<p>Hello all! I'll be standing Stanford in the fall, originally planning to major in bioengineering. However, more than I really want to do bioengineering, I want to get into a good medical school. Bioengineering is more of a stepping stone on my way to reaching med school. I've always been good at math/science, but at my high school. I've always had to study a lot to get the good grades I've gotten; basically I'm not a wiz that gets everything right away. I'm worried that if I choose a bioengineering major, my grades might not be the best and it'll hurt my chances of getting into a top med school (like stanford/harvard/other ivies). basically my question is, would admissions committees for med school consider the difficulty of a bioengineering major as a factor in me not getting the best grades possible? or should I take an easier major that would get me a better gpa (last time I checked, stanford med gpa's were 3.88-4.0... yikes). Thanks!</p>
<p><em>edit</em> if anyone has some stories about BioE majors and their admission into med school i’d love to hear them!</p>
<p>I can give you one anecdote on this: a Columbia student I know studied biomedical engineering, and his GPA, though very respectable around 3.70 or something, was not high enough to get him into his top med school choices – He blamed it on the difficulty of getting good grades in engineering. It may have been other things, who knows, but maybe it’s something to consider. Just so you know, he’s very happy at the med school where he was admitted. </p>
<p>
What is this figure based on? Among MD Applicant members, the average GPA of Stanford undergrad students who were accepted to med school was slightly lower than the average GPA of the overall Stanford class (including non pre-med). The entering classes for Stanford’s med school also consistently have an average GPA well below that range. </p>
<p>Data 10:</p>
<p>oops! guess I accidentally misread some of the data. the gpa range is 3.63-4.0 and the median gpa is 3.88. this is still a really high gpa (I’ve heard engineers’ gpa is usually around a low 3, and I doubt i’ll be the smartest of all engineers)</p>
<p><a href=“http://medical-schools.findthebest.com/l/12/Stanford-University-School-of-Medicine”>http://medical-schools.findthebest.com/l/12/Stanford-University-School-of-Medicine</a></p>
<p>perserverance: thanks for the story, it is something to consider</p>
<p>OP. I agree with @Data10. Being very familiar with the premed and medical school process…I can assure you that Stanford students who get into and attend various med schools around the country (including many at top med schools) do not carry such high GPAs…nor is it necessary. Don’t confuse what is needed from those attending lesser schools (average Joe Schmo colleges and universities…there are thousands of these schools)…who require extremely high to perfect GPAs along with top MCAT scores to even have a chance at getting into their in-state medical schools…
…and whether you like it or not, many of the top med schools I am familiar with utilize a system of weighting GPAs (up or down) depending on the academic institution one attends…</p>
<p>…remember there are far far more students applying from the aforementioned Joe Schmo colleges and universities to med schools (many self-selecting depending on their college academic record…very similar to those who have average credentials in high school applying to average colleges)…so the accepted GPAs for certain med schools will appear askew toward the higher end…</p>
<p>…and, if you truly are not interested in bioengineering as a major…I would not pursue it…and, if I were you…I would major in something that you truly have a passion for in whatever the major happens to be…as long as you just take the minimal prerequisites necessary to study for MCAT and minimal course requirements to apply to med school! Hope this helps…</p>
<p>Wikipedia and about.com mention average GPAs of 3.76 and 3.77 respectively for the entering class at Stanford Medical School. Both are from a few years ago. The average and median GPA may differ, as would occur in a non-normal distribution. If your goal is to get into Stanford medical school, the video at <a href=“Stanford's senior associate dean of medical education talks admissions, career paths - Scope”>http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2014/04/25/stanfords-senior-associate-dean-of-medical-education-talks-admissions-career-paths/</a> has a good summary of what they are looking for. Note that the discussion suggests that they focus less on stats than many other medical schools and include some unique criteria, such as testing interpersonal skills in simulation of events, beyond what would occur in a traditional interview. Stanford medical school has an admit rate of under 3% among a pool of what I’d expect to be highly qualified applicants, so admission is probably not going to be likely, regardless of your GPA. That said, the vast majority of Stanford undergrads who apply to med school do attend a medical school, even if they do not get into Stanford’s medical school.</p>
<p><a href=“I’ve%20heard%20engineers’%20gpa%20is%20usually%20around%20a%20low%203,%20and%20I%20doubt%20i’ll%20be%20the%20smartest%20of%20all%20engineers”>quote</a>
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GradeInflation.com mentioned the average GPA across all majors was 3.55 in 2006 at Stanford. It’s likely above 3.6 today. Engineering majors probably have a slightly lower average than humanities majors at Stanford, but I’d expect to not be significantly lower than the more common pre-med majors, like biology and chemistry. The perceived difficult of different majors varies quite a bit from student to student, depending on their strengths. For example, when I was a student at Stanford, I pursued both the engineering and pre-med tracks, so I took classes in many fields. 2 of the 3 fields that I found most easy to achieve top grades with little effort were computer science and chemistry, yet both of these fields have a reputation for being challenging fields with a lower GPA than humanities (one study across multiple colleges found chemistry to be the major with the lowest average GPA of all). I’d find it far more challenging to get a high grade in most humanities classes since there is not a deterministic way to write a quality paper or even easily define why one paper gets an ‘A’ and another a ‘B’. I’d expect my GPA would be significantly higher, if I had majored in CS on chemistry, than if I had chosen a major that has a reputation for being easy (I was an EE major, with co-terminal masters in EE and MS&E).</p>
<p>Hey, I am a soon to be student at Stanford thinking about Pre-med as well. I feel that with a Bioengineering major you will have to take take classes and learn material that is intended for people planning to truly become engineers, and those skills might prove to be a waste of time and hurt your GPA. If you are a math/ science person who also wants to do premed and engineering you should really look Biomedical Computation. The major encompasses all of the premed reqs and the class requirements are are a lot less intense than Bioengineering so your GPA probably wouldn’t fall. BMC also has different tracks, one of which involves a bit of bioengineering, so you could still do that. Of course, this all depends on whether or not you are willing to take a couple of computer science classes and I am pretty biased since this is what I plan to do :). Hope I could help!</p>
<p>thank you for all your wonderful help! I’ve really taken all your advice in and considering it as I choose my major.
Sarcasm101: i didn’t even know biomedical computation was a major! it sounds super interesting and i’ll be looking into it. thanks so much!</p>