- #1
NeXeAr
- 2
- 0
Hi all. First off, don't bother wasting your time reading this if you have never in your life considered medicine as a career choice. In this case, please read and answer my questions that are bolded at the bottom.
I am currently a high school senior and am currently in the process of applying to colleges. However, I have had, and currently am having, problems deciding between engineering and pre-med.
I have always had a life long dream of becoming a doctor, whatever specialty it may be, and so I went to a High school that specifically focuses on health careers (Michael E. DeBakey for Health Professions) where I am today. But as I progressed through my high school career, taking health science classes along with math and science, I seemed to grow penchant towards the latter two subjects. The reason for my dislike of health science is mostly due to the repetitive act of blindly memorizing facts about the body.
The reason for my fondness of math and science (especially physics), however, remains oblivious to me. It could be that I like the logical and problem solving aspects of it instead of blatantly memorizing facts. But honestly, it is most likely due to the fact that my aptitude for these two subjects allowed me to breeze through the AP courses with little to no work. Now I am definitely not a lazy person, but the mere choice between problem solving and memorization seems very one-sided to me -of course the former being my choice.
This leads me to the quandary of picking engineering or pre-med as an undergraduate career path. With pre-med, I will have to suffer through 8 years of undergrad + med school with the prospect of emerging as a doctor whose salary will have nowhere to go but up from there. With engineering, I will likely enjoy my classes but emerge from graduate school with a hefty salary which will only decrease as I hit a certain age. And thus, I am stuck between two paths.
Right now, I am pursuing colleges that have 3/2 programs (a program where you go to a liberal arts college for 3 years and receive a BA in any major and then transfer to an engineering school- Caltech, Columbia, Dartmouth, Wash U St.L and receive a BA in engineering) and haven't looked at the pre-med programs for any of them.
Therefore, I need to decide between pre-med and engineering before I apply to these colleges. I am afraid I will be stuck at a liberal arts college (if I cancel the 3/2 program) if I decide to do pre-med which will. What I am afraid of if I commit to the engineering pathway is my job opportunities when I emerge from grad school. I have heard from family that the job security for any type of engineer is pretty bad (they might be wrong, which is why I came here). Also, my calculus teacher was a former chemical engineer and he has informed me that the salary of most engineers always goes down because companies want to hire new and young engineers due to physical reasons.
My question: So my question(s) to you all is/are:
How is the job security and outlook for an aging engineer? I know its hard to be specific without a specific engineering field.
How does the salary compare at an older age than to a younger one?
And specifically to those of you that have considered pre-med before physics/engineering: Are you thankful or regretful at your choice of being an engineer (or doctor, though I doubt they read these boards) and what advice do you have for me?
I would really appreciate input from one or more of you guys, thanks!
I am currently a high school senior and am currently in the process of applying to colleges. However, I have had, and currently am having, problems deciding between engineering and pre-med.
I have always had a life long dream of becoming a doctor, whatever specialty it may be, and so I went to a High school that specifically focuses on health careers (Michael E. DeBakey for Health Professions) where I am today. But as I progressed through my high school career, taking health science classes along with math and science, I seemed to grow penchant towards the latter two subjects. The reason for my dislike of health science is mostly due to the repetitive act of blindly memorizing facts about the body.
The reason for my fondness of math and science (especially physics), however, remains oblivious to me. It could be that I like the logical and problem solving aspects of it instead of blatantly memorizing facts. But honestly, it is most likely due to the fact that my aptitude for these two subjects allowed me to breeze through the AP courses with little to no work. Now I am definitely not a lazy person, but the mere choice between problem solving and memorization seems very one-sided to me -of course the former being my choice.
This leads me to the quandary of picking engineering or pre-med as an undergraduate career path. With pre-med, I will have to suffer through 8 years of undergrad + med school with the prospect of emerging as a doctor whose salary will have nowhere to go but up from there. With engineering, I will likely enjoy my classes but emerge from graduate school with a hefty salary which will only decrease as I hit a certain age. And thus, I am stuck between two paths.
Right now, I am pursuing colleges that have 3/2 programs (a program where you go to a liberal arts college for 3 years and receive a BA in any major and then transfer to an engineering school- Caltech, Columbia, Dartmouth, Wash U St.L and receive a BA in engineering) and haven't looked at the pre-med programs for any of them.
Therefore, I need to decide between pre-med and engineering before I apply to these colleges. I am afraid I will be stuck at a liberal arts college (if I cancel the 3/2 program) if I decide to do pre-med which will. What I am afraid of if I commit to the engineering pathway is my job opportunities when I emerge from grad school. I have heard from family that the job security for any type of engineer is pretty bad (they might be wrong, which is why I came here). Also, my calculus teacher was a former chemical engineer and he has informed me that the salary of most engineers always goes down because companies want to hire new and young engineers due to physical reasons.
My question: So my question(s) to you all is/are:
How is the job security and outlook for an aging engineer? I know its hard to be specific without a specific engineering field.
How does the salary compare at an older age than to a younger one?
And specifically to those of you that have considered pre-med before physics/engineering: Are you thankful or regretful at your choice of being an engineer (or doctor, though I doubt they read these boards) and what advice do you have for me?
I would really appreciate input from one or more of you guys, thanks!