Recently I’ve begun thinking about my opportunities to go to grad school, and what I can do with my engineering degree once I graduate from USC. While I’m still only a junior, most students take tests like LSATs/MCATs their junior year, and really start planning for grad school at the end of the year. I still don’t know what I absolutely want to do, but fortunately I’ve got options!
One thing I’ve considered is going to Law school. It’s pretty common for engineers to go into law to practice patent law, since it requires a strong science background. Many of my friends are considering this route, and it definitely seems interesting to me. I used to think that I was definitively going to go to law school, but I’ve started to look at other options as well.
The second is, coming from a family of doctors, going to Med school. I never really thought I’d want to go to med school until recently. And although I’m not studying biomedical engineering, all kinds of engineering show recruiters critical thinking skills, and pre-med courses are something I could make up in only 1 extra year or even semester of undergraduate work.
Lastly, I’m strongly considering doing a master either at USC with the PDP (progressive degree program), or applying out to other schools. The great thing about USC’s PDP program is that you can do it in only 1 year because advisers look at your schedule and see what undergraduate course work you have completed so that there are no redundancies in graduate coursework. It’s not something you need to worry about when applying to USC for undergrad, but it’s nice to know it’s there.
As for now, I’m just thankful that my engineering degree from USC will provide me with a lot of great options in the future!
