CS. Pro
You can get a good job with BS degree.
You can work remote.
Demand keeps increasing.
CS. Con
Always changing
Outsourcing potential.

MD Pro
Meaningful/honorable/ respected
MD Con
Long, very expensive education.
Insurance companies micro management.

Anonymous wrote:Pro and Con between the two.
I know there is no Pre med major.

I think that most kids who frame the choice that way and go to a selective undergraduate school will crash and burn by the time they’re 40, if they don’t fail out of college entirely.

I don’t think it’s possible for ordinary bright students who are motivated mainly by how the job market looks today can do well in selective premed or CS programs, let alone cope with the stress of being a coder on a killer deadline or a young doctor in a ward full of dying COVID patients.

If bright kids genuinely love both computers and medicine, then they should probably consider majoring in something like biostatistics or bioengineering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I imagine majoring in CS and taking all the premed requirements while keeping your GPA high is not an easy task.
CS is a difficult and time consuming major. Premed courses can also be difficult and time consuming (with lab requirements).
Maybe it is doable as some requirements overlap such as math and physics. I would be wary about suggesting the premed/CS combination unlike some posters here who are breezily saying just do both. I bet most posters here could never handle it themselves

Agree.
In addition you have to keep very high GPA for medical school.

+1000. Most of the folks commenting on this thread would not know a lab science if it bit them in the a**. Not only do you have to pass these lab science classes but you need a very high grade. At a lot of schools a course like OChem is going to be a weed out course for med school wannabes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are two startling different in the end when it comes to a person’s profession. Pick your passion obviously.

+1 In other words, a really stupid question. These fields are so different.

There are no stupid questions.

But there are stupid comments, and yours is one of them.

Anonymous wrote:These are two startling different in the end when it comes to a person’s profession. Pick your passion obviously.

+1 In other words, a really stupid question. These fields are so different.

These are two startling different in the end when it comes to a person’s profession. Pick your passion obviously.

My nephew wanted to be a doctor since KG, went on pre-med track (BS/MD) and majored in CS out of curiosity. He fell in love with CompSci and realized medicine was more of a dream his parents had for him. He left his BS/MD option, went to MIT and never looked back.

Anonymous wrote:Pro and Con between the two.
I know there is no Pre med major.

Pre-med track and CS major, if she is into it, otherwise whatever she prefers.

Anonymous wrote:I imagine majoring in CS and taking all the premed requirements while keeping your GPA high is not an easy task.
CS is a difficult and time consuming major. Premed courses can also be difficult and time consuming (with lab requirements).
Maybe it is doable as some requirements overlap such as math and physics. I would be wary about suggesting the premed/CS combination unlike some posters here who are breezily saying just do both. I bet most posters here could never handle it themselves

Agree.
In addition you have to keep very high GPA for medical school.

I imagine majoring in CS and taking all the premed requirements while keeping your GPA high is not an easy task.
CS is a difficult and time consuming major. Premed courses can also be difficult and time consuming (with lab requirements).
Maybe it is doable as some requirements overlap such as math and physics. I would be wary about suggesting the premed/CS combination unlike some posters here who are breezily saying just do both. I bet most posters here could never handle it themselves

Anonymous wrote:CS and premed are not mutually exclusive. DC can do both.

Seriously. Do the CS major and take the medical school prerequisites. Decide after some exposure to both.

Besides calc, which is also a requirement for CS, your kid should take one year of biology with labs, freshman chemistry and organic chemistry with labs, and one year of physics with labs. , and related lab work for each. For bio, both semesters of anatomy and physiology and/or microbiology is useful.

Anonymous wrote:Pursuing MD is a long and expensive path best reserved for those convinced that is their calling. The doctors that I know complain about a lot of frustrations but wouldn’t want to do anything else.

^ this ^

Medicine is a calling.

DD doubled majored in CS and Biology since she couldn't decided. She finally made her decision 3rd year and went full speed toward CS with summer interns with tech cos. She's been working for Amazon since graduation 2 years ago.

My son majored in a discipline suitable for pre-med, and changed course around his junior year after struggling with some particularly challenging science classes. He then decided to minor in CS and readily obtained very well compensated related employment upon graduation. His employer provides additional CS training as part of their career development program. His earnings potential as a software engineer is substantial, he enjoys a good work-life balance, and he has employment security because his skills are in great demand.

As is true across many fields, you do have to be genuinely competent to have the best outcomes. It also helps in the CS arena if you have business acumen and good people skills in addition to technical abilities, as many people with IT skills are limited in their potential to advance very far professionally because of their lack of business-relevant non-technical skills. Even so, it's possible for capable technical individual contributors without management potential or interest to still enjoy good remuneration.

Anonymous wrote:Very different. CS is a better path in terms of opportunity cost. My friend graduating from med school is making 60k this June starting residency and has to face horrible working conditions for the next four years at least. Her younger brother in CS just bought a 800k house- so yea

^this