To all you kids wanting to do biomedical engineering

[sliceofbread136]

My advice would be not to do it. I know it has the word medical in it, but it is just not a good major.

If you want to design prosthetics, do mechanical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to tissue engineering, do chemical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to design imaging modalities, do electrical engineering with bio specialization. BME tries to teach you all of these things, so you end up being a jack of all trades master of none. This may sound find, but it means no one will want to hire you.

Your professors will also be rejects from the other engineering majors, so they will be even worse teachers than engineering teachers usually are.

BME does not teach you anything that will be useful to you as a doctor, unless you go MD/PHD. If you want to learn something that will help you as a doctor, major in spanish.

If you want to go BME because you like math, go take biophysics. The math and science there is 10000x more interesting.

BME sucks.

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[nysegop]

My advice would be not to do it. I know it has the word medical in it, but it is just not a good major.

If you want to design prosthetics, do mechanical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to tissue engineering, do chemical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to design imaging modalities, do electrical engineering with bio specialization. BME tries to teach you all of these things, so you end up being a jack of all trades master of none. This may sound find, but it means no one will want to hire you.

Your professors will also be rejects from the other engineering majors, so they will be even worse teachers than engineering teachers usually are.

BME does not teach you anything that will be useful to you as a doctor, unless you go MD/PHD. If you want to learn something that will help you as a doctor, major in spanish.

If you want to go BME because you like math, go take biophysics. The math and science there is 10000x more interesting.

BME sucks.

I would say minor in spanish. Major in a science or something. Math works too.

 

[sliceofbread136]

I would say minor in spanish. Major in a science or something. Math works too.

Honestly good advice. But only if that science isn't BME

 

[nysegop]

Honestly good advice. But only if that science isn't BME

Yeah, I agree. BME isn't the best for pre-med.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s66vQhar5AI[/YOUTUBE]

Kinda sums this thread up.

 

[Hau5MD]

Quite disappointed to hear that. Is bioengineering equally as bad? If so, would human bio be a better major for premed?

 

[torshi]

My advice would be not to do it. I know it has the word medical in it, but it is just not a good major.

If you want to design prosthetics, do mechanical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to tissue engineering, do chemical engineering with bio specialization. If you want to design imaging modalities, do electrical engineering with bio specialization. BME tries to teach you all of these things, so you end up being a jack of all trades master of none. This may sound find, but it means no one will want to hire you.

Your professors will also be rejects from the other engineering majors, so they will be even worse teachers than engineering teachers usually are.

BME does not teach you anything that will be useful to you as a doctor, unless you go MD/PHD. If you want to learn something that will help you as a doctor, major in spanish.

If you want to go BME because you like math, go take biophysics. The math and science there is 10000x more interesting.

BME sucks.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Quite disappointed to hear that. Is bioengineering equally as bad? If so, would human bio be a better major for premed?

Generally it's not recommended to major in engineering if you want to go to medical school, because you're still going to need the same gpa to be competitive as any other major. Though some people ( Abnormal) excel at engineering and do better in it than other subjects.

 

[Hau5MD]

Generally it's not recommended to major in engineering if you want to go to medical school, because you're still going to need the same gpa to be competitive as any other major. Though some people ( Abnormal) excel at engineering and do better in it than other subjects.

In that case, I guess I should major in bio with a minor in psych instead.

 

[da8s0859q]

As counterpoint: the OP's post is one college student's opinion. There is nothing inherently wrong with BME -- it is, like any college degree, what you plan to do with it.

Also, just one almost-MS4's opinion, but I would argue that there is almost nothing that you can do in college that "prepares you to be a doctor" in the sense that medical school prepares you to be a resident. Taking microbiology and whatever else is great to give you a cursory familiarity with the same stuff when you see it again in med school, and being a biochemistry major might be great for the biochem-heavy times (a minority of the first two years), but that's about it.

My undergrad degree is in a soft science, and I took the usual prereqs plus other electives on top of that. I did not feel the least bit outgunned by the hard science people in the first year or two.

 

[newdoc2013]

BME degree is a mile wide and an inch deep. I still don't regret majoring in BME or getting my MS in BME. I think it gave me a unique skill set amongst my medical school colleagues. I've also been able to apply some of those mile-wide concepts to very different research projects. BME (like anything else, as the above poster said) is what you make of it.

I think BME does not suck.

 

[lightfire22000]

BME degree is a mile wide and an inch deep. I still don't regret majoring in BME or getting my MS in BME. I think it gave me a unique skill set amongst my medical school colleagues. I've also been able to apply some of those mile-wide concepts to very different research projects. BME (like anything else, as the above poster said) is what you make of it.

I think BME does not suck.

It's not that it sucks, but it's not as good as majoring in real engineering. At least then, your bachelors is worth something. Anyone can work in BME with a bachelors in EE or MechE, but not vice versa.

 

[Valadi]

I've heard similar advice about BME from several sources, including that it's pretty tough to make strong grades.

I know a small handful of BME grads in med school and all were MD/PhD.

 

[LittleMonster]

I majored in BME and loved it. I think it depends on the institution you're at. My professors were definitely not rejects from other engineering professions - they were really good and had been doing BME for most of their careers.

Mind you, coming in, I knew that I wanted to do grad or med school, so it didn't worry me that my undergrad wouldn't make me that specialized.

That being said, I know a number of my fellow graduates who were able to secure jobs with just an undergrad. It's true the major is rather general, but you can work to specialize outside of class through research etc. Or you can go with the string of companies that actually know what a BME is/does, like Genetech. I just think the job market doesn't know what to do with a BME right now, so you have to work a little harder.

Long story short: like every other major, BME is what you make of it.

 

[neoevolution]

Don't med schools account for the greater rigor of BME when looking at GPAs? Regardless, I've heard it's looked well upon because of its difficulty, even if it might be unnecessarily tough and time-consuming when planning for medical school.

A bachelors in BME is said to be useless too, but that doesn't matter for a premed unless you're unsure about medicine. And not all BME programs are worthless. Hopkins BME sends a third or so of their students to medical schools, and it's the top ranked BME program in the nation (also has a separate application process).

 

[lightfire22000]

Don't med schools account for the greater rigor of BME when looking at GPAs? Regardless, I've heard it's looked well upon because of its difficulty, even if it might be unnecessarily tough and time-consuming when planning for medical school.

To answer your question, the answer is no! Med schools do not account for the greater rigor of your program, nor do they care about it. It is a colossal lie!

A bachelors in BME is said to be useless too, but that doesn't matter for a premed unless you're unsure about medicine. And not all BME programs are worthless. Hopkins BME sends a third or so of their students to medical schools, and it's the top ranked BME program in the nation (also has a separate application process).

A bachelors in BME isn't useless, but its EXTREMELY limiting. Only about 20% of the kids studying BME usually go to med-school and about 75% of those kids are premed. That's a red flag right there. If you want to do BME, major in another discipline because the BME undergraduate degree is a scam.

 

[davidbm95]

Can someone explain to me what exactly someone studies in biomedical engineering. Thanks.

 

[Hau5MD]

Can someone explain to me what exactly someone studies in biomedical engineering. Thanks.

Pretty much all the funness of bio combined with the intricacies of engineering.

 

[davidbm95]

Pretty much all the funness of bio combined with the intricacies of engineering.

Interesting.

 

[ToldYouSo]

BME is a major like anything else. If you're interested in it then go for it but realize that you'll probably have to work harder to keep your GPA competitive. Other than that there's no reason to single it out as particularly bad or non-useful... you could say the same for any other major. Nothing not useful about taking more math and engineering type classes.

" Only about 20% of the kids studying BME usually go to med-school and about 75% of those kids are premed. That's a red flag right there."

No, that just speaks to the difficulty of getting into med school.

 

[Courtjester8]

Where I was an undergrad, the BMEs typically had the lowest GPA in the school. Unless you're a math wiz, this is not a smart choice for premed.

Major in the oboe and take the premed prereqs. Or be a physics major and take the prereqs (physics majors apparently do the best on the mcat). You may think I'm kidding. I'm not.

-cj8

 

[cxp119]

Just to add my $0.02, I stumbled upon this because I'm about to go to sleep and I'm bored. I was BME at a school with a really well-developed program and I loved it. At my undergrad institution, they let us choose a specialty within BME that actually allowed us to delve pretty deep into one area of BME. I don't know as much about mechanics as a mechE, or circuits as an EE, etc., but I did learn a ton about biopolymers and cellular engineering. So yes, you might not go as deep into traditional engineering as some, but you learn a lot.

It is a difficult major, but it's definitely possible to have a high GPA, do research, ECs, have friends, etc. This is true of all majors. It might suck at times, but you should really be doing something that sparks your interest - then it will be easy to study/keep your grades up.

And in terms of helping with med school: I've found it's helped a lot with school, especially physiology (cardio, pulm, and renal mostly). In my class, I think BME is the second-highest major behind biology, and not all of them are MD/PhD's.

In closing: everyone is different. BME is an awesome major, and can be great for pre-med (my concentration actually covered all pre-med classes except for organic chem 2/lab), but it's not for everyone. You shouldn't be in a major just because you think it'll help you get into med school if you're going to be miserable. Do something you enjoy in college and it will show when you apply.