[Quin Sabe]

After much thought I finally decided to transfer to Texas A&M and major in Biomedical engineer to decide exactly what I want to do. I figured that would allow me to pursue medical/psychiatry/psychopharmaceuticals or do nuclear engineering or allow me to do biomedical engineering stuff. The down side is I want/need to transfer there this spring (I'm driving myself nuts living with my parents) and I was going through the fine details that stated I still have at least a year to make the prerequisites stipulated in the hidden in the fine print.
So now I need to come up with a new major or transfer to a different school. I was down there this weekend visiting a friend and while it would be fun place I'm totally sold on it. I was looking today at UTA that would give me a biochemistry with a fast track masters in biomedical. (downside it'd be really close to home, like a hour or less. I was looking to pursue my non conservative interest, and enjoy my youth. My parents are SJ's religious, conservative, dogmatic SJ's)

Essentially, I want a degree that's flexible, and hopefully have a starting salary around 70 grand. I'm thinking psycopharmaceuticals would be interesting I can see working in a lab creating new drugs. I'm having trouble nailing what I'm really, actually interested in and what I just think I am interested in.

 

[Ćerulean]

After much thought I finally decided to transfer to Texas A&M and major in Biomedical engineer to decide exactly what I want to do. I figured that would allow me to pursue medical/psychiatry/psychopharmaceuticals or do nuclear engineering or allow me to do biomedical engineering stuff. The down side is I want/need to transfer there this spring (I'm driving myself nuts living with my parents) and I was going through the fine details that stated I still have at least a year to make the prerequisites stipulated in the hidden in the fine print.
So now I need to come up with a new major or transfer to a different school. I was down there this weekend visiting a friend and while it would be fun place I'm totally sold on it. I was looking today at UTA that would give me a biochemistry with a fast track masters in biomedical. (downside it'd be really close to home, like a hour or less. I was looking to pursue my non conservative interest, and enjoy my youth. My parents are SJ's religious, conservative, dogmatic SJ's)

Essentially, I want a degree that's flexible, and hopefully have a starting salary around 70 grand. I'm thinking psycopharmaceuticals would be interesting I can see working in a lab creating new drugs. I'm having trouble nailing what I'm really, actually interested in and what I just think I am interested in.

What I'd do instead of declaring to a Biomedical major right away, and having all those math classes kick your ass that first year, is be exploratory for a semester or two. That's what I did. I didn't know which major I wanted to pursue so my first two years were more or less me trying to find a subject area which wouldn't suck so bad. You seem sold on the engineering bit, but why not take some other non-related engineering classes? Perhaps some of the non-related engineering ones could also satisfy general class requirements to graduate. That way you could explore a field potentially career changing while at the same time fulfilling those stupid, stupid gen ed requirements. I took the Intro to Psych class, out of pure interest and it fulfilled a humanities requirements that all students regardless of major need to graduate. End of sophomore year and I declared a Psychology major. Now I'm a Senior and almost done with college. One thing, I wouldn't give up your hopes on a potential job just because it doesn't crank out 70K a year. Honestly, I'd rather work a job I'd be happy doing for 20K than work in a job making 70K but making me as unhappy as a car without gasoline. Then again, everyone's financial situation is different. Ick.

 

[EYENTJ]

Ditto what VIP said.

I took up a Biochemistry major because I happened to be good at Biology and Chemistry and thought, why not? I tore through my first year's classes because I was being challenged for the first time in my life but wound up hating life very soon after until I took a Psychology class and fell in love.

If I had to do it over again I'd take a semester or two taking a bunch of different classes and finding both what I'm good at and what I love.

Starting salary at 70k with a bachelors? The only people I know who have that were either all stars with a Business major or Engineering majors who also had people skills. With a B.S. in Biomed Eng you could hit up the patent office once they start hiring again. You'd get hired at 50-60k but rapidly work up to 70k.

 

[Quin Sabe]

It is always a good ideal to take few years without a major, and that's what I've done after this semester I'll be 7 hours short of a associates in general studies (all electives). I've mainly just hit the basics with it, eng, history, gov't.

I was looking at biomedical engineering to start hitting things I would I love or hate in that higher level. I was sold on it, since it would cover both general engineering field and medical fields. After taking classes in both I would decide to move to engineering side, or pursue the medical side and become psychiatrist or pharmaceuticals researcher, or just stay where I was. If I found I liked none of that then it would be back to drawing board.

I'm thinking research, and consulting would be something I might enjoy. It's probably a bit far out there, but I'm thinking maybe do psychiatry and try open or run a medical research lab. (I still need to tear into chemistry classes, but I like researching drugs online and biology was interesting and kinda fun)

 

[RobinsonCrusoe]

After much thought I finally decided to transfer to Texas A&M and major in Biomedical engineer to decide exactly what I want to do. I figured that would allow me to pursue medical/psychiatry/psychopharmaceuticals or do nuclear engineering or allow me to do biomedical engineering stuff. The down side is I want/need to transfer there this spring (I'm driving myself nuts living with my parents) and I was going through the fine details that stated I still have at least a year to make the prerequisites stipulated in the hidden in the fine print.
So now I need to come up with a new major or transfer to a different school. I was down there this weekend visiting a friend and while it would be fun place I'm totally sold on it. I was looking today at UTA that would give me a biochemistry with a fast track masters in biomedical. (downside it'd be really close to home, like a hour or less. I was looking to pursue my non conservative interest, and enjoy my youth. My parents are SJ's religious, conservative, dogmatic SJ's)

Essentially, I want a degree that's flexible, and hopefully have a starting salary around 70 grand. I'm thinking psycopharmaceuticals would be interesting I can see working in a lab creating new drugs. I'm having trouble nailing what I'm really, actually interested in and what I just think I am interested in.

Biomedical engineering is an excellent major to have, given that the BLS (bureau or labor statistics) predicts that it will be one of the boom industries of the next decade 2010-2020, right next to health care, information technology, and scientific/technical consulting.

if i were you, i would focus on getting the best grades possible and maintaining excellent relations with professors, rather than on starting salaries and whatnot. it's unbelievable how much time kids waste on trying to predict their future salaries and how off the mark they usually are.

i just have 1 caveat: make sure you have the financial situation all sorted out. unless the parents are paying for everything, make sure you have as little debt as possible.

and honestly, i wouldn't worry about your future for 2 reasons: (1) my friend majored in biology in undergrad, worked for a lab for 1.5 years afterwards, went to get a masters in biomedical engineering, and just graduated recently with a fantastic offer (2) the economy will be rebounding when you graduate.

Sorry to hear about your parents. I have the same situation, an ESTJ tyrant of a dad and an ISFJ mom. And in my experience, it just gets worse over time. if you ever figure it out, drop me a line and let me know how you did it.

 

[EYENTJ]

I'm thinking research, and consulting would be something I might enjoy. It's probably a bit far out there, but I'm thinking maybe do psychiatry and try open or run a medical research lab. (I still need to tear into chemistry classes, but I like researching drugs online and biology was interesting and kinda fun)

Consulting might be fun but beware research... I found it the most depressing, banal, soul sucking experience ever. Please make sure you try it early on to verify that you would really enjoy doing it for the rest of your life. I absolutely loved my Bio and Chem classes (even thought O-chem was interesting), but research...

I worked at USAMRIID for two summers doing research on Ebola and Marburg genes and proteins (Level 2 lab since I wasn't working with the actual virus, just components). I had the ideal research position: working in a great, well funded lab with all star bosses, interesting subject matter, and great co-workers. I still found it intolerable.

It takes forever to find the simplest of results and most of the experiments are shots in the dark. You spend 9-10 hours a day in a concrete jail cell mixing liquids together, running agarose gels, developing western blots, etc. Some people love it; I thought it was the worst job on the planet.

 

[Quin Sabe]

It takes forever to find the simplest of results and most of the experiments are shots in the dark. You spend 9-10 hours a day in a concrete jail cell mixing liquids together, running agarose gels, developing western blots, etc. Some people love it; I thought it was the worst job on the planet.

Yeah, I did a darkroom photography class and really enjoyed it. I would be alone in the darkroom developing prints for 3 or 4 hours alone at times. I pretty well loved it. But, hopefully I can work on some research before I graduate at whatever college I'm at. Thanks for the advice (you too robinson crusoe, and the rest lol)