BME at Columbia

<p>How is BME at Columbia? I'm surprised to find that it doesnt even make the top 20 BME programs for undergrads by US news. That's disappointing. Is anyone currently in it? And is it a good idea to do BME if you want to go into medical school?</p>

<p>In general it is not a good idea to study any type of engineering if you want to go to medical school. Engineering majors have the lowest GPAs on average out of just about any other set of majors, and seeing how GPA is so important for med school admissions, it isn't very advantageous to study it as an undergrad.</p>

<p>With that being said it is quite possible to do well enough in an engineering program to get into medical school. At which point you are probably more prepared from a problem solving standpoint than your typical classmate</p>

<p>It is certainly possible to major in engineering in undergrad and go to medical school. Someone that graduated with me who was a Mechanical Engineer is now attending Mayo to get his MD/PhD. Then again, he's way smarter than I am. He was the only person in our graduating class (engineering) that graduated with a 4.0.</p>

<p>As spe07, engineering majors tend to have lower GPA due to the difficult curriculum. Look at any of the top 10 engineering grad schools and their average acceptance GPA, they are all around 3.5 or so. So while it is doable, you are at a disadvantage. At the opposite end of the spectrum, another engineer that graduated with me had a GPA in the low 3s and had difficulties getting accepted into med schools.</p>

<p>Hey thanks for the advice morfinx. I've heard a lot about GPA lowering for engineers. Do you or anyone else have any suggestions as to what i should do to get into medical school? As in alternate paths? Regular college? B.S./M.D. programs?</p>

<p>I would probably do the traditional pre-med majors, like biology. If you really want to get some exposure to BME, take some BME classes or maybe even minor in it. </p>

<p>BS/MD programs are great, if you can get into one. One of my friends is at Baylor School of Medicine right now. He was in Baylor (undergrad)'s BS/MD program, which only accepts about 10 people into it per year.</p>