I am interested in pursuing biomedical engineering as my undergraduate major before going on to med school. This is because I am genuinely interested in applying engineering and medicine in the long run.
Is this a viable plan?
As a side note, what programs accommodate this?
Yes it’s viable. I think pretty much every undergrad accommodates this…?
BME–>med school is a pretty common pathway. But it’s up to you to make it work. By make it work, I mean it’s up to you to make sure that you have all the necessary components of a strong med school application: strong GPA, strong MCAT, community service, leadership, clinical experience, physician shadowing, lab or clinical research experience. No major and no undergraduate program will do this for you.
BTW, there are a few 5 year MS-MD programs that offer a MS in BME alongside a MD. And there is engineering focused medical school (Carle-Illinois College of Medicine).
The struggle you are going to have is completing all your premed classes and taking the MCAT by end of Junior year so that you can apply to med school on time while trying to complete the degree requirements for BME to graduate in four years.
Most probably you will need to take a gap year after graduation and then apply to med school. The other issue is maintaining a med school worthy gpa in BME.
Eng’g is a tough major as a premed because it’s often a GPA killer. It’s up to you.
What schools are you considering? What are your stats?
“what programs accommodate this?”
What do you mean by this? There are fewer schools that have biomedE as a major.