BME vs Other Majors?

[scorpiious]

Hi everyone, im sry i dont post here alot so i hope it doesnt seem like leeching or something...

Im a senior in highschool and i know i want to attend medical school after undergrad, and college APP time is around the corner so ive been thinking about what major i wanted to do. I initially wanted to do Biomedical engineering but i asked a few doctors and several of them said that biomedical engineering is too hard and that you have to try really hard to keep your GPA up while focusing on MCATs, and so forth.

So i looked to the sciences and i found neuroscience and i think its very interesting, could someone give me some advice?

is BME a good major? What should i be doing.. im really stuck :S

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[MilkmanAl]

You should major in whatever you enjoy. BME is a notoriously difficult major, but if that's what you like, go for it. At most schools, you won't need to decide a major for at least 2 years, and even then, your choice is plastic. Don't worry about it. Take a bunch of classes that sound interesting and specialize from there based on what you thought of them.

 

[Moonglow]

BME is for those who want a PhD., or for those who want an MD and a future in clinical research - frankly, there are only a few great BME programs worth attending. Neuroscience is too narrow a field of study for the undergraduate, but one should matriculate within the hard sciences (Biology and Chemistry) for a future in medicine.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I disagree. You have to take plenty of science to qualify for med school admission. You can major in whatever you want, but a non-science major will require a bunch of extra outside work. None of it actually prepares you for med school, so it's pretty irrelevant what your major is. I don't see how neuroscience is any narrower than biochem or just straight bio when we're talking about relation to medicine. Majors will help you with the fundamentals of one or two classes in med school, tops. If you really went all-out, you could get some biochem, neuroscience, A&P, molecular bio, and genetics in to lay the groundwork for a whopping 4 classes, but not many people do that at all or even have the ability to do that. Again, major in whatever you enjoy, and knock out the pre-reqs as necessary.

 

[FutureCTDoc]

Do you enjoy BME? If so go for it. If not don't. It's that simple. You can go to medical school with a degree in philosophy, in fact they have the highest admissions rate to medical of any major. Complete your science pre-reqs and do what you like. The pre-reqs are 2 semesters Gen Chem, 2 semesters O-Chem, 2 Semesters Physics, 2 Semesters English and 1 or 2 semesters of Calculus.

 

[MilkmanAl]

You only need calculus for a few schools, and most of those will accept stats or calculus. I believe Harvard is the only place that requires 2 semesters of calc.

 

[c5212]

You should major in whatever you enjoy. BME is a notoriously difficult major, but if that's what you like, go for it. At most schools, you won't need to decide a major for at least 2 years, and even then, your choice is plastic. Don't worry about it. Take a bunch of classes that sound interesting and specialize from there based on what you thought of them.

I and everyone else on SDN would agree... major in whatever you enjoy

 

[scorpiious]

well i also like biology and chemistry, is biochemistry a good major?

i mean i just want something that will prepare me and make me look good when it comes time for medical school

 

[CoolWhipp]

If your great at physics and math, do BME. My friends who are well versed in mathematics and the like breeze BME. My friends who aren't, suffer a lot. It can save you a lot of study time if you are that kind of thinker, rather then memorize a bunch of crap that most biological science majors have to do.

 

[Kickback]

If your great at physics and math, do BME. My friends who are well versed in mathematics and the like breeze BME. My friends who aren't, suffer a lot. It can save you a lot of study time if you are that kind of thinker, rather then memorize a bunch of crap that most biological science majors have to do.

Most of this^ is mostly true. If you have a good "conceptual" mind, you can do well in engineering.

Biomedical engineering is a great field; there are a ton of options post-graduation.

BME is for those who want a PhD., or for those who want an MD and a future in clinical research - frankly, there are only a few great BME programs worth attending. Neuroscience is too narrow a field of study for the undergraduate, but one should matriculate within the hard sciences (Biology and Chemistry) for a future in medicine.

The first bold is very true; BME's are not very specialized by the time they graduate, and really know much less in the field of BME than an Electrical Engineer. This is due to the HUGE range of fields within BME. You don't need a PhD, but if you plan on going anywhere in BME, you'll get some graduate degree. Hell, most of the PhD's in BME at my school started of MechE and EE.

The second bolded/italics... sorta. If you are a great student, you can find ways to succeed despite your location. The biggest issue for BME is the research; it's usually more costly than regular chemistry/biology/biochem research, and this is where I will agree with you. But there are still summer opportunities to do research.

So my advice: try it, if you like the classes and do well freshman year (especially the intro to BME class), it is worth the hardship. If not, you will have taken plenty of the science classes, and can transfer out to another degree.

 

[scorpiious]

how about biochemistry, is that relative to medical school?

 

[MilkmanAl]

It's probably the most useful major in terms of learning med school stuff before med school, but that isn't saying a whole lot. I had 2 semesters of biochem in college and blew through them in the first day or two of a new subject. That is, it helped with maybe ~5-7 of the 40 days of biochem. It's nice to have the background, but just taking biochem will get you that. You don't have to major in it.

 

[Rendar5]

same as above, most of what you study in college has very little application to medical school. Even if you studied biochem, which is perhaps the most applicable, or maybe nursing which would be slightly more applicable, you'd be luck if it helped with 0.5% of med school, not to mention that it would help with 0.0000001% of actual clinical work/board scores, and that's if you're lucky. On top of that, medical schools really don't care what you major in as long as you do well in that major and have completed the med school pre-reqs. They'll take a 4.0GPA pottery major who took 1-2 med school pre-req classes a semester (1 science course and lab) over a 3.8GPA biochem major any day

 

[schrizto]

You won't need to declare a major until your sophomore year in college. It's true that you need to indicate a prospective major on your college apps, but that's generally just for statistical purposes. Put down BME or neuroscience, you can decide for sure later.

 

[newdoc2013]

i did BME and it was awesome. the poster that said that bme is a mile wide and an inch deep in undergrad hit the nail on the head.

 

[Neuronix]

same as above, most of what you study in college has very little application to medical school. Even if you studied biochem, which is perhaps the most applicable, or maybe nursing which would be slightly more applicable, you'd be luck if it helped with 0.5% of med school, not to mention that it would help with 0.0000001% of actual clinical work/board scores, and that's if you're lucky. On top of that, medical schools really don't care what you major in as long as you do well in that major and have completed the med school pre-reqs. They'll take a 4.0GPA pottery major who took 1-2 med school pre-req classes a semester (1 science course and lab) over a 3.8GPA biochem major any day