Georgia Tech’s BME program is the one in question. I am wondering whether or not it would be too difficult a major to pursue in order to gain acceptance to an elite medical school. At the moment, I am not dead set on med school, however, I want to keep my options open. Would majoring in BME be advisable for possible premed, or would it be too hard to maintain a competitive GPA that way?
You should back your sights up a little bit to getting into ANY medical school. That can be hard enough.
In general, BME is not recommended because it is so hard relative to other pre-med majors. I can’t comment on GT, but you’d have to know more about grading from all of the schools in question and then more specifically, what their placement from BME into medical school is.
That said, should you get into medical school with an engineering degree, you’d be very well prepared to compete with your cohort.
@eyemgh The BME program at GT is connected with Emory, so I’d be taking classes at both GT and Emory. I haven’t checked placement from BME, but it’s up there with Hopkins for the best BME program in the country. I’d imagine placement is extremely good considering the strength of the program.
GT is hard, but I’d imagine top Med Schools would realize that a 3.5 from GT is much harder to obtain than a 3.8 from UGA for example. I mean, if GPA was considered equal for all schools, then why would a kid ever choose a place like Hopkins or Cornell for premed? Rigor is taken into account, right?
“I’d imagine top Med Schools would realize that a 3.5 from GT is much harder to obtain than a 3.8 from UGA for example.” - I think not (I’m no expert - go check some of the other threads here). Now when comparing 3.8 to 3.8, maybe GT would have an edge.
I’m with @colorado_mom, I do not think you can assume that. I also do not think you can assume GT’s placement rate out of BME is on par with one of the highest placement rates in the nation. Eighty percent of JHU pre-med grads have at least one acceptance within 5 years. Let that sink in…ONE…in 5 years. That’s a long time to wait to get a single acceptance into not an elite school, but ANY school. As a result of the difficulty gaining admission, I advise all students to remove as many barriers as possible. BME MIGHT be fine, but it is highly dependent on the school you choose. GT’s school wide acceptance rate is just over 54%, close to the national average of 45% (according to GT). You’d want to know what it is for BME specifically.
I also agree with @colorado_mom. Although it’s been a few years since I was considering a medical career and becoming acquainted with the medical school admission process, I remember a few individuals over at SDN posting data from the AAMC that showed GPA was the most important factor for admission regardless of major. You might want to check out the AAMC website to see if they still make available data on GPAs, MCAT scores, and majors of medical school applicants versus matriculants.