Ok so I'm not sure if medicine is right for me so I was wondering say I get accepted to MIT what would a PhD in Aerospace Engineering get me. I love the idea of going to school that long but is the engineering field just a phase? Also I do not want to get a education job I would like to actually be an engineer for a firm or the U.S. military. Would a PhD get me a better position or would I be neck and neck with the BS guys?
Maybe I can help. My sister went to MIT and studied Aerospace. Not gonna lie- it was cool for me to watch her do her thing (I'd be calling her, telling her how hard my cell bio test was and meanwhile I'd hear someone in the back screaming in Japanese and hear a lot of hammering of metal, then she'd tell me that she was building an engine for a Mars Rover and she had to go...made my messing around with orgo models look like I was playing tetris). She got to meet Stephen Pinker, one of her professors had to be flown into the Pentagon once while she was in class, and she learned sound physics from Bose himself.
Basically, if you're a science nerd, MIT is the way to go.
It's also hell. I know you think you can take it, you're probably the smartest kid in your class and all that. So is everyone there. They're not like many of the Ivies who take more fluffy, artistic types. These people will all be intelligent in the exact same way you're intelligent. It's daunting, and terrifying, and really really really humbling. I can tell you that my sister got such a high grade in her final exams in high school that she was congratulated by the mayor of our city (he sent her a letter), she got a 1600 on the sat the first time she took them...anyways, she's kind of a beast. And yet the first year of MIT she was absolutely dying from being overworked and so stressed. Anyways, that's my cautionary tale against MIT: you better be ready.
Incidentally, funny story: she was given a ring with the MIT mascot at matriculation, and told to wear it with the head of the beaver (yup, mascot is the beaver...they build things, dontcha know) facing her throughout the four years and then flip it around at graduation. I asked her why that is, and she said that the tradition is that through the four years, it's MIT against you. After that, it's you and MIT against the world. Think about the first part- they literally will fight against you. No hand-holding. It's intense.
As for aerospace, I know she really liked it, got to spend some summers at NASA, introduced me to Buzz Aldrin, that kind of thing. But I'm pretty sure that the PhD would be fairly useless. The only people I know who are doing the PhD thing for aero/astro are the ones who probably want to go back into academia, or are at least leaving the option open.
Anyways, those are my 2 cents. Good luck with MIT if you choose to go there! Go beavers!
). On the whole, it would be hard to say that going to MIT gives you a big leg up in the med school application process and bad grades are bad grades anywhere, so you'll have to work very hard to get the grades at MIT, especially in engineering.
