Biomedical ENG vs Biology Major

[Storm9]

Hello, I am going to be going to UIC this fall and currently my major is Biomedical engineering. I want to got to medical school after that.

And i am wondering how much advantage BME would be over Biology major. I am not even sure if i wil able to handle BME, its a hard major and will be useless if i am just gonna go straight to med school.


With Bio major i might even be able to graduate early by takeing a few classes over summer.

What do you guys suggest? Is it worth it to do BME or not?

Thanks

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[Zuerst]

Can't speak specifically for BME but in my case, I think it is worth it doing EE premed. It is just fun to learn more stuff and be able to see things in different perspectives. BME at my university have many overlaps with EE (BME was part of EE just a couple years ago before the spinoff), BME have more overlap with premed prerequites though.

 

[Mixtli]

BME is like taking a 3 point shot. Its harder to make than a regular field goal, but if you make it, you get a better score in the eyes of the adcom. If you don't do well in the basic math and physic classes, then that is cue to jump off the sinking boat.

 

[Robizzle]

there's about 20 million of these posts..

if you're interested in the topic of biomedical engineering, go for it. maybe you'll find out you don't even wana be a doctor and want to pursue engineering. it's a great field.

in my opinion, BME is way more difficult/different than regular bio. bio you'll be pounding facts into your head and memorizing with flash cards and highlighting your textbooks day and night and reading til' your eyes fall out. if you're really good at that, then bless you because i suck at it so far.

BME you work with numbers, you work with signals, with functions and matrices, but it's cool because all this math actually means something, finally. i didn't have to open a single textbook this semester for my classes - no joke. BME is an assload more homework and pencil and paper math than bio.

about 90% of the kids you see on this site who are BME somehow have GPA's of like 3.8+. This, to me, is amazing. And I congratulate all of you. But don't think this is how everyone who does BME is. The "average" in my class is probably like a 2.5-2.7.

You do not need to be a genius to achieve this, but if you DONT WORK HARD, you will indeed fail biomedical engineering. if you don't work hard in something like bio, you can always depend on multiple choice guessing and common sense and things of that nature. obviously, this is not enough to achieve a great grade either but i'm sayin' you probably have less chance of failing.

all that being said, in my opinion (atleast this is how BU is), being a bio major will tell you lots more facts about what things actually do, while BME will teach you more about HOW THEY DO IT.


if you want an "easy" way to get through college as a premed, do psychology.

 

[SemperJeff]

Hello, I am going to be going to UIC this fall and currently my major is Biomedical engineering. I want to got to medical school after that.

And i am wondering how much advantage BME would be over Biology major. I am not even sure if i wil able to handle BME, its a hard major and will be useless if i am just gonna go straight to med school.


With Bio major i might even be able to graduate early by takeing a few classes over summer.

What do you guys suggest? Is it worth it to do BME or not?

Thanks

I'll offer the same advice I gave on another thread about engineering. Pick a major based on your interest, not on which will give you a better chance at making it into medical school.

By the end of this week I will have completed a Bioengineering major. Why not straight Biology? Because I am interested in technology and was not interested in studying about plants and animals (non-human).

Four years in a major you hate is not worth it...

 

[TheFreshPrince]

I'll offer the same advice I gave on another thread about engineering. Pick a major based on your interest, not on which will give you a better chance at making it into medical school.

By the end of this week I will have completed a Bioengineering major. Why not straight Biology? Because I am interested in technology and was not interested in studying about plants and animals (non-human).

Four years in a major you hate is not worth it...

bioe if you're interested and willing to work hard.

 

[jojocola]

Hello, I am going to be going to UIC this fall and currently my major is Biomedical engineering. I want to got to medical school after that.

And i am wondering how much advantage BME would be over Biology major. I am not even sure if i wil able to handle BME, its a hard major and will be useless if i am just gonna go straight to med school.


With Bio major i might even be able to graduate early by takeing a few classes over summer.

What do you guys suggest? Is it worth it to do BME or not?

Thanks

BIOeng sounds pretty interesting!!

 

[zxcv1234]

If you love math, go ahead and do BME - if not you will hate your life

 

[jojocola]

Whats the major that has to do with bio physics... is it.. biophysics? heh

 

[-Goose-]

BME is like taking a 3 point shot. Its harder to make than a regular field goal, but if you make it, you get a better score in the eyes of the adcom. If you don't do well in the basic math and physic classes, then that is cue to jump off the sinking boat.

I TOTALLY agree with this, BME is definitely harder, but worth it in the long run.

 

[gujuDoc]

Go with the major that interests you most and you feel you will do well in.

If you work hard and do well in BME, it will be better because it won't be the typical premed major of bio. It will teach you think analytically and critically and make you really work it so that you will understand things and not just try to memorize facts as are the cases at some university bio degree programs.

I'd personally recommend engineering if you think you can handle it, but be warned that it is one of the hardest programs in a university when compared to college of arts and sciences or liberal arts sort of stuff.

 

[roca88]

.

 

[DrBowtie]

Bio...Everyone else is doing it! 🙄

 

[SeventhSon]

one other aspect i'd bring up is future mcat preparation.

at my school (and i think most schools), being a bio major will in itself force you to take a lot of the courses that are excellent for MCAT preparation--2 of the best were biochemistry and genetics for me. i remember on mcat day, exactly 4 passages were straight from exams i had taken in those courses. it also made the MCAT studying itself a lot easier.

i'm not familiar with the coursework for bioe, but i assume you'd have to add these types of courses on top of doing that major. i'm also not sure if the bioe courses themselves would help with the MCAT preparation.

just another thing to think about.

In the same spirit, let me add that engineering makes you an absolute monster on the PS section of the MCAT though. I'm pretty confident that I didn't miss a single question in the PS. That being said, I had to struggle to bring my BS score up... my first practice test i got a 7 in BS. By the way, I was chemical engineering, so I hadnt taken any upper-division bio by the time i took the MCAT, and it showed.

I loved engineering. It makes you look at everything on a different, more interesting level, especialyl when i did end up taking some upper division bio courses. The trade-off is that amount of $hit you have to put up with.

Finally let me add that what you put in is what you get out. I have worked amazingly hard and but there are people in my classes who know absolutely nothing but are still passed because our department doesn't want to see them next year. In my opinion should not be graduating with my degree. If you aren't going to put the work in, then BME has no advantage over a bio degree.

 

[Bluntman]

Another point that nobody has directly touched on yet: People seem to be naturally wired either more towards engineering or tradional bio. Find out which one you are and go with it.

I did degrees in both bioeng and molecular bio, and for me the engineering was much easier. While the problem solving and design skills needed for the eng degree seemed like second nature to me, metabolic biochem made me want to fvcking kill myself.

This ties into the whole "do what you enjoy" idea, but in addition, if you're going into engineering, make damn well sure your mind is wired for it. Cause a brute-force stereotypical "bio" approach will definitely fail.