Electrical Engineeering vs Medical School

[imable24]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Today I avoided any argument when an electrical engineer said that electrical engineering(especially the last two years) is harder than medical school. I respectfully disagreed but decided to avoid an argument because a) I haven't started medical school b) I know some but not a whole lot about electrical engineering c) the person I was talking to knows very little about medicine themselves and d) it's useless and unnecessary and I didn't have the time or the patience.

However, I'm still curious what do you guys think? Is there truth to this? Is electrical engineering(undergrad) harder than medical school?

 

[durfen]

Today I avoided any argument when an electrical engineer said that electrical engineering(especially the last two years) is harder than medical school. I respectfully disagreed but decided to avoid an argument because a) I haven't started medical school b) I know some but not a whole lot about electrical engineering c) the person I was talking to knows very little about medicine themselves and d) it's useless and unnecessary and I didn't have the time or the patience.

However, I'm still curious what do you guys think? Is there truth to this? Is electrical engineering(undergrad) harder than medical school?

I'm a computer scientist and I can say that they're both about the same 😀. It really depends upon your aptitude for one or the other. For example, English literature is hard for me.

 

[Mixtli]

Today I avoided any argument when an electrical engineer said that electrical engineering(especially the last two years) is harder than medical school. I respectfully disagreed but decided to avoid an argument because a) I haven't started medical school b) I know some but not a whole lot about electrical engineering c) the person I was talking to knows very little about medicine themselves and d) it's useless and unnecessary and I didn't have the time or the patience.

However, I'm still curious what do you guys think? Is there truth to this? Is electrical engineering(undergrad) harder than medical school?

People say the material in med school is not difficult. Its more memorizing, volume, and heart. There's a difference than say...studying your brains out in med school but knowing for sure you will probably pass vs. studying your brains out in EE and be stressed all the time because you get stumped on a monster problem set, project, or test.

 

[Dayne]

I am an electrical engineer. And I thought my undergrad was really hard all the way through (from first year to 4th year). But I can't say that med school is easier because I haven't experienced it yet, and I don't personally know any electrical engineers that went to med school.

Besides, it's apples and oranges. They are both really different.

And if you ask any grad, he/she is nearly always going to tell you that their program is the hardest whether it's engineering, biology, physics, literature, or accounting.

 

[Medee]

I have to agree with Dayne. It's like comparing apples and oranges, cats and dogs, they're two totally different species... I just finished studying EE undergrad, while doing all my pre-med on the side. EE applies a lot of math, physics, logic, and programming. I found both my pre-med courses and EE courses to provide unique challenges, However I do feel in some sense that the field of medicine and engineering have similar components to them.

For example both disciplines are strongly problem-solving oriented, where the engineer/physician must draw upon a vast knowledge base to develop creative solutions. With Electrical engineering this knowledge base includes areas such as circuit theory, an understanding of signal & systems theory, power theorems, E-M, digital logic, and programming, whereas in medicine, it may include areas such as Anatomy and Physiology, Immunology, Pharmacology, Cell Physiology, and Biochemistry to name a few. In the case of the engineer, he or she uses this knowledge base to develop solutions to a design problem which is thrown at him or her. In medicine this knowledge base is used to develop a diagnosis for a patient as well as a course of action to alleviate the patient's problem.

....Long story short, both fields offer unique challenges. Choose to pursue one which is most meaninful to you. Choose which one interests and inpsires you the most!

 

[dutchman]

Two different things.

 

[odddodo]

Not that I'm either an electrical engineer or a med school student, but having taken some electrical engineering courses and some biology courses, I'd say it depends on your own strengths. Electrical engineering has little memorization, but it takes logical and orderly thinking and problem-solving to an extreme extent. On the other hand, biology requires very little or simple problem solving, but the pure memorization can overwhelm you.

 

[Static Line]

Med school requires mass amounts of memorization, orderly logical thinking sometimes, thinking outside the box sometimes and for many intense amounts of study time. For the most part the material isn't difficult, some is but not all.

That said, I've had a few professors at med school with graduate level chemical eng degrees say eng was conceptually more difficult but it wasn't nearly as much to learn.

 

[Meatwad]

Different things are harder for different people, so it's basically a dead-end argument. From what I've seen, having both friends and family having degrees in EE, it's definitely very difficult. I've seen people have many sleepless nights of studying. And this all leads to average grades, nothing stellar. However, is it really that different than medical school? Doubt it. I'm obviously not a med student yet, but I assume that when I am, I will have to study like crazy and still might just come out with mediocre grades.

I'd also venture to say that I bet the difficulty of EE greatly depends on the school. There is pretty much no such thing as a "weak," US medical school; they all require a huge committment, and only take very good students. Gettting a BE in EE at MIT or Caltech is very different than getting a BS in EE at Podunk U.