[King_Arthur]

I really like the idea of going to African nations and other countries which are in desperate need of medical attention and working as a doctor

but at the same time my talent lies more in the engineering side as i can very easily understand circuitry and repair and invent various things and find maths my best easiest subject by far

so i'm really confused as i have equal opportunity at both

P.S I come from family with 3 previous generations of doctors and non in mine and i'm the youngest so lot of family pressure too

[Michael's]

From reading this thread I would suggest to not even think of doing medicine, firstly as due to the competition being so fierce for the subject it is almost impossible to achieve, so I only suggest doing medicine if that is the only thing you have ever wanted to do, and that you are clever enough to achieve it (preferably all A* unfortunately).

[jpye11]

Do you want to spend the rest of your life around sick and dying people?

I didn't fancy that so did engineering.


Worth mentioning - engineering is really really hard, and I had 2 maths a-levels at 99%. Seriously difficult.

[.Missy]

I think do an engineer degree, the demand is high and you seem to prefer it.

Medicine is hard and competitive, I don't think you should pursue it if you only want to go to Africa. Do you have a real interest in it? Or is it just the pressure from family. If it is due to family then you need to ignore the pressure and do what you want to do

Anyway, you can still go Africa and help people. It may not be directly as a doctor, maybe working alongside a doctor and using your own engineer skills

[King_Arthur]

(Original post by .Missy)
I think do an engineer degree, the demand is high and you seem to prefer it.

Medicine is hard and competitive, I don't think you should pursue it if you only want to go to Africa. Do you have a real interest in it? Or is it just the pressure from family. If it is due to family then you need to ignore the pressure and do what you want to do

Anyway, you can still go Africa and help people. It may not be directly as a doctor, maybe working alongside a doctor and using your own engineer skills

working as a doctor in desperate environments is not due to pressure but simply due to growing up in an environment where i have witnessed what a impact a doctor could have

and i'm not sure if there is as much opportunity as an engineer to help as a doctor

[tupac makaveli]

Lol be the odd one out , only joking but on a serious note go for engineering as you excel at something people tend to enjoy more and when you struggle at something then people regret it: so I think engineering and that's nice that your good at maths. Anyway Ro be frankly honest ( don't hate me lol) the pay for doctor in first 5 years is 22000 to 27000 and also to become consultant takes like 15 years.

[.Missy]

(Original post by anjelofernando)
working as a doctor in desperate environments is not due to pressure but simply due to growing up in an environment where i have witnessed what a impact a doctor could have

and i'm not sure if there is as much opportunity as an engineer to help as a doctor

Oh right ok. So do you want to be a doctor more then an engineer?

Ermm as a doctor you are helping people directly which is rewarding. As a engineer you have to use your skills differently. But still may help people. An example of this is this http://www.engineeraid.com/

You can improve conditions of hospitals, which could help alot of people in the long run

[Chief Wiggum]

Just don't do English.

[King_Arthur]

(Original post by .Missy)
Oh right ok. So do you want to be a doctor more then an engineer?

Ermm as a doctor you are helping people directly which is rewarding. As a engineer you have to use your skills differently. But still may help people. An example of this is this http://www.engineeraid.com/

You can improve conditions of hospitals, which could help alot of people in the long run

thanks
but still confused

[.Missy]

(Original post by anjelofernando)
thanks
but still confused

Oh ok, well goodluck

[littlemissmidget123]

id say that you are more suited to being an engineer - but maybe get some experience of both for a week or 2 each and see how you feel after that! you also need to consider the various types of engineering - structural, mechanical, electrical..

secondly.. its possible if you do mechanical engineering that you could get involved with medical engineering further down the line.. might be worth researching that.

[King_Arthur]

(Original post by littlemissmidget123)
id say that you are more suited to being an engineer - but maybe get some experience of both for a week or 2 each and see how you feel after that! you also need to consider the various types of engineering - structural, mechanical, electrical..

secondly.. its possible if you do mechanical engineering that you could get involved with medical engineering further down the line.. might be worth researching that.

got plenty of field experience in both cause moms a doc and dads a eng....
but i guess it's just something i've got to figure out alone and well you cant have everything passion Vs talent(& interest) really hard choice

thanks

[littlemissmidget123]

(Original post by anjelofernando)
got plenty of field experience in both cause moms a doc and dads a eng....
but i guess it's just something i've got to figure out alone and well you cant have everything passion Vs talent(& interest) really hard choice

thanks

i think thats it really.. but remember that no decision is fixed.. you can always go back to uni and do the other one at a later date... at a large cost however... being good at something isn't always the best way to go.. at the end of it youve got to do the job for maybe the next 40 years.. so its a big commitment.. something i had trouble deciding too.. primary teaching or designer... i went with design because if i want to work with kids or whatever there are opportunities. a PGCE or girl guides to name a few plus i want to have kids.. and then id spend my entire life with kids and i dont think i cam commit to that atm, but theres always the option of changing my mind later.. but with design theres not that option

if i were you id remember that if you want to make a difference in peoples lives there are so many different ways of doing it.. maybe you need to look at taking a gap year or something and go and find something to do in say africa that helps out a community.. i guess what im trying to say is that you could think of other ways of helping people that isn't medicine alone.

[pappymajek]

(Original post by Chief Wiggum)
Just don't do English.

lol!!! Need to be able to differentiate between "weather and whether" for that one.

[NaaderBajwa]

The way I see this, you want to do medicine to help people, especially those in less developed countries. You could argue that it's possible to help more people by doing engineering and coming up with some new idea; would this not be more beneficial to more people?

Also, if you do engineering first and don't like it, it's probably easier to do medicine after engineering than engineering after medicine. Though of course, it can be done.

[pappymajek]

(Original post by King_Arthur)
I really like the idea of going to African nations and other countries which are in desperate need of medical attention and working as a doctor

but at the same time my talent lies more in the engineering side as I can very easily understand circuitry and repair and invent various things and find maths my best easiest subject by far

so i'm really confused as i have equal opportunity at both

P.S I come from family with 3 previous generations of doctors and non in mine and i'm the youngest so lot of family pressure too

Have you thought about biomedical engineering? It's a good hybrid between medicine and engineering and as it has been alluded to earlier, you can always get back into medicine later if you decide that's what you want. If you go for medicine and you later realise its not right for you, you already have something to loose because it takes a few years out of your earthly life.

Frankly, you can have an impact in the world/Africa through any career-don't go into medicine just because of that. If you're very good with your hands one area of medicine where your skills can be useful is perhaps as a surgeon-read more about Prof (Lord) Darzi (he came from a family of Engineers but ended up training as a surgeon but used his engineering skills right there-read page 3 of this article for more-http://www.raeng.org.uk/events/pdf/Welcome_Trust_transcript.pdf).

Lastly, don't be under any pressure to pursue medicine just because of your family, do what's right for you because it's your life afterall.

Your love for mathematics would suggest you go for engineering over medicine.

Good luck.

[OSharp]

(Original post by Michael's)
From reading this thread I would suggest to not even think of doing medicine, firstly as due to the competition being so fierce for the subject it is almost impossible to achieve, so I only suggest doing medicine if that is the only thing you have ever wanted to do, and that you are clever enough to achieve it (preferably all A* unfortunately).

I only know of a few universites that ask for A*s at A level. even less that do so routinely (Cambridge) And this year Oxford too, Birmingham for borderlines, PCMD says they may ask for it but I haven't met any one who does.

Standard is AAA with a top offer of A*AA

Although you make a good point about the dedication wanting to do medicine all your life isn't really a good reason to do it and many people who do this find they held romanticised ideas.

(Original post by King_Arthur)
I really like the idea of going to African nations and other countries which are in desperate need of medical attention and working as a doctor*

but at the same time my talent lies more in the engineering side as i can very easily understand circuitry and repair and invent various things and find maths my best easiest subject by far*

P.S I come from family with 3 previous generations of doctors and non in mine and i'm the youngest so lot of family pressure too

To the OP 3rd world countries are screaming out for engineers you would probably get a job easier as an engineer than you would with MSF for example.

If you're better at engineering then go for that is if you enjoy it more.

3. dont feel pressured into doing medicine just because its in the family, being an engineer is highly respectable career.

[Michael's]

(Original post by OSharp)
I only know of a few universites that ask for A*s at A level. even less that do so routinely (Cambridge) And this year Oxford too, Birmingham for borderlines, PCMD says they may ask for it but I haven't met any one who does.

Standard is AAA with a top offer of A*AA

Although you make a good point about the dedication wanting to do medicine all your life isn't really a good reason to do it and many people who do this find they held romanticised ideas.




To the OP 3rd world countries are screaming out for engineers you would probably get a job easier as an engineer than you would with MSF for example.

If you're better at engineering then go for that is if you enjoy it more.

3. dont feel pressured into doing medicine just because its in the family, being an engineer is highly respectable career.

Although they only ask for AAA, the huge majority of the students will have most A stars.

[OSharp]

(Original post by Michael's)
Although they only ask for AAA, the huge majority of the students will have most A stars.

I'm talking about A levels not GCSEs, im geussing you are a GCSE student by your posts so im not actually sure how much authority you have on this subject because the Grades for medics range greatly the majority definitely do not have A*A*A*

One would think someone who has gone through UCAS and applied for medicine might have a better idea about it. Sure some people get A*A*A* but most don't

2. universites cant even tell what you are going to get for A2 so rarely ask for A*s what you actually get has no bearing beyond meeting the offer or not.