What am I doing with myself? Life and College

[SaginawPremed]

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So I just transferred to Albion College. I graduated high school last year and attended a community college first. While here I'm finding that although I like it a lot, a lot of things are dissatisfying me-- Small boring town, lack of much diversity throughout the student body, not much prestige, being a small regionally focused liberal arts school. I guess they're topical concerns. But it's leading me to start to want to, if not transfer, take up the school on its 3/2 engineering program. I finish up the majority of a BA here in whatever subject I want (I'm pretty set on Biology) for three years, then head off to an affiliated school (Albion has admissions agreements for the program with Columbia, UMich, Case Western and a few others) where I can get a BS in Biomedical Engineering for two years. And this really appeals to me. But I'm trying to decide if I'd do this just for a bigger named school/environment or if I really want to pursue BiomedE as a premed major for my own knowledge. But along that track, I feel I'd be neglecting all the humanities (philosophy, literature, and history) I'd be able to do here at Albion in four years... despite then having a degree from a pretty no name school.

I don't know. This has been on my mind a lot and it's all kind of bothering me. Any objective thoughts, gang? 😕

 

[virilep]

yea, I mean, it's definately time to do something if you're not happy with your environment. I'm a BME (biomedical engineering) grad and honestly, being BME and premed has really helped out. a lot of my interviewers were enthusiastic about me being a BME applicant. I wouldn't worry about the big name school stuff. It's more about you doing well where you're at. So if you can do the program and still do well on ur GPA and MCAT, then go for it. Dont' worry about neglecting the humanities. They make you take some courses to make sure that you learn some cool stuff along the way. it's all about being happy in undergrad and gaining great experiences. so, strive for the best. mediocrity sucks.

ps (i think there was a guy at one of my interiews that was from albion and he ended up going to Indiana Med)

 

[scrappysurfer]

where I can get a BS in Biomedical Engineering for two years. 😕

I'm a BE and I have found that it is helpful with interviews, etc (despite much lower gpa).

However, I suggest you look carefully into your specific program. My BE program is considered a double major. Many of us barely finished in 5 years. The engineering coursework added up to a full load for 3 years (i.e. not considering any prereqs like math/chem/physics or general ed classes). I would SERIOUSLY question the validity of a BME degree finished in two years.

I do, however, agree with you. BME is an interesting and rapidly developing field. It will have an enormous impact on medicine.

 

[SaginawPremed]

I'm a BE and I have found that it is helpful with interviews, etc (despite much lower gpa).

However, I suggest you look carefully into your specific program. My BE program is considered a double major. Many of us barely finished in 5 years. The engineering coursework added up to a full load for 3 years (i.e. not considering any prereqs like math/chem/physics or general ed classes). I would SERIOUSLY question the validity of a BME degree finished in two years.

I do, however, agree with you. BME is an interesting and rapidly developing field. It will have an enormous impact on medicine.

<a href="http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/admissions/cp/bachelors/">Take a look here</a>.

You do the foundation of the coursework (math up through Calc IV and Diff Eq, a semester of programming, three semesters of calcbased physics, etc, etc) at your BA school beforehand. Then you jump into <a href="http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/students/academics/dept/bioe.php?tab=undergradreqs">the junior and senior year</a> courses when you get to Columbia.