Which engineering field to go into?

[Nick PG]

Eventually I would like to go to medical school, but in case it is not for me at the end of they day I decided 6 months ago I wanted an engineering degree to fall back on ( as most pre-meds are biology majors and I don't want to study protists if I do not go to med school).
So it turns out I've got a fairly strong aptitude when it comes to mathematics seeing as cacl I and II have been pretty breezey and my forte in the sciences is definitely chemistry.
This points me towards a chemical engineering degree, but I am still unsure as I do not want to miss out in other areas I would have liked more, such as electrical engineering which sounds insanely cool.
I just wanted input from other current and former college who had to face a similar decision as me and anybody who has personal experience on how difficult electrical engineering is.
Thanks guys,
Nick

 

[axmls]

I'm currently in my second year in electrical engineering, so I can talk about that.

One thing I would have to say is that you would certainly be required to take extra courses while in electrical engineering (if you went that route) in order to meet the requirements for entry into medical school. Some EE programs don't even require chemistry, and you'll have to have organic chemistry under your belt for medical school (which is something I believe all chemical engineers have to take).

If you're interested in materials, thermodynamics (heat flow, etc.), fluids, plants (like chemical plants, not the things that grow out of the ground), and of course, chemistry, then chemical engineering is the better path to take.

If you prefer computers (how they work and how to use them to accomplish engineering tasks), circuits, electronic devices, electromagnetism, etc. then electrical engineering is the best choice. There are honestly a lot of fields of electrical engineering, and many of them are quite different. Power engineering is different than electronics engineering, and much different than computer engineering. There's a good amount of variety. Of course, there may be some chemical engineers here to speak about the variety of that field.

As far as difficulty is concerned--it depends on several things. What do you consider "a lot of work"? Are you good at math and physics? If you're weak at the basics of math, then you'd likely struggle, so that's something you should work on. If you're comfortable with math, then you'll be in a good position (for either major). My first couple of semesters I'd say I was moderately busy. I put in what I'd say was about 7-10 hours a week outside of class. Now as I'm taking more difficult classes, it can sometimes be about 20 hours outside of class some weeks. But that all depends on the person.

To be honest, if you're deadset on medical school, then your ideal major is probably chemical engineering, now that I think about it. Even if you don't go to medical school, from what I understand, chemical engineers can work with medicines.

 

[Niflheim]

I would definitely recommend Chemical Engineering for you over Electrical if you're interested in med school, especially with the interests and strengths you mentioned.