<p>Hello all! I am a rising senior currently pondering on what to do. As of right now I am planning on completing a four year degree in addition to pre-med and applying to med school. However, I'm not really interested in majoring in biology, and would rather major in an engineering discipline in order to 1) have an upper hand on other med school applicants and 2) have a reliable career to fall back on just in case medical school is not right for me.</p>
<p>I have been researching and have found biomedical engineering to be something that interests me and would be helpful for medical school admissions. However, I have read that to be a biomedical engineer it is not necessary to major in biomedical engineering and that it is better to actually major in a different engineering discipline. Is this true?</p>
<p>Since I want to do pre-med, should I major in BME anyways? Or should I do mechE or something similar and satisfy the pre-med reqs?</p>
<p>Questions are welcome and thanks in advance!</p>
<p>IMO it depends on how set you are on applying to med school and what you may want to do as an alternative. </p>
<p>If you are dead set on med school and are only looking at engineering because it is a marketable major in the event that you don’t get in, I would major in BME. At most schools it is possible to complete the pre-med requirements simply by completing a BME major. As a result, you won’t have to take additional classes (which is tough with engineering since there are so many difficult, required classes) and it will be easier to maintain a high GPA. Med schools will not care if you majored in mechanical or biomedical engineering (both would probably be looked upon favorably), but they will care about your GPA. If you don’t get into med school, you can get a job with BME, it will just be tough to get an engineering job. If you are willing to go into consulting or something like that, you will be able to find a job right out of college. If your backup plan is to be a biomedical engineer and you are willing to go get a Ph.D. after undergrad, then graduate BME programs would accept both BME and MechE majors.</p>
<p>If you are not sure about medical school, or are only interested in engineering as a backup career, I would major in mechanical. As you said, it is not necessary to major in BME to become a biomedical engineer. In fact, unless you get a Ph.D., mechanical would probably be a better choice. Companies prefer traditional engineering degrees (at least at the B.S. and M.S. levels) because you learn more technical skills and they don’t have to teach you as much. Additionally, with MechE, you could get into mechanical, aerospace, materials, and other types of engineering that are much less accessible to BMEs. </p>
<p>I hope this is helpful. I just graduated with a BME degree, am starting a Ph.D. next fall, and have several BME friends who applied to medical school, so everything I’ve told you is from first hand experience</p>
<p>Wow thanks for such an in-depth reply! That’s really helpful and I think I’m probably going to major in BME if I can, mostly because I think it’ll give me the best chance at getting into med school and because it’s something that interests me and gives me a viable option if med school isn’t for me. I am willing to get a graduate degree in BME, so I think I’ve got it figured out for now. Thanks again!</p>