Bio/Neuroscience vs. ChemBE at JHU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>I'm happy to report my sister was accepted ED to Johns Hopkins University. She was also given a very generous financial aid package. My family's EFC for her education should be less than $20,000 a year, which is excellent considering Hopkins estimates their total costs to quite high. So at this point, it's very likely she'll be attending Hopkins next fall, although we're still waiting to hear back from her RD schools.</p>

<p>Although she was accepted to Hopkins, she was rejected from their biomedical engineering program (BME). So now she has to decide what to major in at Hopkins. She's planning on going pre-med and she wants to work in cardiology.</p>

<p>Here's what she's considering:</p>

<p>Option 1: Double major in biology/neuroscience. My only worry with this choice is that while bio is a B.S. major, neuroscience is a B.A. Won't this weaken her credentials for med school?</p>

<p>Option 2: Major in ChemBE concentrating in molecular/cellular. I personally don't know many ChE's who became doctors. Is ChemBE a good option for pre-med?</p>

<p>She'll be contacting everybody at Hopkins and each of these departments for advice this week, but I still want to hear everybody's opinion. So, what should she do?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>Hi, I’m a current freshman.</p>

<p>ChemBE is a hard major to want to be pre-med in. It has a heavy required course load, and it would be tough to add the pre-med requirements on top of it. There’s a rumor on campus that ChemBEs have the lowest average GPA, which is no bueno for med school. The girl in the room next to me is a premed who just switched out of ChemBE for neuro.</p>

<p>As far as the BA/BS problem, I don’t know. But I would definitely go with option 1.</p>

<p>And honestly, if premed is the goal, BME is not that great of an option either. It too has a ton of requirements, and hard classes that lower GPA. Yes, having an engineering skillset is cool for potential doctors, but as far as not killing yourself before you even get to med school, it’s a hard thing to pull off.</p>

<p>I too was a BME reject. Of course, I don’t care now as I discovered my true calling in a different field, but don’t sweat it! The department is capped, and there’s another rumor that the department receives so many qualified applicants that it has a carnival wheel that they use to randomly select BMEs.</p>

<p>All of this you should take with a grain of salt as I have just one semester at JHU under my belt.</p>

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<p>I’m a BME alum and can throw in my $0.02. </p>

<p>First, it’s possible to go to med school having majored in just about anything. Neither studying ChemBE or having a BA versus a BS will disadvantage her any way.</p>

<p>I think the biggest thing to consider is why she wanted to apply to BME in the first place. In my experience as a BME student as an an volunteer and interviewer for admissions, BME applicants fall into one of two groups - there are those who are genuinely interested in engineering and how it applies to biology (and who may or may not want to go to med school) and there are those who know they’re premed and either a) think BME will look impressive when they apply, or b) want to do something different than the typical Bio major. Most admitted Hopkins BME major (but certainly not all) fall into the first group (genuinely interested in engineering). </p>

<p>If your sister is genuinely interested in studying engineering, then there are several great options for her in the engineering school. Studying engineering will not, by itself, disadvantage her in any way for medical school admissions - of the top of my head, I know at least 15% of my med school class were engineers. Engineering coursework will likely be more difficult, have more requirements, and will, on average, have a slightly lower GPA, but medical school admissions officers know this when they’re evaluating applications. In terms of majors, ChemBE is a popular major, but depending on her interest, she could look at just about any engineering field and find medical applications within it.</p>

<p>If your sister is primarily interested in getting to medical school and not necessarily interested in engineering, then she should look at the many different majors in Arts and Sciences. One big advantage if she goes this route is that she’ll have some time to pick a major (until sophomore year, I believe) as long as she starts the core science classes on schedule. Neuro is a great major at Hopkins, but she should also look at Biophysics (if she’s interested in the math-side, but not enough to do engineering) and Public Health (less basic science, more social science), and several others. Also, if she decides that what she’s really interested in is history (or literature or anthropology etc), there’s nothing about those majors that will hold her back when applying for med school as long as she completes the pre-med requirements (or potentially double majors with Bio). </p>

<p>In short, I think the biggest question is whether your sister is really interested in engineering or not - that question, and that alone, should guide the decision of what school start of taking courses in. Of course, there’s always room to change later, but engineers will start off with more math in their freshman year than non-engineers. I wouldn’t worry about medical school prospects at all at this point - she’s gotten into Hopkins ED, and no matter what majors she picks, she’ll be a strong candidate for medical school if she does well in it.</p>

<p>Hope that helps! Feel free to PM more or reply if you have more questions!</p>