After doing some research I am on the edge of changing my major from Biology to Biomedical Engineering, which works out well because of my passion for mathematics and physics. However, I was wondering if Biomedical Engineering actually has a positive effect for Medical School and in what ways it is either beneficial or detrimental. I feel as though it may better prepare me for the MCAT and better my studying habits possibly? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
Biomedical Engineering a good major for Med School?
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Undergrad degrees aren't really "helpful" for medical school. Bio Engineering is neither beneficial or detrimental. Just do what you like and if you feel that it is the best fit for your interests and has the bonus of making you feel better prepared, then do it. But really, the pre-reqs really are the only pre-reqs and pretty much the only other things that might make the fist semester of medical school easier is an intro course in biochem and microbiology.
I'm a BME major and I absolutely love it. I do feel that it has been beneficial for me to be a BME major. Engineering classes teach you to think critically and problem solve rather than just memorize information. I found the MCAT to not be as hard as I was anticipating and that a lot of my engineering classes prepared me very well for it. As said before, it's also a great fall back career if med school doesn't work out.
Plus you can get awesome internships! I've been able to help develop medical devices and been paid very well which has made it easy to save up money for med school apps.
if you have any questions about my experience as a BME major, feel free to PM me
Plus you can get awesome internships! I've been able to help develop medical devices and been paid very well which has made it easy to save up money for med school apps.
if you have any questions about my experience as a BME major, feel free to PM me
Great major to pursue, but make sure you're going into engineering because you love it.
Engineering coursework has been known to be detrimental to your GPA if your heart's not completely in it. Don't do it because you think it will impress adcoms.
I think you're fine though because you mentioned your passion for math and physics.
Engineering coursework has been known to be detrimental to your GPA if your heart's not completely in it. Don't do it because you think it will impress adcoms.
I think you're fine though because you mentioned your passion for math and physics.
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I was a BME major as well and loved it. If for some reason I ever decided medical school wasn't for me, BME is the #1 fastest growing field in the USA.
The only downside is med schools ultimately don't really care what you majored in undergrad as long as you hit all the requirements. Your GPA coming out is important, which may be slightly harder in BME (but it shouldn't deter you from doing the major you want in my opinion...)
The only downside is med schools ultimately don't really care what you majored in undergrad as long as you hit all the requirements. Your GPA coming out is important, which may be slightly harder in BME (but it shouldn't deter you from doing the major you want in my opinion...)
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it CAN be if you do well especially since there are so many job openings in the field (if you fall back on being pre-med), however, BME or engineering in general is notorious for providing graduates with low GPAs so if your end goal is medical school, consider something else.
Yes, if it's what you're interested in. Meanwhile, I double majored in a science and a social science, neither of which are great for job prospects on their own. Medical schools don't care, and I really do believe that going into a major simply for the job opportunities is the wrong way to go about it.
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The OP didn't even mention job prospects. They said he wanted to go into to because of their "passion for mathematics and physics". The benefit of being in a field with a growing job market is just a side perk some of us other posters mentioned.
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deleted103644
Engineering programs in general tend to butcher GPAs, so unless you are sure you can excel, it might hurt you.
A biomed engineer with a 3.00 will lose to a sociology major with a 4.00, so your GPA will matter much more than your major.
A biomed engineer with a 3.00 will lose to a sociology major with a 4.00, so your GPA will matter much more than your major.
That's a very strong assumption. I'm a BME and pre-med with a 3.8+. Every other BME that I know that is also pre-med has a 3.8+ as well. People who are engineering majors may tend to have lower GPAs because most aren't pre-med and don't necessary need stellar GPAs to land themselves a job, so they chose not to work extremely hard. a good GPA in an engineering major is absolutely doable. Especially if you're good at math and physics.
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I'd tend to agree with this. Although if you are really in love with Biomed engineering, then you will likely be more highly motivated to do really well in it.
Yeah , of course it's possible to obtain a high gpa in engineering, but sociology will always be way easier. The point is, it's harder to get a high GPA in BME, so you're probably more likely to get a lower one (of course, it's not true that you have to get a low gpa).
I still think one should do what they're more interested in though.
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I'm also a BME, I love it. I also agree with the other BME'rs that as long as you're passsionate about it it's not hard to get a good GPA in engineering. If you love math and physics you'll have absolutely no trouble with it.
Also, don't limit yourself to just BME; other engineering fields like electrical or mechanical may interest you more and be just as good.
Also, don't limit yourself to just BME; other engineering fields like electrical or mechanical may interest you more and be just as good.
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Take all this "I love bme" with a grain of salt.
First of all, the job opportunities are NOT that great. Sure, more companies that apply engineering to medicine are popping up, but they want more specialized engineers such a chemical, electrical, or mechanical with biology knowledge. A jack of all trades BME is not always desirable, and some people actually have very a difficult time finding a job. If you really want a fall back if medicine doesn't work out, then go into a different engineering.
As for your passion for math and physics, you actually wont learn as much of these things as you probably want. You learn alittle bit of math, alittle bit of physics, some circuits, some chemical engineering, some mechanical. The problem is you learn nothing in depth. Atleast for me, I've been left wanting more.
As for medical school, all this "thinking critically helping you on the MCAT" is bull****. What helps you on the MCAT is your MCAT prep, not your major. Your GPA is likely to drop unless you spend too much time studying like me, and adcoms don't give 2 ****s about what major you are, so it can be a detrimental major in that regard. And the "study habits" for engineering are completely different than the ones applied to med school like classes (like biochem). One is HEAVY math based, involving many many practice problems. The other is memorization, no math. I honestly study completely different for my premed and my engineering classes. If you want a major that will prepare you well for medical school, do biochemistry.
This is just my own personal experience, but my BME professors have mostly been absolutely ****ing terrible. Like worst professors ever. Disorganized class, stupid meaningless material, and lectures. If you're going to a high ranked BME program, maybe you'll have a better experience.
Imo, many majors are just plain superior to BME. If I could do it all again, I would be a biophysics major and do some actual science.
First of all, the job opportunities are NOT that great. Sure, more companies that apply engineering to medicine are popping up, but they want more specialized engineers such a chemical, electrical, or mechanical with biology knowledge. A jack of all trades BME is not always desirable, and some people actually have very a difficult time finding a job. If you really want a fall back if medicine doesn't work out, then go into a different engineering.
As for your passion for math and physics, you actually wont learn as much of these things as you probably want. You learn alittle bit of math, alittle bit of physics, some circuits, some chemical engineering, some mechanical. The problem is you learn nothing in depth. Atleast for me, I've been left wanting more.
As for medical school, all this "thinking critically helping you on the MCAT" is bull****. What helps you on the MCAT is your MCAT prep, not your major. Your GPA is likely to drop unless you spend too much time studying like me, and adcoms don't give 2 ****s about what major you are, so it can be a detrimental major in that regard. And the "study habits" for engineering are completely different than the ones applied to med school like classes (like biochem). One is HEAVY math based, involving many many practice problems. The other is memorization, no math. I honestly study completely different for my premed and my engineering classes. If you want a major that will prepare you well for medical school, do biochemistry.
This is just my own personal experience, but my BME professors have mostly been absolutely ****ing terrible. Like worst professors ever. Disorganized class, stupid meaningless material, and lectures. If you're going to a high ranked BME program, maybe you'll have a better experience.
Imo, many majors are just plain superior to BME. If I could do it all again, I would be a biophysics major and do some actual science.
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BME has high as **** grade inflation for w/e reason. Other engineering majors are more hardcore.
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I believe a lot of that has to do with the fact that BME draws a lot more premeds than the other engineering fields. Just from my experiences ON AVERAGE pre-med students tend to be weaker in the math and sciences than the hardcore engineers who go into electrical or mechanical. As a result the BME programs (at least mine) seem to try to match the difficulty level the students can handle.
On the other hand, my BME program only requires about 1/2 BME classes, the other half are Mechanical and Electrical and Chemical engineering classes that we take with engineers from those fields, so who knows
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BME at Penn killed my gpa. I'm going to copy/paste what I wrote in an older thread about the same topic. Don't mind the ranting
"NOT engineering. Sure, it might interest you and be helpful towards building a good work ethic and thinking quantitatively. But when **** comes to shove, none of that really matters if your GPA is holding you back from getting that golden acceptance and applying it as a working doc.
Being average in your class while competing against Ivy League engineering kids may seem like an accomplishment, but when classes are curved to B+/C-, you're screwed for med school admissions. Plus, the extra post-bac years spent salvaging your GPA taking "upper-div" classes are expensive in terms of tuition, opportunity cost, and your sanity.
Make your life easier. Adcoms want diversity + high GPA's? Major in underwater basketweaving, take the bare minimum premed prereq's, get a high GPA, and get your acceptance. You have to play the game for the acceptance.
Totally lost once you finally get into med school and feel swamped with the work? Think you may have been more prepared by taking a vigorous course of study as an undergrad? Well, at least you got in! You can thank admissions committee's for not weighting the difficulty of their applicants majors' properly, if at all.
Of course, it all comes back the the damn US News Report and all of the sniveling prestige-***** undergrads that use it as if it were the Bible/Koran/Torah/flying spaggeti monster pamphlet/Book of Mormon/Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard/etc etc (example dependant upon the faith of given prestige-***** undergrad, of course). And with each school's rank (aka "prestige," whatever that means) largely dependant upon the average GPA of it's matriculants, it's no wonder that an Engineering major's gpa of x.y is less competitive than an Underwater Basketweaving's gpa of x.y + 0.1. "
Tl;dr = Don't do it
"NOT engineering. Sure, it might interest you and be helpful towards building a good work ethic and thinking quantitatively. But when **** comes to shove, none of that really matters if your GPA is holding you back from getting that golden acceptance and applying it as a working doc.
Being average in your class while competing against Ivy League engineering kids may seem like an accomplishment, but when classes are curved to B+/C-, you're screwed for med school admissions. Plus, the extra post-bac years spent salvaging your GPA taking "upper-div" classes are expensive in terms of tuition, opportunity cost, and your sanity.
Make your life easier. Adcoms want diversity + high GPA's? Major in underwater basketweaving, take the bare minimum premed prereq's, get a high GPA, and get your acceptance. You have to play the game for the acceptance.
Totally lost once you finally get into med school and feel swamped with the work? Think you may have been more prepared by taking a vigorous course of study as an undergrad? Well, at least you got in! You can thank admissions committee's for not weighting the difficulty of their applicants majors' properly, if at all.
Of course, it all comes back the the damn US News Report and all of the sniveling prestige-***** undergrads that use it as if it were the Bible/Koran/Torah/flying spaggeti monster pamphlet/Book of Mormon/Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard/etc etc (example dependant upon the faith of given prestige-***** undergrad, of course). And with each school's rank (aka "prestige," whatever that means) largely dependant upon the average GPA of it's matriculants, it's no wonder that an Engineering major's gpa of x.y is less competitive than an Underwater Basketweaving's gpa of x.y + 0.1. "
Tl;dr = Don't do it
Well if you don't do BME, definitely do a Engineering major.
Taking the easy route isn't going to cut it anymore, especially after 2016.
Schools like Harvard (as stated on their admissions page) are going to REQUIRE math into Differential Equations / Linear Algebra and Calc Physics.
As you can tell from my username maybe I'm a little biased.
Taking the easy route isn't going to cut it anymore, especially after 2016.
Schools like Harvard (as stated on their admissions page) are going to REQUIRE math into Differential Equations / Linear Algebra and Calc Physics.
As you can tell from my username maybe I'm a little biased.
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Why would a requirement of three basic math classes necessitate an engineering major?
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The only reasons I would say to go with engineering are:
1. You LOVE it.
2. You LOVE it and want to do some interning while in school at, say, a medical device company.
That said, BME (from my experience) tends to be a bit less hardcore and lack what I would consider fundamental engineering courses in comparison to say Electrical or Mechanical. Keep in mind too that the goal is med school and we have that lovely saying in engineering "C gets the degree".
Do yourself a favor and take a less rigorous major unless you have an honest passion for engineering and then I would probably consider mechanical, electrical, or chemical if that is the case. This is coming from a Mechanical Engineering senior who will be doing a crap ton of GPA repair before there is any chance at med school.
Hope this helps.
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Just curious, what are the courses you consider to be fundamental that BMEs are missing?
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Statics, Mech. of Materials, and Fluid Mechanics. Also an intro CAD class and circuits doesn't hurt. Maybe some heat transfer but I think that's pushing it.
I can think of four BME's off the top of my head who I've talked a good amount about courses taken with. Of those four, Two of those *might* have had some of those classes (or ones likes them) and the other two never had anything like those. I will say though that I have a bias towards what engineering is best suited for medical devices since that is where my experience lies.
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I did those first 3 at Penn BME. Ugh...fluid mechanics...*shudder*
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I've had exposure to all of those subjects minus Statics. Took chem. E. materials and covered fluid mechanics and heat transfer in a transport class. It seems like most of my classes heavily involve circuits. I guess it really depends where you take BME.
I really love heat transfer and circuits. They are quite interesting.
Statics and circuits are both part of the BME major at my school. If you concentrate in mechanics then you also take fluid mechanics. I honestly think that BME degrees vary A LOT between schools. Do some research on your specific school and see what your program has to offer. Also get some perspectives from BME/pre-med students who are upper level and have gone through the majority of the courses already. I've been happy with the program at my school but obviously others don't feel the same way about their school.
And also, although BME has not necessary prepared me for a career in engineering, I feel very prepared for a career in medicine. But then again, I chose to take classes that were directly related to medicine rather than engineering (i.e. those related to drug delivery and cancer diagnostics).
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Do you guys mean heat transfer as in the heat equation? If so, didn't have a required BME course on it, but we DEF did the heat equation while studying partial differential equations in math
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Biomedical engineering would be an excellent major for medical school, as long as you can keep your GPA up. If it's Biology with a 3.85 vs. Biomedical engineering with a 3.4, go with biology... if you get what I'm saying... but otherwise, yeah, biomedical engineering is great.
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There is no simple heat equation. I've only done very basic heat transfer, but you apply conservation of energy and plug in the equations for heat flow via convection, conduction, and radiation. This results in an ODE or PDE (based on if a transient or steady state process). The boundary conditions are defined by the geometry and mode of heat transport. What you did in your math class was probably very specific cases of heat transfer, and if you take a whole course you learn what to do more generally.
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Definitely agree with you guys on the variation between schools. Here at SJSU, BME has just become it's own degree within the ChemE dept. where as before it was a concentration of general engineering.
As for med school prep, I know UCI had a good portion of BME students continue onto medical school. Not sure how many exactly but it seemed like a respectable number.
Heat transfer in the sense of a course on conduction, convection, and radiation with all the fun that goes along with it. It really was a favorite of mine (something to do with concentrating in fluids/thermo I think...)
As for med school prep, I know UCI had a good portion of BME students continue onto medical school. Not sure how many exactly but it seemed like a respectable number.
Heat transfer in the sense of a course on conduction, convection, and radiation with all the fun that goes along with it. It really was a favorite of mine (something to do with concentrating in fluids/thermo I think...)
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agree with some of the above. The major itself doesn't really matter. So you may be going a bit out of your way here. Now, if you love it, then do it! perhaps you will go into nuclear medicine, radiation oncology etc. The physics background might help a bit there.
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I had all of the classes you listed word for word, except heat transfer. I did have a class called transport phenomena that I think might be similar. Obviously, it varies widely from school to school. I get the impression that some biomed eng programs look to turn out a lot of MD/DOs while other programs focus more on preparing for a career in industry.
OP, I really liked my time in BME, but it took a toll on my gpa as well. However, I think that if you go into it knowing that you will have to work hard and you actually enjoy the material, I don't doubt that you can pull a solid gpa (med school solid, not engineering solid).
Since when is Differential Equations a basic math course?
Those three "basic math classes" are in the core engineering requirements, so I was just meaning to say you could do the prereqs for med school / towards your degree rather than being a Philosophy major or something and having to add 4 extra courses outside of your major.
Where did you do BME? Circuit Theory, Fluid Mechanics and a few other engineering classes are all requirements of my program.
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I think Diff Eq is pretty basic math. Partial differential equations maybe not. Anyway, I think it would be a bad idea to do a major you don't want just so those math classes aren't extra. Also, are you sure these requirements aren't just for MSTP?
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I'm a mechanical.
Just talked with my boss (BME from UC Berkley 20 years or so ago) and she said she did in fact take those courses or similar ones but that it was based on your concentration on which ones you took (as would be expected). I guess our BME program just sucks heh. Always fun to learn something.
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Biomedical engineering is the single best 4 year degree to prepare for medical school in my opinion. I have 2 degrees in engineering and neither are BME. Whether majoring in engineering is a good decision if you want to go to medical school is another question. The only relevant answer is only if you keep your gpa above 3.5 while checking off your pre med app list. A high MCAT can also save a lower gpa.
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deleted103644
A high MCAT does not make up for a bad GPA.
If you can't break 3.5 (minimum) in an engineering degree, take something else.
If you can't break 3.5 (minimum) in an engineering degree, take something else.
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Never said it did, but it can.
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This is absolutely 100% true. In fact, a biomed engineer with a 3.50 will lose to a sociology major with a 4.00. Once you get to medical school, you'll realize that medical school administrators like to make a MILLION jobs for themselves... but they are really only ever able to do like 20 of them... and making a note of your major doesn't normally make the cut. Making a note of your GPA ALWAYS does.
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Provided that your GPA is good, it looks fun to me.
http://www.bme.jhu.edu/academics/ugrad/ugrad_bsrequire.html
http://www.bme.jhu.edu/academics/ugrad/ugrad_bsrequire.html
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deleted103644
That's just it - many engineering courses are not curved.
Someone who can get a 3.8 in an engineering degree could easily get a 3.9 in a non-engineering degree, and that GPA hit is simply not worth it for medical school admissions.
I know very smart people who struggled to maintain a good GPA in engineering courses, and I know people with only a pair of neurons connected by a spirochete who pulled off mainly A's in courses like sociology.
If BME fascinates you, do it, but you will need to make sure your GPA doesn't suffer. As others have mentioned, it's lighter than most engineering degrees, but still harder than most other majors.
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I agree with you that occasionally someone who got a 3.8 in engineering could have had a 3.9 or 4.0 in many other majors. But, we could argue all day about whether it is worth it. Maybe an admissions committee member doesn't emphasize the major your GPA came from all the time, but being in BME hooked me up with years of research, an EMT certification, president of clubs/organizations, a patent pending device. Things I wouldn't have experienced in another major and I would therefore think it IS worth the chance your GPA will take a hit (not everyones GPA does take a hit, I made a 4.0 in engineering but probably wouldve had a 3.5 in sociology tbh)
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Same here. Perfect in engineering but give me a poem to analyze or something and I'd shoot myself in the head. Go with your passion, odds are you'll be good at it if you're truly passionate about it.
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Did you list being on a high horse as one of your ECs? Some people struggle with premed, and would not get into medical school with a low-gpa major. If they know medicine is for them, going into a high-gpa major just makes sense.
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You're taking my response completely out of context. The OP is "passionate about physics and math" and people are trying to tell him not to do engineering because his GPA might be lower for his med school app in 4 years. I am absolutely not trying to boast anything about myself, just trying to say that it is completely possible to do it if it's something you're passionate about, which he is. Don't turn my post into something that it's not, I had 0 intention of boasting or bragging, I'm just trying to provide motivation. I loved everything about my program, and am simply being a spokesperson for BME, not for my particular case.
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deleted103644
I agree with you that it might be more rewarding, but you're giving adcoms too much credit. GPA, MCAT and school are the primary criteria for interviews.
I also would have have had much worse grades if I had majored in sociology - I probably would have flunked out. Those courses are too stupid.
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The OP is also considering switching from biology to biomedical engineering. It is pretty clear that he isn't struggling with Biology if he wants to switch into a more challenging major. The ONLY thing I am trying to get across in all of my above posts is to do what your heart wants to do, not what SDN says is statistically better for med school admissions.
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deleted103644
I would switch to molecular biology or biochemistry rather than BME. More hard science, less likely to deal with uncurved engineering courses.
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Molecular biology and biochemistry deal little with a "passion for mathematics and physics".
That all depends on the school though. My engineering classes were the ones with the biggest curves
