<p>Hi i am a prospective pre-med student,</p>
<p>how hard is MCB vs. BioE in terms of competition (for grades) as well as material? I will obviously be following the Pre-med concentration within BioE, and potentially the Immunology concentration within MCB.</p>
<p>also, i was admitted to Cal in the college of L&S. How hard is it to transfer to college of Engineering, should I decide to pursue BioE?</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice</p>
<p>BioE is significantly easier than MCB. MCB is the hardest biology major offered at Cal*. MCB has the lowest average GPA of all biology majors as per thecampusbuddy.com. BioE has amongst the highest average GPA of all biology majors as per the campus buddy. </p>
<p>MCB is a premed trap in many ways. Many premed students come in thinking that they have to do or that it would be most advantageous for them to do MCB, and as a result MCB is the de facto place for premeds to slaughter each other. The majority of MCB students are premed so all you MCB uds you do will be ultra-competitive. Unless you really like MCB, I would advise that you don't do it. It could do serious harm to your GPA</p>
<p>On the other hand, BioE is a joke. It is ridiculously easy and the program is not a good idea for people trying to become bioengineers. However, because you are premed, BioE uds are jokes. People like HypnosX can give you a better idea about BioE. Do a search of CollegeConfidential for more information on BioE. Transferring into BioE might be hard. I believe BioE is one of the harder CoE majors to get admitted into.</p>
<p>*I am excluding Chemical Biology when I say MCB is the hardest biology major. Chemical Biology is a whole bunch of chemistry and a couple MCB uds. Also, since CB lacks a department, I don't have any data on it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, BioE is a joke. It is ridiculously easy and the program is not a good idea for people trying to become bioengineers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh, I would hardly say that bioE, or any engineering at Cal for that matter, is a "joke". You, like all engineers, have to complete the Math 53/54 sequence, which is hardly a 'joke'. You have to complete Physics 7A and 7B, the latter of which is an especially notorious engineering weeder. MCB students don't have to do any of that. </p>
<p>In other words, while MCB's may have to compete against lots of premeds, BioE's have to compete against other engineers, and it's not at all clear to me which is worse.</p>
<p>I am not BioE, I don't know everything about it. The information I gave was from what I have read BioE people writing. I was writing about BioE UDs, not LDs. I am in L&S (IB & Latin double major; pre-grad for one of them not sure which one yet). </p>
<p>I would recommend that any incoming premed not to be deadset on MCB unless they are really into it. There are plenty of other biology majors, all of them are easier than MCB and all meet all or most of the premed requirements (some of them don't require a second semester of physics, some don't require Bio 1B, some don't require Math 1/16B)</p>
<p>see biology.berkeley.edu</p>
<p>BioE is a joke?
You, anon5524485, lose all credibility by making such a ridiculous statement like that. I am tempted to report problem post…</p>
<p>whoa-ha-ho
this is interesting...
anyone else? can someone also answer the question how hard it is to transfer to CoE?</p>
<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, BioE is a joke.</p>
<p>However, because you are premed, BioE uds are jokes.
[/quote]
Those sentences were misworded, yes. Most of the information I posted on BioE comes from what I have heard from BioE majors on this forum and from thecampusbuddy.com that BioE uds are ridiculously easy to get A's in. You search BioE and you will get many of these threads</p>
<p>just a couple here
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/489744-how-hard-bioengineering-berkeley.html?highlight=bioe%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/489744-how-hard-bioengineering-berkeley.html?highlight=bioe</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/413893-mcb-premed-vs-bioe-premed.html?highlight=bioe%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/413893-mcb-premed-vs-bioe-premed.html?highlight=bioe</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
Those sentences were misworded, yes. Most of the information I posted on BioE comes from what I have heard from BioE majors on this forum and from thecampusbuddy.com that BioE uds are ridiculously easy to get A's in. You search BioE and you will get many of these threads</p>
<p>just a couple here
How hard is Bioengineering at Berkeley?
MCB/PreMed vs BioE/PreMed
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh, I poked through precisely these threads and I see nothing to support the assertion that BioE is "ridiculously easy to get A's in". The closest I could find is from s1185 who says that "the curve is set around A-/B+". Yet he also freely admits that "...Lower division courses are usually not limited to specific majors and tend to serve as good weeders." I think that's the key. In order to even get to the BioE upper division courses, you have to survive the harsh lower-division engineering weeders, and many people do not.</p>
<p>BioE and medicine approach the same field from opposite ends. In essence, they're even more distant than grad school/research from medicine, since basic, translational, and clinical research are at least directly proceeded by clinical practice. </p>
<p>Offering a pre-med emphasis can be more gimmick than actual good. If you find yourself becoming an astute engineer, than chances are you should pursue that route specifically. Clinical work may not be the thing for you at that point.</p>