<p>How hard is it to do this at Cornell? I've heard that Cornell has the hardest curriculum of any ivy, but im sure its just a myth. </p>
<p>any BME premeds here? How has your experience been so far?</p>
<p>Cornell is definitely the best Ivy if you’re going for engineering.</p>
<p>And I’m curious about the BME pre-meds too.</p>
<p>I don’t think Cornell offers a Bachelors for BME</p>
<p>[Cornell</a> University College of Engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University_College_of_Engineering]Cornell”>Cornell University College of Engineering - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Cornell offers biological engineering in CALS and also offers a biomedical engineering minor/concentration in the college of engineering as part of many of the other engineering majors. I think they are also adding biomolecular engineering as a concentration. There are lots of engineering students that are interested in biomedical engineering but they cannot major in it. The department feels that in order to do biomedical engineering one must first master chemical, biological or some other type of engineering to learn the foundation, then take classes that focus you in an area of biomedical. As you can imagine, in order to do this effectively you must have a solid foundation in chemistry, physics, biology, math, materials science and engineering principles. Becuase of this, biomedical engineering is an area that one can study for a masters degree or concentrate in as an undergraduate engineer–ie. Chem E with a concentration in biomedical.</p>
<p>That being said, as a pre-med there are a lot of requirements that you must satisfy, in addition to the course work as an engineer. It can be done, and there are many at Cornell doing just that, but understand that you will have little flexibility in your schedule and will be taking a full load every semester.</p>
<p>I’d recommend that you look at the descriptions and coursework required for the majors on the college of engineering website.</p>
<p>I know several students who have done that. It is possible, but the engineering courses add on another dimension of difficulty. In fact, the pre-med requirements are “easy” compared to engineering.</p>
<p>As I’ve suggested before, if you are positively sure you want premed, there’s no need to saddle yourself with engineering. Of course, I do realize that it’s hard for an 18 year old to know that. However, with engineering, you have a back-up plan in case premed doesn’t turn to med.</p>
<p>you can also plan to add an extra year if you’re doing engineering pre-med…</p>
<p>or u can apply to a school that better tailors to your needs…</p>
<p>Not true at all.</p>
<p>sorry momoftwoteens…i meant that you MAY have to do an extra year…or semester…</p>
<p>not always the case but sometimes…</p>
<p>If you want to do Engineering and pre-med the best route is to do Biological Engineering. You can register as a Biological Engineering major in College of Engineering or CALS. The reason Biological Engineering is the best route is the course overlap between Biological Engineering curriculum and pre-med requirements.</p>
<p>Here are the pre-med requirements <a href=“Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University;
<p>Here is a link to Biological Engineering Handbook.
<a href=“http://www.bee.cornell.edu/cals/bee/upload/BE_UG_Handbook_revisions_Fall10_8_2_10_final-2.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bee.cornell.edu/cals/bee/upload/BE_UG_Handbook_revisions_Fall10_8_2_10_final-2.pdf</a></p>
<p>They have listed out best route to achieve Biological Engineering major requirements and Pre-med. It starts on page 18.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>thanks that does help. would i have a better chance of acceptance at CALS or CoE? or is that irrelevant?</p>
<p>@mom</p>
<p>I don’t think there are such things as “easy” courses at Cornell. They just require different skill sets, whether it is hunkering down and memorizing facts for biology, or learning concepts and principles in engineering and physics. They all require hard work. </p>
<p>Also, pre-med and engineering is a great combination. Many innovative medical techniques these days are based on engineering principles (stents, orthopedic devices, pacemakers, heart valves, anything with neurophysiology). I believe that engineers have an inherent advantage in understanding the technology behind these devices because of their educational background. Understanding technology and current research can help make medical students into better doctors. </p>
<p>And as a former ChemE pre-med, I would say that you will have to sacrifice some of your social life in order to have time to focus on your grades, volunteer at a hospital, shadow a doctor, maybe conduct academic research, and other extracurriculars. Additionally, you’ll have to spend a decent amount of time to study for your MCAT and write your medical school applications. This will especially hold true if you plan on applying for medical school during your senior year. However, I still had a great social life and made tons of friends. It’s mainly about prioritizing your life.</p>
<p>I am not sure on better chance acceptance. However, if you are a NY state resident CALS will be cheaper for you as it is land-grant college whereas COE is an endowed college. Land grant colleges have a better deal for NY state residents.</p>
<p>If you like math and such analytical classes go with COE otherwise go with CALS. However, with COE you do have a better fall back position in the marketplace than CALS with an undergraduate degree in case you decide not to pursue medical school.</p>
<p>…as long as you got a degree in BioEngineering, it doesn’t matter at all whether you got it from CoE or CALS. They are exactly the same curriculum.</p>
<p>“The marketplace” doesn’t know the difference (because there isn’t one).</p>
<p>At least, at undergraduate level at a recruitment interview a friend was asked whether their degree was from CoE or CALS. Not sure why but recruiters know of the two pathways. </p>
<p>Also, if you are in CoE and you decide not to pursue medical school or Biological Engineering you can easily switch to with minimal disruption to any other engineering discipline while as a CALS Biological Engineering student it would be harder and would be limited to CALS offerings. In such a situation another engineering degree would be better situated in the “marketplace” than a CALS degree at least if you want to bail after undergraduate degree or pursue an MBA.</p>
<p>However, if you are NY state resident then the tuition reduction itself tips the scale in CALS favor.</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s doable but I know a guy who was in the college of engineering and premed and he came out with a cum 2.9 gpa and was rejected by every med school he applied to. He’s doing a post bac now</p>
<p>Oops im like a whole year late! Now i feel dumb :/</p>