<p>I was thinking International business (because I enjoy learning about different cultures) or mathematical finance. Which one or any others would benefit me in regards to my major? Please and thanks!</p>
<p>You sure about doing a minor? It’s not something that’s required you know, and BME is quite difficult. Many freshmen transfer out of that major after their first year.</p>
<p>No I am not sure but it’s a thought.
Yes I know, I hear that quite a lot.</p>
<p>I’m a current senior in Biomedical Engineering, and I’d like to offer my perspective on this. BME is a difficult major, but it’s manageable, especially for the type of student who is typically considering engineering to begin with. Yes, some premed students do transfer out of the major, but my friends that transferred did it because they weren’t actually interested in engineering, not because it was too hard. Of course, BME is probably harder than a major in Biology (or other common pre-med majors) because it has a lot more math and engineering classes, so students who do not care about these difficult classes may choose to switch. I personally don’t think it’s harder than other engineering disciplines, and I don’t know anybody who was interested in engineering and transferred out of the major because it was too hard (even if they didn’t plan on a career in engineering). Other people have transferred to other kinds of engineering because they simply find them more interesting or in line with their career goals. I also know people who transferred in to BME, so it goes both ways. Viterbi has a ton of academic resources, and taking advantage of those or holding study groups with your peers can get you through challenging classes. If you want to be an engineer, there is support here to allow you to reach that goal.</p>
<p>I don’t think adding a minor necessarily makes any semester harder, either, because you can’t take more than 18 units per semester anyway, so you’ll just squeeze the minor into any gaps in your major courses. Adding a minor will obviously add more classes to take during your four years, and engineering degrees require a lot of units so you will have to work with your adviser to fit in the minor and you might need to either have AP credits or take summer courses to fit it in, but your workload at any given moment shouldn’t be harder just because of a minor.</p>
<p>To your original question - I’d choose a minor based on pursuing additional interests or getting specific skills to add to your resume based on your career plan, because there really isn’t a “best” minor. If you want to have a BME startup, then an entrepreneurship minor or international business could be really useful. If you wanted to work on neural implants, you might want to take a neuroscience minor.</p>
<p>You also don’t really need to do an entire minor to get skills which will set you apart from other job candidates or grad school applicants. A single college course in finance can build competency in software and ideas that you can highlight in interviews and on your resume, and I think companies tend to care more about what you can actually do than the title of a minor.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Steve</p>
<p>Thanks Steve! Some people messaged me personally and basically just told me that I would be lucky if I didn’t switch out of BME. Thanks for the encouragement I do appreciate it.
Also, I’ll be doing work study through the summers so its likely that I’ll be taking a class as well.
Fight on!</p>
<p>You can register for up to 20 units without approval, however you will have to pay for any extra units past 18. With approval it is possible to take more than 20, my friend did BS/MS in civil engineering in 4 years while routinely taking semesters of ~22 +/-2 units (I forget the actual number, its been awhile).</p>
<p>However I can’t say that will be as easy as it sounds. As stated above, you will have to look into planning a minor out ahead of time as with more required classes comes less flexibility. Also, you should look into what summer classes are actually offered because the course selection is much more limited during summer.</p>
<p>Forgot to add this: [USC</a> Academic Achievement Award | Undergraduate Education](<a href=“http://undergrad.usc.edu/renaissance/achievement_award.html]USC”>http://undergrad.usc.edu/renaissance/achievement_award.html)
If you can attain the GPA, you can take up to 20 units for the flat rate of 12-18 units so 2 extra units for free.</p>
<p>Thanks was chant, will do.</p>
<p>One thing to mention is that in Viterbi, a lot of the higher division courses are 3 units instead of the standard 4 for the rest of the school. This means you can potentially take 6 3-unit courses and be at your 18 unit limit. Of course, taking 6 3-unit higher division engineering classes is a BAD IDEA and you should not do that. Heck, 5 classes is probably too many (but everyone does it) especially with the other extracurricular activities you will be doing.</p>