Who's smarter: doctors or engineers?

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QueHuong

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Nov 21, 2001
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I KNOW, intelligence involves many, many different aspects of cognitive abilities and it's hard to say who's actually smarter, not to mention it varies on a case-by-case basis. Don't go anal retentive on me, but basically, my question is based on the difficulty of the undergraduate engineering curriculum vs the medical school curriculum and what kind of skills each person gain from their education.

Personally, I truly believe engineers are smarter because they have to take so many physics and math courses that requires and develops superior analytical thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, and other types of mental abilities. Those skills coupled with the engineering mentality that every problem has a solution leads me to conclude engineers are smarter than doctors.

As for doctors, I'm sure they're smart as hell, but the main skill they develop seems to be learning and memorizing a buttload of stuff and recalling those knowledge, which I don't think is as nearly as impressive as the engineers who have to learn a little of different things and apply the knowledge to complex problems.

I'm a premed doing biomedical engineering partly because I want the edge over the other medical students who did biology or english for their undergrad. What other advantages other than analytical thinking do you think engineering majors med school students have over non-engineering major med school students?

I got into a little argument with my then girlfriend over engineers vs doctors; she says doctors are smarter. I told her I would probably be prouder of my engineering education than my medical education. So what do you guys think? Of course, AT is a technical community so I'm guessing they think more highly of engineers than doctors.
 
UglyCasanova

UglyCasanova

Lifer
Mar 25, 2001
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I don't think that either one is smarter, they are just trained differently to perform whatever it is they are to perform.
 
her209

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
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Engineers are smarter. Not only do they have to know the computer science and engineering aspect, they have to know the aspect in which they work in.
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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i know engineers that couldn't figure their way out of a paper bag unless it was some sort of equation so i'm going to have to go with doctors.
 
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BMdoobieW

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 2000
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Engineers are smarter because they finish school in only 4 years, then they get to get paid to have fun.
 
Y

Yomicron

Golden Member
Mar 5, 2002
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I saw a show that went over almost this same topic.

Its odd that in the US, doctors are generally made up of the very top of the high school class, with Engineers coming up second. While in most other countries it is reversed, engineers are considered to be the best of the best.
 
Q

quirky

Senior member
Jun 25, 2002
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Originally posted by: BMdoobieW
Engineers are smarter because they finish school in only 4 years, then they get to get paid to have fun.
Click to expand...

a senior engineer once told me that 85% of engineers hate their jobs.
 
C

chiwawa626

Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
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heh intresting thread since ever since i was little, being the typical indian kid, my parents always gave me the proposition to be a doctor or an engineerr...nothing else...heh...well since ive fainted at the sight of blood a few times (true nerd at heart) Im going for engineering :)
 
Q

QTPie

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2001
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My engineering professor, who is a principle engineer at a big company - used to be a pharmacist, once disccussed about this issue. According to him, engineers are more creative. Things that they're working on are changing all the time whereas doctors only work on a human body which have not been changing for hundreds if not thousands years. He said that we hadn't had more bones and our body parts hadn't changed their functions, so that the body was like a fix object for doctors to study and work on. (hehe :p) But in the technical world, everything was changing from time to time which was stuffer for engineers.
So you should be proud to be/will be an engineer!
 
M

MonkOnXanax

Senior member
Feb 10, 2002
333
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i'd say engineers.

engineers think logically and creatively, whereas doctors seem to work from memory.

do you think that doctors would've been able to create all those nifty gadgets and electronics that they use w/o engineers?
 
K

kherman

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2002
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IMHO, engineers are better at applyting knowledge where doctors are more book smart. Two diferent kinds of smart, but since I'm an engineer, Iwnt with engineers :)
 
DanTMWTMP

DanTMWTMP

Lifer
Oct 7, 2001
15,908
19
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of course engineers will win this one in ATOT...but docs go through a whoole mess of work...they have to be super determined w/ super good work ethtic...

for engineers..i'm doing a dumb allnighter playing CS and doing some hw...aha...

i voted for engineers btw cuz i wanna be one! goo EE's!!!

well, we need the docs to cure cancer and the engineers to make them biuldings and spaceships and all...
 
C

Codewiz

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2002
5,758
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I would say on average Doctors are FAR MORE intelligent. Even though I think this thread is pretty stupid. The reason I say that is because how many times have you seen engineer's developments fail? Bridges failing, poorly designed highways, etc......

Then look at doctors. Although there are a good amount of malpractice lawsuits I think for the most part doctors get it right.

Also engineers get lots of time for the design on their projects. Doctors have a split second to make good decisions. They don't have peer advice at their time of need. If an engineer finds a flaw in their logic they can just go change it.

I have a lot of friends that are engineers that I am SO happy they didn't go into the medical field. I also have some friends that are becoming MDs and I would be confident with them fixing me :)

The crazy thing about this thread is the fact that both professions have SO MUCH control over the life and death of people. Engineers can cause mass death and doctors can kill on a daily basis.
 
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