<p>I was looking into this and saw that many colleges only have a designed schedule for physics, math, comp sci, or chem. Does that mean bio majors can't apply for the engineering program?</p>
<p>It depends on the schools. Columbia allows you to do any major at your 3 school as long as you take the prereqs required for your major at Columbia. I think Caltech on the other hand doesn’t allow you to do that. If you’re not sure just email the schools and ask them.</p>
<p>Note that biology majors often take less rigorous chemistry, physics, and math courses than engineering majors; a biology major intending to 3-2 would need to choose the more rigorous versions for those majoring in those subjects.</p>
<p>The same may apply to someone majoring in a humanities or social studies subject at the “3” school – s/he would still have to take the chemistry, physics, and math for those majoring in those subjects to 3-2, assuming that the “2” school allows humanities and social studies majors from the “3” school.</p>
<p>Thanks, I was thinking of going into biomedical engineering so that is why I was wondering if a bio major would suffice.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is much point in doing bio and biomedical engineering. You might as well skip the bio major and go straight for the engineering degree. A 3-2 program would make more sense if you’re interested in studying majors with less overlap. For example I did pure math at my 3 school and now I’m doing computer engineering at my 2 school.</p>
<p>I don’t know which college you’re going into, but you should really look into their BME courses and mission. Engineering is math and physics heavy; the biology and physiology classes, besides the 101 core classes I guess, are almost always quantitative. Compare this with the type of material in Biology major classes, which are notorious for being more memorization-based.</p>
<p>Most schools that call their program biomedical (as opposed to bioengineering) also usually have more focused areas, utilizing EE and MechE courses as the BME core (imaging, drug delivery, biomechanics). So while the end goal is, of course, furthering human health through biomedical innovations, it’s still engineering. If it’s what you want to do, then there’s no reason for the bio major (unless your school is the exception).</p>