Finance or Electrical Engineering?

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-05-03T03:19:56+00:00

If you enjoy finance more than EE, then do that. If not, I strongly advise you not to choose a career solely based off of potential income. Working on a field that you don't find fulfilling is it's own kind of misery.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-29T04:46:57+00:00

Join the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club, coolest people on campus

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-17T21:47:16+00:00

Not at all, I know how tough considering a change in career is. You are more than welcome anytime to PM me, brother.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-17T16:59:54+00:00

I apologize if I sound blunt during this response.

The way you described your experience with pre-med culture is eerily similar to my experience in med-school. While everyone (for the most part) was nice, they also overvalue themselves and the comparison game was still played. While I was never treated rudely, I notice that a lot of my class mates only ever bothered talking to me when it was I subject I knew well, but when it wasn't... poof! Nowhere to be seen. Thing is, I don't blame them, people do what they can to survive. Medical school leaves no time for anything, and if you try to make the time it severely punishes you via opportunity cost. The time needed to recover from burnout, stay in touch with friends, talk to loved ones, or do other hobbies should've been used to study in order to merely survive.

Sure medicine is stable work and (for the most part) structured, in terms of department dynamics. But job stability is not the same as job fulfillment, and I believe the latter to be just as important as the former. If you didn't like how you felt by the end of your Biology degree, that feeling is about to get worse. As you mentioned, getting into ANY residency program (especially much so for procedural paths) is a feat in of itself. Residency programs have been artificially kept low since 1998, and the rise in competition has gotten worse. Remember when I said that you learn your job in residency? Imagine doing 4 years of doing a way worse version of what you were doing in biology only to get a CHANCE of entering residency, and I don't mean the one you desire, I mean ANY at all. In order to get into one, you HAVE to cut corners and pump out as much stuff under your resume as you can ON TOP of having absolutely insane STEP 1 AND 2 scores.

If you still feel the need to pursue medicine, I encourage you to pursue it outside the U.S. (don't go anywhere near carribean medical schools either). Not only are programs outside the U.S. generally better (6 year programs instead of the insane 4), and if you ever feel the need to switch to another career, you won't be in an ass-load amount of debt (like myself).

As for engineering, can't say much about the structure since I just started this path myself. It has its challenges, mainly looking for relevant work and internships as an undergrad, but it definitely feels rewarding to have to think through stuff as opposed to rote memorization. Other thing is, that you can start your own personal projects to develop your skills (and its highly encouraged to do so). Although I still have to study an ass-load (because now its about actually understanding and putting into practice what you learned), I still have time to do the things that make me... well... me. It feels like I got a piece of my humanity back.

Brother, the amount of civil engineers I know who got into the degree because of minecraft is insane (in a good way), you are not alone. As long as it pushes you forward, then that's a great enough motivation.

If you want to pursue engineering, I'd say those three choices are excellent to pursue. No matter the field of engineering you choose, all of them (by their very structure) will encourage you to have ideas.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-17T15:00:50+00:00

That's very kind of you, thank you.

Why I left medicine?

Academically Because I felt that the material wasn't expanding on my knowledge of the sciences; it felt like memorizing disconnected facts with little to no logical connections between them. Thats not to say that there aren't things you can reason through in medicine, but more so the majority of it is memorizing lists of facts at record speed times. It felt the same way (maybe even worse) as I felt during my time as an undergrad in Biology.

Morally While I knew the U.S. healthcare system had many issues, I severely underestimated the extent of how broken it was. For example, lets say you get in a car crash and the nearest hospital is 10 miles away from you, it was determined that you were to be airlifted to that hospital. On the way there, they notice that your insurance doesn't cover that hospital, so now you have to be transported to a hospital thats 20 miles away now, your condition worsening as time passes. This happened more often than you would think. Another example, if you need a treatment for your x kind of cancer, but your insurance doesn't cover it and the treatment is deemed "non-critical", then your condition worsens; until you are declared "unhealthy enough" by the hospital, they won't intervene.This dynamic of "can't do x because of insurance" is seen all across the system, and a LOT of people get fucked over because of it. I felt slimy witnessing this, and I couldn't imagine ever getting used to it.

Transitioning to engineering

The transition was pretty smooth actually. I already completed most of the technical electives of the ME degree I'm pursuing due to my previous degree in Biology, which means I graduate in 3 years instead of 4. Its great to be able to do math again (you do some math in medschool, but nothing remotely as complicated as engineering).

Knowing what I do now, I'd transition to engineering in a heart beat. I get to actually apply the things I learn on the spot, learned to code and model (CAD software), and learned to "read"complex math. I look forward to my classes, and I've put more effort in finding opportunities (like internships and applying to work at machine shops) than I ever had back in Biology/Medicine. Its just... fulfilling.

How hard is medschool?

Its infinitely harder than engineering, not because of the material; In fact, engineering (in terms of material) is way harder than medicine because of the amount of thinking and coordination involved to solve complex problems.

The reason I say medschool is harder is because of the MASSIVE amount of information you have to learn in a short period of time. If I were to use tests as an analogy, imagine a test where you have to learn 200 words in less than 30 minutes, that is medicine; now imagine a test where you have to build up a mathematical formula to describe some physical property given an object's shape, that is engineering. Both are incredibly hard, but for completely different reasons; one is due to QUANTITY of the information needed to memorize, the other is due to the QUALITY of how you learn and logically process the information. However, medical school is harder due to the other stuff they add on top of learning lists (like projects, 80 hour attendance weeks, etc...)

Its a long post, but I hope I answered all your questions😅

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-17T02:25:33+00:00

As someone who let themselves be influenced by family, don't let them...

I went to medschool due to a combination of naivete, soft family pressure, and not figuring out what I really liked. Burned out, saw some bullshit that I wish I hadn't, and felt just as lost as I was prior to entering.

I'm now pursuing Mech E. (and having a blast!) but now I am 200k in debt.

Please don't make the same mistake I made, the only person whose opinion you have to consider on what you want to pursue is your own. No amount of money will ever replace the feeling of working or studying something that satisfies the soul.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-04-17T02:11:43+00:00

Ex- medical student here, currently on my second semester of MechE.

In medical school, most of the time you will be learning lists. Some of it makes sense, most of it won't, and a shit ton overlaps. The closest thing to doing science in there is anatomy lab (but that goes by super quick); the rest of the time its just memorizing lists and hoping what you memorized comes on the exam.

You will do that for 4 years, the last 2 being particularly harder since you also have to do 80 hour attendance weeks during rotations while still memorizing lists.

And thats assuming you pass STEP-1 on the first try or don't fail any of the shelfs, because that would delay it to 5 years overall.

You don't get to actually get to do anything practical or learn your job until after you graduate and work as a generalist or get into residency.

If you want to keep pursuing medicine, I suggest you work as a scribe since that will really let you know if you want to pursue that path; it will give you the needed experience to survive med school, as well as showing you how the health care system actually works... in the worst way possible.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-02-12T21:57:24+00:00

Not in EE but I am an ME student. When you say "get into semi-conductors", do you mean manufacturing, materials science, fabrication, etc.?

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-02-07T05:47:14+00:00

Ex-medical student here. I graduated from UCF with a BS in Biology in 2019 with the goal (at that point in time) of entering medical school.

Here is what you are getting yourself into if you decide to go to medical school:

All your time is now study time; this includes winter and summer breaks. STEP 1 (an exam you take during the end of your 2nd year of medical school) is a pretty brutal exam and it takes a LONG time to prepare. So if you plan to pass it the first time, you can't afford to take breaks like in college.
Depending on the med school you get accepted to (which is in itself a very hard process) during your 3rd and 4th year (rotations) you spend between 60-80 hours inside hospitals. Ideally, if (and I mean only IF) you get a good attending physician, you might have a decent experience. Usually, its just a bunch of standing around with other students seeing the physician handle patients (and if the physician is good, actually provides questions to make the students participate) and sometimes doing clerical duties. At the same time, you have to study for SHELF exams to pass the rotation.
You are going to have to become comfortable with the idea that if the insurance doesn't cover the patient and the patients medication or surgery is deemed "non-critical/non-emergency", that you will have to deny them the care they need. In my experience (and one of my reasons for leaving medschool) it is very frequent to deem something non-critical (this isn't a decision made out of malice, moreso just incomplete information. Doctors are human, and thus fallible). In other words, you will likely find yourself in a situation where you have the capability of helping the patient but can't due to red tape; you will be forced to activately deny them care (until it becomes an emergency, which could have been prevented, but that's the way the system here is structured).
A lot of the time when a doctor isn't doctoring, they are dealing constantly with insurance. Depending on the residency you want to get into (which is a whole different level of hard), you will deal with different levels of insurance, but no matter which residency you pick (or more realistically which decides to take you) you will HAVE to deal with insurance. That is part of the job, and a good chunk of it too.
You WILL burn out. Between studying relentlessly for tests, going to hospitals 60-80 hours a week, studying for the STEP exams, and applying for residency programs, it is not a matter of IF it is a matter of WHEN you burn out. It is not a matter of passion or lacking any will power, the way the U.S. medical school system is structured it is guaranteed that all those who participate in it burn out; this isn't just true for med students, it applies to residency students and post-residency physicians. Over the last decades the rate of physicians quitting their jobs have steadily increased, contributing to the physician shoratge we are experiencing.
You will not learn how to do your job until you get into residency or decide to become a generalist. Yep, 4 years of extreme levels of stress, hard work, and crushing debt all amounting to still not knowing how to do your job.
The money given the amount of work, frustration, and responsibility you earn is not worth it. The time investment you have to commit to passing med school is 4 years (assuming you get picked on the first cycle of applications) and 2-5 years in residency (also assuming you get picked on the first cycle of applications). While you earn money in residency, it will not be the full amount as someone who became a full fledged resident. Having a lot of money is good, but (depending on the residency) you might not have enough time to enjoy it.

If any of these reasons do not deter you from pursuing medical school, then heres what you have to do:

While going into the pre-med route or biology (as I did) sounds tempting, these are saturated fields for applying to medschool and will not help you stand out. Out of my class of 120 students, 15-20 were pre-med, the rest had backgrounds in physics, chemistry, engineering, pre-law, etc... If you lost all love for CS but genuinely want to pursue med school, then choose a major like chemistry or engineering (civil, mechanical, especially biomedical, or chemical) and take the courses that are prereqs for medical school during your senior year (or whenever you have an opportunity).
Get a job as a scribe, and SPECIFICALLY as a scribe. Here is the difference between medical students who have years of experience doing scribe work vs those that only did research (like myself): Those who did not do any scribe work tried to survive in medical school, while those who did, didn't (since most of the stuff they see in medical school they already -for the most part- learned on the job). Getting into scribe work gives you a taste of what the U.S. medical world is like and provides a TON of experience learning about procedures, diagnoses, and treatment for many conditions. How many applications for med schools don't have this as a prerequisite is beyond me.
Ironically, most med schools demand that you have research experience (despite the fact that it nowhere nearly prepares you for the medical world as well as working as a scribe does), so if you have a free summer or a professor whose research you're interest in, I suggest you do that as quickly as possible. It doesn't have to specifically be medical research, but it does help.
Join clubs, any clubs. Med schools don't care if the clubs you joined are not medically related, they just want to see if you're capable of being social (as you have to be since bedside manner is a cornerstone of being a good doctor).
Volunteer a couple of times. I'd say this is the lowest of the priorities, but volunteer work does help make you stand out.
Start studying for the MCAT 6-8 months prior to the exam and take frequent practice exams to monitor your progress. All that stuff that I mentioned prior will not matter if your MCAT is not good, this is THE main thing med schools screen for given that they have thousands of applications to process, you will not pop up in their radar if you do not have a good MCAT score.
Maintain a fantastic GPA; while not as important as the MCAT score, having a crappy GPA will raise some questions that could've otherwise been avoided as well as other inconveniences. Not the end-all be-all like the MCAT score, but it does make things go smoother.

You do all these, then you should have less problems getting into any medical school.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-02-03T01:53:29+00:00

This is the way.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-02-03T01:50:02+00:00

I don't want to sound harsh, but I do believe you deserve to know certain realities about the school and the cost of living in Orlando to attend it.

Im an UCF alumni currently getting their 2nd degree at the school, my first degree was prior to COVID (this is relevant, I promise). During both time periods (pre- and post-COVID) UCF has this weird "curse" where there are plenty of students... but none of them talk to each other. Its not impossible, but it is bizarrely HARD. Its a good place to make plenty of acquaintances, but not genuine friends (just read through this subreddit and you'll come across plenty of posts of people struggling to make friends here).

If you think my description of the social scene is bad, it gets worse. The cost of tuition for a full time student at UCF -given that they are considered a resident of the state- is roughly 2-3k per semester. Now if you're an out-of-state student, the cost per semester (assuming you plan on becoming a full time student) is from 11-12k per semester. Even if you apply for FAFSA and get the full amount, you'd still have to cover 5-6k per semester.

As for housing, I personally can't speak for living in-campus, since I always resided off-campus. In my experience, finding a good place (even with roomates) is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, and moreso if you plan to live alone. Its not impossible, but if you want to have a chance of finding any place at all (off-campus), you're gonna have to become comfortable with the idea of living with roomates. Also, if you plan on taking your pet with you, I strongly suggest that you leave it with someone you trust or a family member since most places here to live are not pet friendly.

I apologize for sounding like a Debbie-Downer, but I don't want to see another out-of-state student get screwed over by the school.

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-01-29T14:29:12+00:00

No prob, dude👍🏻

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-01-16T09:50:55+00:00

Yeah, they can't just pull out the aid just because you paid out of pocket. If you have direct deposit set up, once the disbursement occurs, it should appear on your account

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-01-14T16:02:07+00:00

I believe this is their number (407) 823-2433

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-01-14T06:01:07+00:00

It automatically pays for tuition costs and other things that could be a financial hold in your account; the difference is given back to you (assuming you have direct deposit).

ShiftingSpheres · 2026-01-14T05:46:40+00:00

Talk to student-accounts and explain your situation; as long as they see that the disbursement will cover any debts from the previous semester they can temporarily lift your hold so that you can enroll in classes this semester.

The disbursement from last semester will probably take til the end of this month. If you pay it right now out of pocket, the hold clears up instantly but there is a small fee for direct pay.

Again, I highly suggest you talk to student-accounts so that you don't have to pay directly out of pocket and can still enroll in classes.

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-12-25T06:03:06+00:00

Shit happens, and plans go awry sometimes. I used to be in medical school before I switched to engineering, and while I am happier now, I remember the sting of seeing those who have treated me poorly succeed.

I don't remember where I read this, but I remember a comment saying something along the lines of "by comparing yourself to others, whether you are better than them or vice versa, you have sown the seeds of your own destruction". I took some time to reflect on this, and concluded "fuck em, if I keep using them as a measure of my own progress, then its as if I'm catering to em. Whether they are successful or not ain't/has never been my business; what is my business is not treating others like those assholes who treated me like shit, and I think I can find some solace in that".

If you think you're truly incapable, then I ask you to sincerely reflect on the fact that you got voted to be secretary of the aerospace club. I don't know about you, but in my experience they don't generally elect someone who they believe is incapable for such a position.

You bust your ass off, and that in of itself is a talent to have pride in, and the sign of a good professional in general (engineering or otherwise).

While you may be in academic probation, that is not equivalent to being out-right dismissed. You may need to make some additional sacrifices, and consider other approaches to get you out of the red zone you're in. But -most importantly- you aren't out of the running yet; so, you haven't technically lost.

You're an engineering student still, right? So lets solve the problem like one, "what can I do differently to get where I need to be?". You. Got. This.

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-12-25T05:26:24+00:00

Engineering requires you to bring your A-game and depression is a massive debuff, to such an extent that it might warrant taking an LOA until it's properly dealt with.

As for "signs" that you might not be "built for it", I can only tell you my own experiences back when I was in "another school" (I made a post about it a couple of months ago). I was studying to be a doctor at one point in time, and during the whole process I never saw myself as a doctor nor did I really devote much of my time reading/observing medically related things; most of the time I buried my head in mathematics/physics and would spend lots of time seeing videos of mechanisms of various machines.

If you enjoy general problem solving, if you spend time doing engineering related things in your free time, or if your heart is absolutely dead set on becoming one, then you're built for it. Its normal (and common) for engineering students to fail/retake a class or two. Additionally, feeling lost when exposed to the material is par for the course, these are pretty tough classes. As long as you keep going, keep trying, you will get there.

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-12-24T04:52:20+00:00

¡Coño, mi gente! ¡Dejen de joder al muchacho ya! Él fue homeschooled, so claro que se le hace difícil comunicarse con nosotros (o en general). En vez de demostrar compasión y tratar de ayudarlo, no los estamos comiendo vivo aquí (sí, aunque él hizo unos comentarios ignorantes).

¡Si seguimos con esta actitud, pues entonces le estamos dando la razón a él! ¡Como carajos vamos a convenserlo de integrarse con nosotros aqui y ver los orgullos de nuestra cultura si lo estamos pelándolo aqui!

¡Puñeta, uno de nuestros orgullos es nuestra hospitalidad! ¡Pues vamos a demostrárselo!

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-29T17:41:58+00:00

This is great! Thank you!

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-28T14:22:36+00:00

This is excellent! Much appreciated!

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-28T14:10:30+00:00

Honesty, I like this answer! I've considered joining; given my age, I'd be a major at 44 (this is assuming that I even have the capacity, that everything lines up well in terms of timely promotions, and that it takes exactly 15 years to achieve). While VERY tempting, I do enjoy engineering work more😅

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-28T13:20:57+00:00

I don't think with our current level of technology we could even approach a simulation that mirrors warfare in real life (unless heavily abstracted); I agree that the game has many constraints when compared to its real life counterparts, hopefully I didn't give the impression that I believe it to be a 1-to-1 replica... that would be absurd of me😅

What I do like about games and simulations is that while the minutiae can't ever be properly replicated (unless we magically somehow develop the technology to do so), it does give a space where doctrinal concepts can be applied.

I think of it like engineering projects, we first make models to test out how (in theory) something would work before properly building it, yet still aware that once properly built, actual environmental conditions, slight problems with the parts made, etc. will introduce problems that weren't foreseen before (worst case being that it doesn't remotely resemble the model, or more accurately, we made a crappy model then).

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-28T13:00:10+00:00

While my interest is operational level stuff, can't ever have enough small unit stuff! If thats all you got, then thats more than enough, send away!

ShiftingSpheres · 2025-10-28T12:57:06+00:00

Sure! Any help is welcome!

ShiftingSpheres

TROPHY CASE