Which profession do you think more people should go for: medicine or?
Both medical doctor and biomedical engineer can be rewarding careers, but there is one answer to which is better. The answer to your question depends on what aspects of your career you value most, and what your end goals are (money, work-life balance, impact, notoriety, etc). Do your research, take internships, and make a career choice that suits you. Medical doctors directly impact patients, one at a time, through their work. Many medical doctors also do clinical research, and can reach a broader audience and achieve greater impact through publication in medical journals. Medical careers require advanced schooling, depending on the specialty, except for nursing, which requires only a bachelors degree in nursing with nursing certification thereafter. Biomedical engineers tackle medical problems through their research, but their work is one or more steps removed from patients. Even the most translatable research still needs to be verified in preclinical studies before proceeding to clinical trials. Biomedical engineers can achieve impact in their careers through publications and products, but it takes an immense amount of time and money to advance biomedical engineering research to the clinic where they can be applied to patients. Biomedical engineers can work in industry with a bachelors degree, but a masters degree or PhD helps gain independence and supervisory responsibilities, and a PhD is more or less necessary to run a research program in any sector of the economy. Economically, a medical doctor earns far more than a biomedical engineer, and the job market for medical doctors will always be stronger than the same for biomedical engineers. Biomedical engineeer is a relatively new job title, and while job growth is strong for biomedical engineers, the number of total jobs pales in comparison to jobs in medicine. Research, engineering, and medicine all involve some degree of problem solving, so in this regard, both careers (biomedical engineer and medical doctor) are similar in their requirements. The hours of a medical doctor will probably be more oppressive than a career as a biomedical engineer, although academic careers can be very demanding in terms of time and effort. Overall, the work-life balance is probably equivalent, slightly favoring the biomedical engineers working in industry (which is by and large a 95 job). The above is not a complete portrait, but it can hopefully help you figure out what is important to you, and empower you to choose a career path that suits your interests and value system.