since you are going to be doing things that there may not be anyone else who can actually give you hints or be a reference. If you don't mind memorizing things and spending a TON of time doing your work, then you will like medical school. If you don't mind doing a lot of work learning underlying concepts to apply to a plethora of problems, you will like engineering.</p>
<p>A Ph.D in engineering is far harder than getting an MD.</p>
<p>Well, dang. What we need here is someone who's both an engineer <em>and</em> a doctor.</p>
<p>Thankfully, my dad's an ABD PhD mechanical engineer who went to med school and became a radiologist. I shot him an e-mail.</p>
<p>I like Boneh3ad's answer, though. From what I saw and from what my dad's said in the past, that sounds like a good explanation of the differences between the two.</p>
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I also think that there is more at stake by getting the MD since if you dont learn the material probably, you could possibly not know what is wrong with the patient. Engineering is important too, however, you dont see the people who's lives are going to be affected by your work in your office.
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<p>I wouldn't bet on that. In the wise words of my steel design professor, "Doctors kill their clients one at a time, but engineers have the capacity to be much more efficient." Think how Leslie Robertson feels every time he has to see the videos of the twin towers falling...</p>
<p>a PhD and MD aren't even worth comparing, they are completely different. I would think that someone with a PhD in an engineering field will have specialized, so my if the MD were also a specialist then it might be comparable.</p>
<p>Since you can go to Med School with an english degree I don't think one can adequately compare the two, the only person that might be able to say would be an engineer with an MD. But then "hard" generally is more a reflection of "like".</p>
<p>From my dad, regarding respective difficulty between an MD and an engineering PhD:</p>
<p>"Definitely engineering (really, probably ANY PhD). Once you're accepted into med school, it's 200 people in the class who <em>will</em> receive a degree (plus or minus one or two or three who quit because they decided it wasn't for them, not because they couldn't handle the load). It's a fair amount of memorization for a few courses, but after you learn a few skills/test taking tricks, you're on the way. Engineering is independent thought, research, and production of a product. In a PhD program, you are not spoon fed; you are expected to make things happen on your own - classwork, projects, dissertation, etc. I know lots of engineers who are doctors; I don't know any doctor who decided to go back and get an engineering degree."</p>
<p>PhD Engineering prof at Ryerson University in Toronto is an MD from University of Toronto.</p>
<p>I'm sure they exist; my dad was just saying he didn't know of any.</p>
<p>I agree it is difficult to compare MD v. Engineering. In Canada, MD is much higher on the food chain than engineering and most joint degree holders will work as an MD. Of course, this could be combined in a research capacity as I think someone was mentioning above. Certainly one could think of materials engineering combined with orthopaedic surgery as a good combination and background.</p>
<p>I think MD is harder from my point of view. This is personal because I am good at computational matters but not strong in life science subjects such as biology, bio chem etc. </p>
<p>The real distinction between MD and engineering in my mind is the quality of the training. Residency programs tend to be very challenging and excellent and will prepare someone for professional practice. I was close with someone who did general surgery and the demands are extreme both in terms of time and level of committment. But the gain is massive. A couple of months after graduation from residency, my friend went from his student bachelor pad of many years to a massive house, car and crazy vacations. You do not want to know how long it took me to buy my place. </p>
<p>What passes for engineering training in Canada is a joke. More importantly, this is left to the free market rather than regulated through the university like a residency program. Traditionally, this has not presented any problems since the job market used to be very strong. Over the years and with a surge in engineering enrolment, this is less obvious. People get licensed without ever going to field. There is no technical exam in most or all of the provinces. You can get a professional engineering licence by simply doing studies and reports which in my view is not sufficient to be licensed. When I look back at the work I did to get my license in engineering vs. my friend in surgery - there is simply no comparison. He got top and first rate training - I got useless work experience doing crappy studies and proposals - and I therefore got out & went to law school.</p>
<p>Note to self... design my own house if I move to Canada.</p>
<p>toronto_guy, you couldn't be wrong more than you are!
you are comparing bachelors in engineering to MD , and you are comparing engineering licensing to surgery, total failure!</p>
<p>Comparison should be: engineering to life science,
PhD in engineering to Surgery training.</p>
<p>***** and you say you are in the Law program? shame! you should know better.</p>
<p>Yovanka is on to something. Anyone who doesn't believe that many specialties, such as surgery, trauma, neonatalogy, or critical care medicine don't require the ability to solve very complex problems under stress, has not logged much time in an ED, an OR, or an ICU. Many specialists have jobs similar to engineers in Houston during Apollo 13, as in "Houston we have a problem", only they do it every day.</p>
<p>The problem though from a legal perspective is that there are no carve-outs for specialties in engineering, at least in Canada. That means whether you have a B.S. in Engineering or Ph.D., there is still only one license. Advanced training does not map to advanced licensure in engineering like it does in medicine. </p>
<p>In medicine, you have to qualify in carved out areas such general medicine, and surgery (speaking of carving), etc. You also have sub-specialities such as cardiology as a sub-speciality of internal medicine etc. </p>
<p>Imagine if there was special licensure for different types of engineering (structural, geotechnical, power etc). You would see salaries soar because this would restrict who can do that type of work.</p>
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Imagine if there was special licensure for different types of engineering (structural, geotechnical, power etc). You would see salaries soar because this would restrict who can do that type of work.
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<p>No it wouldn't, unfortunately. Sorry. That's the way it is in the US (particularly with structural engineers, who have to have an SE license to design anything higher than three stories), and we don't get paid any more. We actually get paid a little less than a lot of disciplines.</p>
<p>For some of us, it can be 10+ years until we're licensed. And you can go into medical school with any undergraduate degree. So, that's four years of school for med students, and four years of school (albeit starting earlier) for engineers. In my field, you have to have a masters. That took me two additional years. I can try to take my PE exam (boards, essentially) after three years of working. So, my tally is now up to nine years. Then, after that, if I want to continue designing high performance structures in a state like California, I need to get an SE license, which means another round of licensing exams (16 hour test) after another three years of qualifying experience. That's twelve years before you can be fully licensed in my field.</p>
<p>That's not to say that because of this, engineering is harder... I get paid a much nicer salary during my qualifying experience than medical residents do. ;) Still, I don't think you can say that after four years of undergrad, you're necessarily done with what you need to do in order to go out on your own and be an engineer. I can't even legally call myself an engineer yet, but my friends my age who went to med school can call themselves doctors now. It's not quite so cut-and-dried.</p>
<p>airbarr brings up a good point. There's so many different paths in engineering and medicine that it is not fair to compare the two as broad fields. </p>
<p>She also brings up a good point that those who go to medical school can do any undergraduate major. Meaning they more than likely have 4 easier years of school than an engineer.</p>