Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University and then Med School?

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EmperorFrieza

EmperorFrieza

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Hey everyone. I'll be starting college next year at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and I was thinking of majoring as a biomedical engineer. I definitely want to be a doctor but I chose BME because it seemed totally cool to me and the school has great resources even for undergraduates. However, now all my potential pre-med friends are saying it's a horrible decision because engineering is such a difficult major to get a high GPA in. I'm not a math/physics genius or anything but if I work hard I can do well. Since it seems that medical schools don't care at all about what you major in and only care about your GPA/MCAT and other stuff - I'm a little worried now. Should I consider majoring in another engineering field or perhaps switching from engineering school to the normal school altogether?

Thank you all for your input!
 
If you're not a whiz at math/physics I wouldn't recommend engineering at Columbia. I could be wrong, but it seems like a recipe for disaster.
 
This is a risk, no doubt.

You are going to have to seriously harness your chi to protect your GPA. However, if you are successful, you will have a very impressive app as a biomedical engineering major. What's more, if you really like BME and you can do well in it, that will open some awesome doors for you in the future. Like what these BMEs just did (microchip to detect cancer within 30 minutes):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2009/09/28/tech-nanotechnology-cancer-chip.html

Of course you could switch, and it would be easier to protect your GPA. That is what many ppl who are risk averse would advise. My advice:

  1. Follow your heart
  2. Harness your Chi
  3. GSB
  4. Kamehameha

2097718386_ce9228e641.jpg
 
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I am an engineering major, and if you work hard, you can do it. Also, you won't really be set back if you change majors after one semester or even one year. Stick with the engineering for now, and if it doesn't work out/you don't like it, you can change after actually being in college and seeing what engineering is like.
 
EmperorFrieza said:
Hey everyone. I'll be starting college next year at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and I was thinking of majoring as a biomedical engineer. I definitely want to be a doctor but I chose BME because it seemed totally cool to me and the school has great resources even for undergraduates. However, now all my potential pre-med friends are saying it's a horrible decision because engineering is such a difficult major to get a high GPA in. I'm not a math/physics genius or anything but if I work hard I can do well. Since it seems that medical schools don't care at all about what you major in and only care about your GPA/MCAT and other stuff - I'm a little worried now. Should I consider majoring in another engineering field or perhaps switching from engineering school to the normal school altogether?

Thank you all for your input!
Click to expand...

I 👍 you, OP. 😎 You = Boss that's IF you stay with the BME and in Columbia
 
I'm an engineering major and I've taken BME classes. If you aren't great at math and physics, it will be difficult for you, especially since you are taking it at Colombia. Engineering is all about the math, and if you can't keep up then you will have to try REALLY hard. It's doable, though. Be prepared to make social sacrifices if you choose to be an engineer/pre-med.
 
One good about that is BME;s apparently score the highest on the MCAT, and while engineering is difficult your determination will/can help you succeed.
 
Don't fall into the traps that others are laying for you. It might sound cliche but do what you love. I changed my major from Biology to the liberal arts and I have learned more about medicine (bioethics, economics, psychology) than I thought I ever could. I you love BME and are good at it, go for it, but don't chose BME for a means to itself. BME is badass though 😉
 
I had an engineering major. It's not too much harder to get good grades in engineering than other majors. The main difference I found was each engineering class was two to three times more work (not more difficult if you are comfortable with calc) than similar upper level science courses. The weekly problem sets and reports can take all of your time. I found the hardest part about doing both pre-med and engineering was class scheduling and time to do ECs, not maintaining a good GPA.

Engineering curriculums are set-up for those with a primary goal to become an engineer not a doctor (I was the only premed in my engineering discipline, but I did do research with a number of pre-med BioEs), therefore you will have to be very self-motivated to continue to pursue medicine. But if it is something you enjoy, I would go for it.
 
So far my experience with BME has been this:

In most other majors (physical sciences, social sciences) if you just keep studying long enough, you'll eventually do great.

In engineering, you could finish your homework in 10 minutes and understand everything, or stare helplessly at it for hours and not make ANY progress. It also helps if you're good at learning on your own, because it's the one class where the supplemental resources/textbooks are usually required to get a full understanding of the material (try and find someone in your bio class who actually buys/reads the supplemental textbooks).
 
LuciusVorenus said:
So far my experience with BME has been this:

In most other majors (physical sciences, social sciences) if you just keep studying long enough, you'll eventually do great.

In engineering, you could finish your homework in 10 minutes and understand everything, or stare helplessly at it for hours and not make ANY progress. It also helps if you're good at learning on your own, because it's the one class where the supplemental resources/textbooks are usually required to get a full understanding of the material (try and find someone in your bio class who actually buys/reads the supplemental textbooks).
Click to expand...


Im happy I didnt do engineering!
 
It's BME, you'll have an easier time than EE or Aerospace. You'll be fine. The mech classes are a joke, the EE will get watered down for non-majors. The most difficult will probably be any ChemE courses if they throw them at you as part of the curriculum.

Just remember the standard pitfalls of engineering majors: professors don't give a **** about your grades and have no qualms about failing people (90% failed my VLSI class), their job is to put out competent engineers (unfortunately stupid ones do make it out, fortunately they get promoted to management, unfortunately they become your managers).

If you want to skate through with a major where the primary focus is memorizing then regurgitating on tests, go with straight biology. If you like puzzles/problem-solving, chem could be an option for you too. (Organic is a lot more fun when you pretend you're solving really hard puzzles repeatedly).
 
movax said:
Just remember the standard pitfalls of engineering majors: professors don't give a **** about your grades and have no qualms about failing people (90% failed my VLSI class), their job is to put out competent engineers (unfortunately stupid ones do make it out, fortunately they get promoted to management, unfortunately they become your managers).
Click to expand...


^ That.

Keep in mind that the majority of the students graduating from an engineering school are looking to work in that field after they graduate. If a school gets known for putting out **** engineers via grade inflation the ranking drops. BME (one of the easier engineering majors) has over a 50% drop out rate at my school. This is out of a class of about 200 BME majors.
 
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This is definitely a big risk, but one that will not affect whether or not you get into medical school. I know a lot of BE-ers at my Ivy League school that are pre-med, and I have to say that a lot of them regret it. You will get in somehow regardless of your major if you work hard, but I know a lot of engineers who had to go through Post-bacc programs to enter med school to make up for their lower GPAs.

The problem is that hard work does not necessarily pay off with good grades when it comes to engineering. The exams will be very difficult, but there will consistently be a select group of geniuses. There will be people who have already done it before, or are math/science whizzes, making it difficult to get A's in these courses.

Now, if BE is what you are interested in, I think you made the right decision. But if you are 100% focused on medical school and only have a passing interest in what you major, you made the wrong decision. I can tell you know it is very discouraging to be in engineering getting a lower GPA when you are completely focused on med school as the ultimate goal, because most college students will have it easier than you.

That said, don't do anything right now. It's very difficult to know where you stand before you actually start. But keep your options open, and seriously think about switching majors after your first semester. Again, I'm not in engineering, but I have friends close to me doing it, and I really do feel that it is unfair for such smart and hard working people to end up with low GPAs just because of their major.

Good luck!
 
Thank you all for your advice guys! 😀 I'm a bit discouraged but I'm trying to keep my spirits up and stay optimistic. I guess I'm going to try out BME first and see how it goes. (That's pretty much all I can do anyways).

...and for my fellow DBZ fans:
GokuVsFriezaEp102.png
 
I'm Chemical Engineering major with 3.9+ GPA, engineering just requires a lot of work but not as hard as what you will think. And you can work for biotechnology company as an engineering major during the summer and gap year😎
 
star230 said:
I'm Chemical Engineering major with 3.9+ GPA, engineering just requires a lot of work but not as hard as what you will think. And you can work for biotechnology company as an engineering major during the summer and gap year😎
Click to expand...

yeah right, chemical engineering is one of the hardest majors out there.
 
I'm biomedical engineering at Texas A&M.

Best decision I ever made.

movax said:
It's BME, you'll have an easier time than EE or Aerospace. You'll be fine. The mech classes are a joke, the EE will get watered down for non-majors. The most difficult will probably be any ChemE courses if they throw them at you as part of the curriculum.
Click to expand...

This isn't true at all. I've taken three classes through the EE department. The BMENs made the majority of the A's. Our mechanical classes are also the exact same as the other engineerings. Our test problems are just biomedical problems.
 
Look at it this way, at least if you don't get into med school after the first try you will still be employable out in the real world unlike the hordes of bio majors that never made it to med school that end up getting caught in a never end swath of low paying temp jobs with no health care benefits or that are completely unemployed.
 
star230 said:
I'm Chemical Engineering major with 3.9+ GPA, engineering just requires a lot of work but not as hard as what you will think. And you can work for biotechnology company as an engineering major during the summer and gap year😎
Click to expand...

My friend is also a ChemE at a tough Ivy League school. Only made 2.56 GPA freshman year. I think he barely reaches to 3.0 near the end, so med school dream shattered. He isn't good at taking the MCAT-type of standardized tests.

Engineering majors can be tough. But if you like DBZ, summon your chi and go kamehameha. If you like BME, you could get a high GPA, killer MCAT.
 
crimedawg said:
The truth is any engineering major is going to be more demanding and difficult than your basic science major (chem, bio, etc).
Click to expand...


The real truth is, if you got the engineering mindset, engineering is going to be a lot less demanding, time-wise, vs the likes of bio, biochem...etc.

If you're a badass at memorizing stuff, but not so much a engineering mind, the likes of bio, biochem...etc are going to be less demanding than engineering.

It depends on you, other people's experience need not apply, unless they have the same mindset/skillset as you.
 
Thank you all for your advice. I've escaped the problem at hand but I face a new challenge now. I will be asking for your advice again soon and I would be grateful to have your support once again. <3
frieza_chibi_by_maffo1989-d4f4329.png
 
Every schools difficulty is obviously different. The difficulty of an engineering program at one school isn't the same at the next. With that said, in Columbia we all share the same pre-med classes and I have spent much time with BME students and they are really something. In SEAS you pretty much have to neglect all of your extra time and your schedule is so heavy that you don't have much say in all of your four years. I've had a couple of TA's that are BME and about to graduate and all of them are taking a gap year, as well. Is it hard? I believe it's def. one of the hardest majors here. Is it doable? Of course, and everyone around here respects and knows how hard the program is (by everyone I mean every medical school in NYC and surrounding areas). Good luck in whatever you do. I would definitely come here, bust my arse, and get into a great school.
 
I graduated in BME and I think the most valuable aspect was learning how to think/learning critical reasoning.

Those skills will serve you well into the future.
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
So far my experience with BME has been this:

In most other majors (physical sciences, social sciences) if you just keep studying long enough, you'll eventually do great.

In engineering, you could finish your homework in 10 minutes and understand everything, or stare helplessly at it for hours and not make ANY progress.
Click to expand...

I'd except math, physics, and portions of chemistry from your statement. Additionally, I think certain humanities majors like philosophy, art, and music performance should be excepted from this generalization too. In fact, any true academic major can be made rigorous; which may explain why medical schools don't care what major you pick.

OP, to answer your original question: If medical school is your top aim, then protect your gpa. A 3.8 in history w/ basic prereqs + biochem will beat out a 3.5 BME applicant at most schools, ceteris paribus. So, essentially, switch majors if you can't maintain a competitive gpa.
 
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Engineering is a big headache and honestly not that interesting, especially biomedical engineering. You don't really learn anything in depth, and atleast for me I left feeling like I have no applicable skills. If you are rly interested in math and science go for something like physics.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
Engineering is a big headache and honestly not that interesting, especially biomedical engineering. You don't really learn anything in depth, and atleast for me I left feeling like I have no applicable skills. If you are rly interested in math and science go for something like physics.
Click to expand...

disclaimer: I didn't go to Columbia, so I can't comment on their specific program.

Bolded is true. BUT that is why I LOVED being a Biological Engineering major (even LESS useful than biomedical engineering). I got to learn a bit of everything! From optics to electrical engineering to mechanical engineering to cell biology! So awesome. Plus, you're going to med school, it doesn't matter if you have job-marketable skills. 😉

Also, if your GPA suffers, whatever you can still get in. (3.4c/3.25s? yes, I'm accepted 😎)

I also say: the only extracurriculars you don't have time for, are the ones you're not actually that interested in. 😉
 
kkuhn said:
disclaimer: I didn't go to Columbia, so I can't comment on their specific program.

Bolded is true. BUT that is why I LOVED being a Biological Engineering major (even LESS useful than biomedical engineering). I got to learn a bit of everything! From optics to electrical engineering to mechanical engineering to cell biology! So awesome. Plus, you're going to med school, it doesn't matter if you have job-marketable skills. 😉

Also, if your GPA suffers, whatever you can still get in. (3.4c/3.25s? yes, I'm accepted 😎)

I also say: the only extracurriculars you don't have time for, are the ones you're not actually that interested in. 😉
Click to expand...

Lol, I didn't expect such a positive take on what I posted. :laugh:

Atleast for me I'm trying to gain some greater circuit and math skills before I graduate.
 
movax said:
It's BME, you'll have an easier time than EE or Aerospace. You'll be fine. The mech classes are a joke, the EE will get watered down for non-majors. The most difficult will probably be any ChemE courses if they throw them at you as part of the curriculum.

Just remember the standard pitfalls of engineering majors: professors don't give a **** about your grades and have no qualms about failing people (90% failed my VLSI class), their job is to put out competent engineers (unfortunately stupid ones do make it out, fortunately they get promoted to management, unfortunately they become your managers).

If you want to skate through with a major where the primary focus is memorizing then regurgitating on tests, go with straight biology. If you like puzzles/problem-solving, chem could be an option for you too. (Organic is a lot more fun when you pretend you're solving really hard puzzles repeatedly).
Click to expand...


As someone who did a double in mechanical and Aero I can say that it all depends on where your strengths are. If you're resourceful and can pull together lots of stuff you'll learn mechanical is easy. Aero is deathly hard if you're not good at math. I'd imagine biomedical is somewhere in between. Some of the smartest people I knew in undergrad were bme. Work hard, find what you love and then do it.
 
Rant incoming:

From what I've seen, to be a biomedical engineering teacher, you have to take an oath to always teach with an incredibly poor teaching style. They must read over the powerpoint they post online, but they have to leave out key bits of information to tell you in lecture so you are forced to come class (how else would they justify their unneeded existence?) I always find it so comical when professor's are so surprised by the low averages on their tests. They always say the test was too hard, but I know the real reason. Most students expect to learn the majority of the information in class, and this is simply not possible with BME professors

BME professors have all vowed to assign you a weekly homework without fail. These homeworks take multiple hours apiece and usually have nothing to do with what will be on the test. They say that the homework encourages learning and discovery, but in reality it is busy work and a waste of time. You will have 5 of these hws a week. Personally, I've given up and just started copying them.

The last part of being a BME professor is to make sure your material has no continuity to it. You spend a semester learning seemingly random bits of information that are not connected at all. It highlights the fact that biomedical engineers really know nothing.

This is UT BME, not columbia BME, but I have a feeling that the experiences are pretty similar.
 
kkuhn said:
disclaimer: I didn't go to Columbia, so I can't comment on their specific program.

Bolded is true. BUT that is why I LOVED being a Biological Engineering major (even LESS useful than biomedical engineering). I got to learn a bit of everything! From optics to electrical engineering to mechanical engineering to cell biology! So awesome. Plus, you're going to med school, it doesn't matter if you have job-marketable skills. 😉

Also, if your GPA suffers, whatever you can still get in. (3.4c/3.25s? yes, I'm accepted 😎)

I also say: the only extracurriculars you don't have time for, are the ones you're not actually that interested in. 😉
Click to expand...

Exactly. BME = jack of all trades and master of none = poor prospects for industry but good for premed.
 
Last edited:
EmperorFrieza said:
Hey everyone. I'll be starting college next year at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and I was thinking of majoring as a biomedical engineer. I definitely want to be a doctor but I chose BME because it seemed totally cool to me and the school has great resources even for undergraduates. However, now all my potential pre-med friends are saying it's a horrible decision because engineering is such a difficult major to get a high GPA in. I'm not a math/physics genius or anything but if I work hard I can do well. Since it seems that medical schools don't care at all about what you major in and only care about your GPA/MCAT and other stuff - I'm a little worried now. Should I consider majoring in another engineering field or perhaps switching from engineering school to the normal school altogether?

Thank you all for your input!
Click to expand...

Don't major in BME, especially at an ivy.
 
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