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Uni help : Engineering or medicine?

Hello everyone, I am currently in year 12 and I'm doing maths, physics, biology and chemistry.

I wanted to be a doctor, but I'm not so sure anymore because I've been thinking about the long hours, low pay initally, huge student debt and the pressure and stress. However, my family really wants me to be a doctor and overall I don't think I would mind it that much.

But I must say that I really enjoy maths and physics and problem solving and don't want to lose that aspect from my life, as doctors don't really use physics and maths often. But I worry that pay for engineering is not so good as well as the fact that medicine has more stability in terms of jobs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :smile:
Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Megathreads
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The "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread
The Ultimate 'Am I Good Enough For Medicine?' Angst Thread
Medicine A-Level subjects queries
Work Experience and Voluntary Work

2023 Applicants:
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2023 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2023 Entry
Medicine 2023 entry for resit / retake / gap year applicants
A100 Medicine for International Students 2023 Entry
Medicine Interview discussion 2023 Entry
2023 entry A100 / A101 Medicine fastest and slowest offer senders
Index of Individual Medical School Applicants' threads 2023 Entry

2024 Applicants :
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2024 Entry
Graduate Entry Medicine 2024 Entry
GAMSAT 2024 / 2025 entry discussions megathread
UCAT 2024 Entry Discussions Megathread

Other application years:
Graduate Entry Medicine 2025 Entry
Official Undergraduate Medicine 2025 Entry

Useful Articles:
GCSE Requirements for Medicine
Everything you need to know about the BMAT
Work Experience as a Graduate or Mature student
Medicine Personal Statement Advice
Medicine Personal Statement Advice (Graduate Entry)
Interview Frequently Asked Questions
MMI Medicine Interview Tips
What to do after an unsuccessful first application

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Hi, I'm in year 13 I would say definitely go to open days and taster days for both. Thats how I found out I really wanted to do medicine. Maybe try getting work experience in the hospital earlier than your school so you can make a decision quicker. Leicester has a lot of outreach programmes in person and online (https://le.ac.uk/medicine/outreach). This one is for Edgehill (https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/departments/support/studentrecruitment/activities-for-students/post-16-activities-on-campus/)

The last open day until may/july time is the 11 th Nov for most unis e.g Keele, Leicester and Birmingham.I would book an open day and go early they will tell you all about learning medicine. It's better to go early than later.

Uni taster days is a good website as well
Hello,

My name is Haya and I am one of the final year medical students. I haven't done engineering so I can only speak about the medicine bit.

Although there can be some downsides to Medicine, it is a very rewarding career and the job prospects are endless. As you progress through your training, the pay increases too. There are also parts of medicine that involve problem solving, and you can chose to work in research or even in biomedical engineering. A lot of medicine also involves robotics and the use of artifical intelligence.

My advice would be to try to get work experience in a hospital, and try to also get some experience in biomedical/engineering and see what you like more

Best of Luck,
Haya

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