Hi everyone, I am currently a high school senior and am planning to pursue medicine. For pre-med, I am unsure to major in either bio-medical engineering or applied mathematics. I like both, but I know I will head into medicine no matter what so it’s really down to what would be the most beneficial.
I’m concerned that one major may be harder in comparison to the other, or that I may learn better from one major compared to the other. Any insight into course load, benefits, GPA, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I have 2 children who both were applied math majors in college; both are now in med school. (Each had an additional major beside the math too.)
There are pluses and minuses to both majors. I think both are equally “difficult” in that both require a great deal of math aptitude and a very strong work ethic (lots of problem sets to grind through!) to be successful in. Courseloads for each won’t be that much different.
BME, because it’s an engineering field, has a more lockstep curriculum with more graduation requirements than an applied math degree. It also has more course overlap with pre-med course requirements than applied math.
Applied math has zero overlap with pre-med requirements so any of your free electives are going to consumed by that.
Except for perhaps statistics, there will be very little carry-over from either of these degrees in med school.
I might give a slight tip to BME for post-graduation employability unless you consciously choose coursework that will make you more employable with the applied math degree. (Courses in comp programming, probability, risk management, biostats, etc.)