Did anyone major in Biomedical Engineering? Advantages/Disadvantages please

[jbon51]

Hey guys,
I'll be entering college later this year (I'm a HS senior now). I am particularly interested in majoring in biomedical engineering. For those of you that majored in BME (or have friend that majored in BME), how did that affect (positively or negatively) their medical school application/interview/acceptance?

I have talked with a fellow SDNer and he has given me a nice amount of information (Thanks!!), but I would just like to get more responses.

I know that BME (or any engineering major for that matter) is very difficult (and considered by most the hardest major at the colleges I may attend, Vanderbilt or Case Western Reserve). I'm willing to study for hours a day if that is what it takes to get a 3.6 or higher GPA 🙂 Any info would be GREAT. Thanks guys.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[tinkerbelle]

I was a BME at Hopkins and I completely loved it! I'm appying to med school this summer, but I have tons of bme friends who already applied and are already in med school.

Pros:
- You learn so much! Not only do you learn the bio like everyone else, but you also learn how to visualize the body in terms of mathematics and circuits.
- we tend to kick butt on the physical science section of the MCATS
- you get so used to being flooded with tons of incomprehinsible info that you'll be used to it by the time you get to med school 🙂 You'll already know how to pick out the most important info instead of trying to memorize everything.
- At my school, we get "concentration" in a traditional engineering field... so you really do learn about biology and how it works in the real world
- You get a different type of research experience. A lot of people work in labs and don't really have anything to show for it when they are done. But BME's get a lot of design experience.... so you acutally have something tangible to show for all your work.
- Bio majors and doctors know all about the body. Traditional engineers know about electromagnetic radiation. But you will know both.. and that makes you unique. Just the other day one of my professros was telling me about this electromagnetic device which can supposedly heal bone fractures. He wished he knew what the heck was really going on. Yay mr. bme... you could study this and you would have a better idea of what is occuring 🙂
- If you change your mind about med school, you can get a high paying job as an engineer

Cons:
- get used to pulling multiple allnighters
- be ready to work your butt off... and be dissapointed that you can't go chill with your friends because you have to study
- you still have a social life... but just not as much as others..
- i had so many required classes, that i didn't really have the opportunity to take a bunch of electives
- BME's at my school are really proud of the fact that we can make it through the toughest major at our school. But I know
we come off sounding like snobs sometimes and that can really turn off interviewers. So don't let your head get too big 🙂

Don't be a BME just because you think it will help you get into med school. Because in the end, what ever major you are, you can get in to med school. Be a BME because you really like the material and it is a facinating field... otherwise you are going to have a miserable 4 years.

I hope this was helpful. But I'm doped up on cold medicine so i have an excuse if it is complete crap. Anyways. E-mail me if you have any questions.

 

[Pooh Chong]

I found that those who did BME and truly had a desire for it tend to do better than those who just did it because it is considered the "hardest major" in college. Those long hours and all-nighters are no joke, but if it's something you have a passion for it's no big deal as the rewards are there.

The major itself does nothing positive or negative for your application to medical school, a 3.6 with a BME is the same as a 3.6 with ChemE is the same as a 3.6 as a Mat Sci. It is debatable if, and how much, an engineering gpa is valued over a arts & sciences degree; Or how important the cum gpa is compared to the science (BCMP) gpa.

Does BME prepare you for medical school better than any other degree? Well this is debatable as well, a one things it has in its favor is that you study so much that you will be confident you can handle medical school. That either sounds good or it can sound horrible....but again, it depends on why you are choosing BME.

By the way, I graduated from Johns Hopkins with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. I agree tinkerbelle's comments, but I would highlight some of those negatives. At least at Hopkins, if you go BME then you actually have to take more humanities than required for the degree. Hopkins only requires you take 18 credits of humanities for your entire four years...the rest of your time is either taking engineering or science classes, generally not the most balanced.

Just as tinkerbelle said, do it because you are fascinated by the field....otherwise you WILL have a miserable time. Think of it as doing something you love for 4 years or peeling potatoes for 4 years.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[exmike]

BME is tough.

I remember while I was at hopkins a lot of kids would switch into BME during the year b/c you could get on academic probation three times in a row before you got booted. Other majors only allow two semesters of academic probation. I guess bme was so hard that they had to allow an extra semester of ac pro or else everyone would keep getting booted.

Good luck to my fellow hopkins grads in your apps!

 

[jbon51]

I've had a desire to enter BME for many years - in fact, it was only recently (maybe a year ago) that I started thinking about going to medical school after I get my BS. I definitely have a passion for BME (and I chose the major for all the right reasons - because I find it VERY interesting). Any additional responses would be very appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jay16942]

My former roommate was BME and pre-med.

Then he decided he didn't really want anything to do with medicine. In fact, he decided that he would rather study neuroscience and hypnosis, hoping to convince attractive girls to sleep with him. He also decided that all cooked foods are evil because their enzymes are destroyed during cooking and to help a friend of his plot to have a bunch of thugs ambush his friend's roommate, resulting in his near expulsion from school. He now spends much of the day sleeping and trying to figure out some clever get-rich-quick business scheme, as well as nurturing a foot fetish.

But that's just one example, I suppose.

 

[Zahri]

I was a ChemE undergrad and did a Masters in BME (at the University of Michigan)...it took 5 yrs. Only after working a few years did I decide to apply to medical school (for reasons I won't go into now). If you are not sure about medical school and are thinking of working I would not recommend a BME undergraduate degree (unless you go to Hopkins maybe). Many undergraduate BME programs have trouble being focused so you end up being not so good at any type of engineering. My advice would be to do an undergrad in a traditional engineering (e.g. Mechnical, Chemical, Electrical, etc) and then do a non-thesis masters...which can be done in one year. From my experience you will be much more employable this way. Most biomedical companies do not hire straight undergrad BMEs (with a few exceptions). That being said if you are sure you want to do medical school and don't want to do a MS degree BME is one of the easier engineering diciplines and you probably would have a chance to take classes that would be more useful and relevant to your future career(please don't get into a long argument here...I know at some schools e.g. Hopkins BME is very hard..but generally it is agreed upon that BME undergrad is easier than say ChemE or Electrical E). BME is definitely very interesting and has many interesting applications. But by itself BME is so interdisciplinary so really if you want to be good at one aspect I say focus with a different UG degree and then broaden later... Just my thoughts 🙂 PM me if you have any questions.

 

[LauraMac]

i totally agree with zahri!! i go to umich, too, though, so maybe it's just a umich thing. but from what i've seen, a bme degree cannot get you a job. good thing i decided i'm pre-med now! good luck to you in whatever you choose!

-laura 🙂

 

[kinkocopies3]

I agree with the above posters. It is harder to find a job with just a BME undergrad background. I did start off majoring in BME my freshman year, but then switched to Chem E because the job prospects are better for Chem E's if you decide not to go into medicine. I'd recommend Chem E, its a very well rounded degree, I have still had the chance to take tons of bio related courses, as well as traditional Chem E courses. A lot of people major in Chem E, electrical E, mech E and then get a masters in BME. I think this is a safer route.

Goodluck with everything

 

[oldman]

I agree with the above posters. It is harder to find a job with just a BME undergrad background. I did start off majoring in BME my freshman year, but then switched to Chem E because the job prospects are better for Chem E's if you decide not to go into medicine. I'd recommend Chem E, its a very well rounded degree, I have still had the chance to take tons of bio related courses, as well as traditional Chem E courses. A lot of people major in Chem E, electrical E, mech E and then get a masters in BME. I think this is a safer route.

Goodluck with everything

hello all you hopkins people.

there are a minority of engineers in my class, but a fair number of them are either chem E or BME. i found my education in BME to be too general. even at hopkins it was really general. makes it bad for job prospects without getting a masters. for med school...i didn't find that i had any advantage with my background either. problem with med school is you are surrounded by the smartest students, and they can learn as fast as you can.

 

[Genesis12]

To the OP:

I am an incoming freshman at Case Western majoring in BME...the concern voiced by many previous posters was that BME majors were not focused enough
I'm not really sure about Vandy, but I know that similar to Hopkins, Case strongly encourages students to take a certain sequence of BME (aka bioelectrical, biomechanics, biomaterials etc.) that incorporates a traditional discipline of engineering with the BME
hope that helps
lataz 😳)

 

[lrg2001]

I'm a BME at Columbia and I would definitely recommend starting out as a BME because it's much harder to switch in than to switch out because of all the requirements. I really enjoy being a BME, although the work does seem to pile up by junior year.

 

[menemotxi]

I just graduated from a large state school with a B.S. in BME, and I agree with Zahri. I've had internships every summer in college with major engineering companies, and I've noticed numerous times that my education was far too general compared to the other interns who were Chem E and ME. My program was not very strong, especially compared to all you Hopkins folks (hats off to you all for surviving). If I had planned on going into the engineering industry, I would have gone Chem E or pursued a higher degree before pursuing a job. My employers have told me that they do not prefer BME's unless they come out of Hopkins. One guy called BME's the jack of all trades, but the master of none.

I will say that being a BME helped a lot with the MCAT though. And it helped me get into a good medical school. Good luck on your decision.

 

[thewebthsp]

You can't switch into BME at Hopkins-- it's a separate educational programme now (there's four -- KSAS, the Engineering school, the Nursing school, and now the BME division) so you have to be certain of your interest in BME in high school. However, you can always switch out.

I would recommend doing BME if you have a love of creation of devices (like engineering fairs in HS) and medicine, or if you have experience seeing some BME research. I agree that you should major in something which you love, and not because it "looks good." Someone passionate in BME would probably do well GPAwise, have a bunch of research, some inventions, etc. Someone passionate about psychology might have also done published research, or may have gone on some international conferences, or perhaps was part of an oncampus help center.

People though who only have numbers, generic recs etc. will not do well in the med school admissions process. At least half the BMEs at Hopkins were doing it to do an "impressive" major. All this being said there is more of a burden of proof to show that a 3.7 GPA from a psychology major is the same as a 3.7 BME major. Most psych majors probably do not have extra scholarly pursuits that affirm their genuine passion for psychology.

 

[agp4]

BME is a great major if you're interested in figuring out the physical basis behind biology. I don't know about the school you're going to, but at Duke, a lot of us ended up being sort of jack of all trades and masters of none. The problem is that BME can be a nebulous field, and sometimes it is not really clear where the science ends and engineering picks up. For that reason, the scope of BME is vast, and it is difficult to get a good feel for all of the different aspects of it. At Duke, we basically got a survey of most of the areas of BME, but never really gained an expertise in one area.

The best way we got to look deeper into an area of BME was to do independent research projects. My suggestion is to expose yourself to as much as you can freshman year, and then decide if its really what you want to do. If you find something about BME really interesting, but there's not enough course material, seek a research experience. It'll be well worth it. Like the above posters said, its no fun going through the trouble if you don't enjoy it. Good luck to ya, and I hope this helped!

 

[mikeyboy]

Same with most other posts. I was BioE at Berkeley, and it's not going to help your GPA. It's also not going to make it easy to do ECs, though maybe research will be more readily available. In terms of med school apps, it helps to be engineering as most interviewers were impressed and know it's tough, plus you can talk about a design project or something that'll be interesting to them. If you're interested in it, like combining new engineering techniques (tissue engineering, gene engineering etc) with medicine, I say go for it. It'll also help you on your MCAT science sections, those were a breeze after the first two years of classes for me.

 

[Friday]

BME can pull down your GPA. Yes you will pull all nighters. Premeds who are bio majors will take classes easier than yours.

At the same time, man, you will love how people look at you when you tell them your major. I sh#t you not. This one old man nearly fainted when I told him (an old alumni who assumed coz I was black I was majoring in Afro-American Studies). Just make sure you say it slow and enunciate 👍 . I didn't take it for this reason, I genuinely loved it and in any case, I had somehow gotten the impression it would be easier.

As for jobs situation, only if you are disorganized will you have a hard time. At my school, BME majors had the widest variety of job offers compared to those in the traditional sciences and engineerings. Some work for pharmaceuticals, do clinical research, do BME for the armed forces, work for Law firms, do consulting (McKinsey et al), I-banking etc. The thing is, don't go into the major thinking it will work for you, know what you want to get from it and focus on a particular aspect. After graduation, I interviewed with a Law firm, a consulting job, an engineering job but then settled for research at a major Medical School/Center. Believe me, BME is well worth it.

 

[Cybersushi]

I too majored in BioE at Berkeley, and experienced a few...setbacks early on. I agree that it's

1)tough, because it forces you to really learn how to study properly. But you get over it, and realize you actually have it easier than other engineers.
2)unfocused. I think mikeyboy will agree with me that, at least as Berkeley engineers go, Bioengineers may be great test-takers but are utterly USELESS in any PRACTICAL application. None of the design projects are hands-on and the studies are so multidisciplinary that you really need to specialize in an area in order to actually know anything.

However, I'm convinced that being an engineering major has REALLY strengthened my reasoning skills and helped me develop a more mature understanding of basic sciences. It's also really neat to learn things that you won't encounter in medical school. Physics and math problems will no longer chase you screaming for your blood like how they do with sissy biology majors. I don't agree that it necessarily gives you any brownie points with your interviewers...it's not something you can rely on to cover for your potentially lower GPA. It all really boils down to how passionate you are about what you study and if you DO anything with it. If it sounds impressive, great! In my case, in addition to research I took a couple of graduate classes, and in my design projects I proposed some nutjob-of-a-polymer-application in in hip replacement lubrication and dialysis membrane coatings. My interviewers were really impressed because I appeared to be knowledgeable (I really wasn't) about an interesting subject that they knew zip about.

Bottom line: majoring in Biomedical Engineering makes your balls feel bigger. Do it.