<p>If you're a chem major, can't you take the extra 2 years to go get a master's in chemical engineering? Or if you're a bio major, go to biomedical engineering. They both seem like valid career paths.</p>
<p>I am asking mostly out of curiosity for myself. I picked pre-medicine because I was under the impression that people in these majors had two options: lab assitant or pre-health. I like math, I really like chemistry and I think biology is okay so either of these careers sound good</p>
<p>Jumping from chem to chemE is not easy. A chem major has little to no engineering bacground. A ChemE is an engineer with a decent chemistry background. Becoming an engineer is no simple task let alone an MSc level engineer. </p>
<p>Best option for science grads are not just MD but any of the allied healthcare professions, MD, PT, PA, Opt, OT, Pharm…</p>
<p>You should just stick with ChemE undergrad. ChemEs can go into molecular/bio engineering later on if they want and can work in materials, petrol, you name it if they end up needing to change career paths. ChemEs have much better prospects and salaries than a typical chemistry student that is going to land a $10-20 /hr temp job out of school. </p>
<p>The market has been looking depressed a bit for ChemEs as manufacturing has been shipped overseas and funding has been cut for R and D, however, ChemE still has much better prospects for employment than chem/bio/biochem/molecular bio etc. </p>
<p>You can’t switch from chemistry to chemE that easily. You’d have to start all over again and earn a bachelor’s before you could get a masters in chemE, i.e. it’s a waste of time to start with chemistry if you like math and chemistry. Chem. students never take heat transfer, fluid mechanics, stochastic processes, stat mech, etc. etc. ChemE is much harder, but worth it. One of the biggest regrets in my life was earning a math and chemistry degree. Should have just gone with chemE to start. </p>
<p>Is premed even a degree? Don’t get yourself in tons of student loan debt for a worthless “premed” degree if it exists. Many, many, many people try to get into med school these days because it is literally one of the only stable jobs left, and many people don’t get in or decide to change their minds later on. If you’re stuck with a “pre-med” degree, you’ll be doing lab tech jobs for the rest of your life for $15/hr and buried under $25k in student loans that will take 25 years to pay off. You can take all the prereqs for med school on the side even while you study something like finance, computer science, or engineering–all of which have much better employment prospects and give you a safety net in case you change your mind or don’t get into med school.</p>
<p>When people say we need STEM degrees, they really only mean we need TEM–anything related to computers/computer programming, electrical/mechanical/chemical/computer engineer, or math --all of which can also be used in the financial world as well.</p>
<p>It is easier to go from an engineering degree to a science graduate degree than it is the other way around.</p>