Is biomedical engineering a reasonableness major to do before medical school?

[HealthNombreUno]

I’ve been extremely interested in majoring in Biomedical Engineering but I don’t want to screw myself over before med school. Math is not my strongest subject however just the very theory is extremely interesting to me. I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn how to engineer proteins? Am I making the right decision or should I switch to my initial plan or neuroscience?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MarcusSmartMD]

I would figure it would be significantly harder to maintain a higher GPA in biomedical engineering compared to neuroscience. Regarding your concerns on math, there is often a lot of calculus/differential equations in proving theories in engineering courses.

Really depends on what you think you are capable of, and also depends on whether you think you would perform better in a major you are more interested in. If you are entering your freshman year, I would suggest you take the intro course for BME and see how you like it/handle it.

 

[ServiceFirst]

I have no doubt BME is very interesting, and many of my colleagues come from engineering backgrounds/majors. However, the way you've described your interest for engineering doesn't sound like doing the major would be the most beneficial for you (math is extremely important/heavy in engineering).

As a biology major, you can learn plenty of engineering theory/physics (in fact, physics went from being my most disdained subject to one of my most favorite).

I see BME as being beneficial for folks who perhaps want an alternative to MD school (having multiple pathways is a very wise option). The rest of the theory/things you're personally interested in can be discovered through independent learning/networking.

 

[catsleepingonacouch]

I studied BME and it is a TON of math and physics, I would say it was more math than it was biology. The average GPA for my class was sub-3.0, it's not impossible to do well but if you're not naturally very good at math/physics then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Also, at least for my program learning about proteins and engineering them was a small part of one elective course.

Take this with a grain of salt, I'm very glad that I did BME and studying something that interests you is super important.

 

[kuzy]

It sounds like you would be more interested in biochemistry if you want to learn how to engineer proteins. From my understsnding, BME relates more to prosthetics and medical devices than chemistry and involves mostly math and engineering classes. In fact, at my school BME is actually an off shoot of electrical engineering, which is arguably the hardest and most math/physics-based engineering there is

 

[trobinsonmd]

It is an interesting major and it is always good to major in something you are passionate about, but if you are dead set on medical school, you are digging yourself a deep hole. Your classes will be a lot harder than people majoring in bio or public health... I would avoid this major in order to preserve a high GPA

 

[scribbles&rambles]

I majored in BME. While I would certainly not have given up my choice, I would agree with what everyone else has said that it's a tough major; if you're interested in preserving a high GPA, the situation might become a real struggle (not impossible—I know friends in BME who became Phi Beta Kappa, but compared to other majors, the numbers were always much fewer and those friends basically devoted their whole lives to the field or were incredibly quick at understanding BME principles from the get-go). I think that before you decide if you want to do BME, you need to deeply evaluate what you want to learn from a major.

As others have said, BME coursework tends to be more physics/math-based than biology/chemistry-based. If you're curious what type of coursework you might get, look up MIT's "Signals & Systems" OpenCourseWare; you can see representative PDFs of one staple course in engineering. There is more to BME than medical devices/prosthetics (i.e. tissue engineering, organs-on-a-chip) and you can apply a lot of BME principles (like fluid mechanics) into a lot human physiology. But you're definitely not going to get that much biology. If you want to engineer proteins, etc., you could join a research lab that does that or take elective courses on the material, so not doing BME wouldn't close any doors for you.

 

[FroYoOreo]

I majored in BME, and honest kind of regretted it. I could get a LizzyM 80 if I major in biology or psychology. Plus the adcom doesn't seem to be very impressed even if you take hard classes.

 

[Yorick]

I majored in BME, and honest kind of regretted it. I could get a LizzyM 80 if I major in biology or psychology. Plus the adcom doesn't seem to be very impressed even if you take hard classes.

I don't regret it because I feel that I gained a ton of valuable skills and experience from engineering that I wouldn't have otherwise, such as the problem-solving and critical thinking skills required and the work that went into completing the Capstone design project, and a lot of interviewers I met had very positive things to say about BME. I had a 3.7ish GPA though, so I think it's impressive if you did well....I definitely think I could've pulled a 3.8, 3.9+ and better MCAT had I majored in biology as well and primarily took classes tested on the MCAT, but I feel that engineering has more long term rewards in medical education (for developing useful skills) rather than short term (when applying, unless of course you do extremely well). The only thing I wish was that I worked harder in college lol. Also if you want to do orthopedic surgery and with research, for example, the engineering background will help a lot.

But yeah, there is a lot of math in BME and a lot of coding as well.

 

[HoneyBadgerz]

I did nanomedicine engineering (unique concentration under engineering science at my school), which is a sort of sub-major under BME. I loved my major and the classes I took, but I did come out with 3.65 GPA. That's still magna cum laude at UVA engineering, but I could probably have cruised through college with a near-4.0 in music (a huge interest of mine outside of school) or a 3.8-3.9 in biology.

Even though I could have a more competitive application by choosing a different major, I don't regret my decision.

 

[Stroganoff]

Math is not my strongest subject however just the very theory is extremely interesting to me.

So it's easy to interpret this in many ways, but just know that any engineering major, including BME, is very, very heavy on math. Problem sets, labs, lab reports, Matlab, modeling, projects, and exams. On the exams for instance, you have to be accurate with your math (duh) and fast enough to get all the questions done before time's up.

In many courses the test average could be in the 30s -- like seriously "failing" -- before any curve to bump everyone's grades up. It varies considerably. But please know what you're getting into.

Engineering is its own end-goal career path and discipline, so there may be different standards of evaluation. I was Computer Engineering (similar to Electrical Engr and CompSci) before I was BME, and I remember the departmental advisor/professor was letting prospective majors know, "You'll totally be successful and get a great job with even a 3.0 GPA. 2.9? Not horrible. 3.1? 3.2? 3.3? Excellent GPAs." The bar is calibrated differently since many schools don't necessarily curve or have grade inflation to boost the overall class average.

It could be perilous if medical school is a concrete goal of yours. The math is frequently similar to physics problem sets but with different concepts. Nerve signalling and integration. Applying sensors to cell membranes. Like stuff you learn in cell bio, biochem, and physiology but throw in physics and calculus and algorithms and models, and there's your BME problem set or exam. You must be accurate and fast with math (bears repeating!).

BME is a big field with many sub-specialties. It's been years so things like imaging/computing tract (how MRI/CT/imaging works and how to make it better), tissue engineering, cardiac bioelectricity, prostheses/mechanics, medical devices and instrumentation, nerve conductivity and I'm forgetting a bunch.

Protein engineering/synthesis seems, to me, to be more on the cellular/genomics/molecular bio side and much closer to traditional bio, chem, and biochem, but more cutting edge of course. Computational biology and computational chemistry, maybe bioinformatics.

Maybe get your feet wet in BME or engineering in general (if there's an "Intro to BME" course you can take) before diving in? You may be able to still learn BME/nerdy/techy/biophysic-y concepts without having to major in the field and better preserve the GPA. I'm not saying that 3.7 or higher are impossible, but they're... much more rare and require more sacrifice. Since the engineering standard is already calibrated much lower with the expectations that graduates go on to industry or graduate school.

Something to think about. Oh, did I mention, you must really love doing tons of math and problem sets and physics and algorithms? There's definitely cool factor but also pucker factor. Brace yourselves. Winter is coming (for your GPA). 😉



Edit: Maybe another way you can get the best of both worlds is -- if it's offered -- do a BME minor, so you get a good foundational introduction to the field and can take a few electives you find interesting but don't need 3-4 years of hardcore engineering courses on top of the usual BCPM pre-reqs. So neuroscience major (or whatever), BME minor?

 

[Jdoxis]

If you like engineering proteins, biochemistry or molecular biology could be better alternatives. Structural biology has lots of biochemistry/molecular biology/bioinformatics components, so you could carve out a niche that plays to your strengths easily. There's plenty of opportunity for research and the like in directed drug discovery and microbiology/cell biology fields that could use a person with that background. Might be able to even find applications for translational research in medicine as well.

 

[tp3204]

I’ve been extremely interested in majoring in Biomedical Engineering but I don’t want to screw myself over before med school. Math is not my strongest subject however just the very theory is extremely interesting to me. I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn how to engineer proteins? Am I making the right decision or should I switch to my initial plan or neuroscience?

BME is not all about math or engineering proteins. We learn stuff that electrical and mechanical engineering major do. BME is considered one of the hardest engineering majors according to some people I know. It takes a lot of time for me to keep my GPA high in BME, especially in my third year which is the one that you have to prepare for med school applications. So, be careful with your decision!