Engineering and Pharmacy?

[Guest MangoPie1015]

Hello,

 

How hard are these programs. People usually say not to take them if you're going to apply to medicine. Are they generally difficult or just too time comsuming?

[Guest ADD100]

I can't comment on pharmacy. However, from my experience, engineering degrees are harder than general science degrees. Firstly, engineering courses require more hard work and mathematical genius to do well in compared to science courses. Engineering degrees could necessitate more courses per term and, thus, are generally also more nonflexible. Sometimes students are not able to fit in the prerequisites until third or fourth-year which could also lead to reduced chances of gaining admission to medicine.

 

In the end all that really matters is what you enjoy most. If you have looked at the undergraduate calendar and can see yourself enjoying the specialised courses and would not mind being an engineer for the rest of your life if medicine doesn¡¯t work, than you should go with engineering. If you don¡¯t like the specialised courses, or being an engineer if medicine doesn¡¯t work, I would suggest reconsidering.

[Guest Snew]

My boyfriend is finishing up his electrical engineering degree, so I will try and comment from his perspective. You should also check out another thread about Engineers who are currently in medicine, and get their perspective.

 

I think the hardest thing about engineering is time managment. At least at Dal, you have to take 6 courses per term (this applies for all engineering, not just electrical). My boyfriend definitely did not have free time to pursue extracurriculars, because most of your time is spent working on your massive workload from all your courses. But again, it is different for eveyone.

 

Also, there is little to no room for electives, at least at Dal, becuase your schedule is already pre-determined by the department, and any electives you do get to take have to be engineering ones. This is true for electrical, but I am pretty sure it is more flexible with other programs, such as environmental. So that raises the issue of when you would take your med pre-reqs, which would most likely end up being in the summer.

 

Engineering degrees, whatever discipline, are very much math and physics oriented, but is the way those concepts are applied that varies from department to department.

 

As for it being harder? Well, I don't like to say any one program is harder than the next, but it is definitely one of the most-time consuming programs out there.

 

Hopefully some people who were actually in engineering will respond to this thread and give you more accurate, first hand info.

 

That said, if a program interests you, I say go for it. I picked an undergrad major I was interested in, not just one that would boost my GPA.

[Guest uteng]

I did a computer engineering degree at Waterloo, and took a lot of extra courses to satisfy med school pre-reqs. I think I qualify to apply for any program across the country I'm also starting medical school at UofT

 

You do have to take a full course load (but that's true in a lot of programs and for admission) - a full course load of 5 or 6 is required to be accredited as an engineering program. You get very few electives, and you usally have to pick from pre-determined lists (and life sciences is usually not on the list). The list contained a handful of non-engineering courses including social science, humanities, and society,technology, values courses. You also had to choose from lists of approved engineering courses (example semi-conductor theory vs. power)

 

I found engineering harder in a couple ways:

-the marks are harder to get, I worked like a dog to make high 70s and low 80s and those were considered great marks in the faculty, but not competitive in med school admissions (and very few programs take the type of undergrad into account).

-The engineering courses require a lot of problem solving. Learn some basic problem solving tools, solve problems, build on those with more complex problem solving methods, solve more complex problems - less concepts than science, but more complicated problem solving. My science courses for the most part required you to learn a lot of broad concept, not too many in depth, and see if you can reproduce the simple calculation or explain the theory or method when asked about it in different question formats

-There is time for extra-curriculars, but you have to be very organized. Still, I was able to play on a varsity team, participate in the engineering society, and do community work. You can expect 25-38 hours of classes/labs/tutorials per week.

 

I considered medicine about the third year of engineering, so I ended up taking an extra course every four-month semester (only allowed if you have 80% average), took 2 distance ed courses on each of my co-op terms in-between, did an extra four-month semester of six lab courses after graduation, and did some more in distance ed. while working full time. My beef is that admissions committees tell you to take whatever interests you, but by the time you satisfy each school's pre-req you might as well just get a science degree.

 

Still, I learned a lot of cool things in engineering, and had a solid degree with a challenging and rewarding job afterwards. Also, since you have few electives, you get to know your classmates really well.

 

Would I do it again? If I was sure I wanted to go into medicine, I would so say no. But not being sure, I would recommend engineering to anyone. It's a great degree that teaches you how to think and problem solve, and there's many ways to help people (e.g. engineers who provide clean drinking water in disaster areas, re-build bridges, remove mines). There's even a relatively young organization that's growing called Engineers without Borders (along the lines of Doctors without Borders). You can also design cars, planes, trains, computers, biomedical equipment, medical protheses, and clean up the environment etc..

[Guest Sweet C]

I completed an undergrad degree in biomedical engineering and I'm starting med school at McMaster this fall, so I'll add my $0.02 too...

 

I agree with almost everything that uteng said... engineering is more time consuming than other undergrad degrees, you take more courses (6-7 per semester in my program), the course work is more involved (design work, weekly assignments, and big group projects in addition to weekly labs, lab reports, midterms, and finals), and a lot of complex problem solving is required on a continual basis.

 

If you manage your time well, you can still have a life outside of engineering. I competed on varisty teams, worked in a lab, and spent time with my friends and family while in engineering. But I had to be a lot more organized than other people I knew who were doing the same extracurriculars, but a BSc or BA. And I didn't have a lot of down time to relax.

 

In my program showing you understand concepts wasn't enough to get good marks on tests/midterms/exams. To get good marks, you had to manipulate concepts and apply them to problems you had never seen before, think creatively under pressure, and synthesize information/theories from other courses.

 

In my opinion, this type of program is great of people who enjoy the challenge of problem solving. In high school I loved the problem solving aspect of math and physics, but I also loved the real world element of biology. Biomedical engineering was a perfect oppotunity to apply problem solving to real world biological problems.

 

If I had to go back and do it all again, I would definetly pick an undergrad in biomedical engineering. My undergrad exposed me to many aspects of the medical world that most BSc grads don't see, provided me with a marketable degree, and taught me a way of thinking that will be invaluable as a physician. The reality is that no one can be 100% sure that they will get into medical school. So it is important that you pick an undergrad degree that you like, but it is equally important that you pick a field that will provide you with an alternative career if you don't get into med school.

 

Hope that helps a little!

[Guest medeng]

I already threw my 0.02$ into the ring in the first thread (here) but I thought I'd throw it out here again.... I did Eng Phys, a M.Sc. in medical biophysics and am about to enter Meds at Queens. Engineering is definitely a tough program because you are going to usually be taking 6 courses at a time, and will probably always have some sort of lab component to some of the courses, which makes for a lot of hours of class. But one of the things that is nice in Eng is that there is a real sense of community and cooperation (especially compared to life sci undergrads - no offence intended, I am great friends with a lot of life sci's, but there is generally a lot of competition!) It makes it a lot easier to finish off that assignment at 1AM (or later...) when there are 10 other people in the room with you working on the same problem set! This "we're in this together, might as well make the best of it" spirit is really what makes engineering a great program in my opinion.

 

When it comes to marks, I would have to disagree with the previous poster, while you are going to work your a$$ off to get a 75, the principle of diminishing returns didn't seem to be as big of a problem (at least in my program...) In my H&SS electives, it was pretty easy to get a 75, but the amount of effort required to go from a 75 to an 85 was substantial, and to get a 95 was really tough. In eng it always seemed more linear in terms of the amount of work required to get a higher mark. Its still a lot of work, but at least it felt like the extra work was actually getting you somewhere.

 

While I did love eng phys, I am going to throw out another option, I did my M.Sc. in medical biophysics, and in this program it seemed that the students came from one of two backgrounds, either engineers (phys, elec mostly) or medical physics. Medical physics is basically the application of physics to medicine, generally with a strong focus on imaging and radiation. Its another program you might want to look into if you're looking for something with a physical science focus but with medical applications in mind.