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- Sep 20, 2008
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Hi I'm first time poster. I'm currently a college student in a computer engineering program. I have always been interested in medicine and I know being a doctor is the right career for me, the problem is I still want a fail-safe in case I don't get accepted right away for medical school. My GPA is pretty decent, but I'm not exactly sure a 3.7 to 4.0 (though I'm close to this range currently) is really do able in my degree program since the courses are getting more intense. The further I get into the upper division courses the less appealing a career with computers is (just not as fascinating as it once was).
My question pertains to nuclear engineering, as well as a B.S. in radiography - concentration in nuclear medicine (my school offers one). Nuclear engineering sounds fascinating, but only as it pertains to nuclear medicine. I've done some reading of some of the fundamentals of nuclear engineering, nuclear and quantum physics, nuclear reactor physics... but only the subject of medical physics is cool to me (which isn't really elaborated until graduate school, M.S. concentration). And even that field worries me as a back-up until acceptance into medical school because I'm not sure it really deals with patients as much as I want, since from I heard other this is mostly research oriented (maybe you could clear this up).
The B.S. in radiography - nuclear medicine concentration sounds awesome since it combines the application of nuclear medicine as well as the patient interaction (also gives me a glimpse into a future specialty by working side-by-side with physicians), but I still have two concerns with this option. The main being that I don't know if this is exactly a competitive degree to have. From "the rumor mill" among some pre-meds at my school, radiography in general doesn't fare very well with application committees (do you know of many radiography technicians who have gone on to medical school?) The second concern I have is I would have to redo pretty much another year in order to get the same amount of applicable credits to the radiography degree comparable to my computer engineering degree.
I just wanted opinions, do you think I should just keep my major and graduate quickly with my current degree program (at the ripe age of 20), switch to the nuclear engineering program (be behind about a summer and a semester than currently, but totally worth if it would somehow help later on), or just go with the radiography program and say the hell with the A's I worked so hard for in my advanced math courses? Thanks for any input, and also if someone could enlighten me to what the day-to-day schedule of what a nuclear medicine technician really does (not a just quote or an iteration from a brochure or website like bls.gov or a school website please). Also, how hard is it to get a job in radiography-nuclear medicine? Thanks.
My question pertains to nuclear engineering, as well as a B.S. in radiography - concentration in nuclear medicine (my school offers one). Nuclear engineering sounds fascinating, but only as it pertains to nuclear medicine. I've done some reading of some of the fundamentals of nuclear engineering, nuclear and quantum physics, nuclear reactor physics... but only the subject of medical physics is cool to me (which isn't really elaborated until graduate school, M.S. concentration). And even that field worries me as a back-up until acceptance into medical school because I'm not sure it really deals with patients as much as I want, since from I heard other this is mostly research oriented (maybe you could clear this up).
The B.S. in radiography - nuclear medicine concentration sounds awesome since it combines the application of nuclear medicine as well as the patient interaction (also gives me a glimpse into a future specialty by working side-by-side with physicians), but I still have two concerns with this option. The main being that I don't know if this is exactly a competitive degree to have. From "the rumor mill" among some pre-meds at my school, radiography in general doesn't fare very well with application committees (do you know of many radiography technicians who have gone on to medical school?) The second concern I have is I would have to redo pretty much another year in order to get the same amount of applicable credits to the radiography degree comparable to my computer engineering degree.
I just wanted opinions, do you think I should just keep my major and graduate quickly with my current degree program (at the ripe age of 20), switch to the nuclear engineering program (be behind about a summer and a semester than currently, but totally worth if it would somehow help later on), or just go with the radiography program and say the hell with the A's I worked so hard for in my advanced math courses? Thanks for any input, and also if someone could enlighten me to what the day-to-day schedule of what a nuclear medicine technician really does (not a just quote or an iteration from a brochure or website like bls.gov or a school website please). Also, how hard is it to get a job in radiography-nuclear medicine? Thanks.
