<p>So I'm a class of 2015 HS student who's basically decided on a BME/Math double major. There is a very high chance I'll be applying to med school so I don't want my GPA to be crap. I'm known as being a "math genius" and math comes incredibly easy to me. Calc-based Physics is a breeze for me as well. A lot of people tell me that BME is extremely hard to keep a relatively high GPA in which would be a problem for me. But looking at the curriculum, there are a LOT of math/physics classes, along with my math double major which should add even more. </p>
<p>The math major portion will be a walk in the park for me I believe, and the Physics classes shouldn't be bad either. I'm pretty good with quantitative things in general and AP Chem was fairly easy for me as well. </p>
<p>Will I be fine? For anyone with knowledge, how much quantitative work (chem/math/physics) is part of a BME major?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s possible to have a high GPA and major in BME and math, but like @bopper I don’t know why you’d do that if you want to get into med school. Engineering requires a lot of team work, and I cannot tell from what you’ve told me if you have any experience working well in teams of differently talented people. </p>
<p>We’ll see how good you at math and physics when you take courses. In my experience, College equivalents >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AP classes. Many kids, that were whizzes in high school become humbled in university. If it doesn’t and you really as good as you claim to be, congrats.</p>
<p>BME is a bad major for premed. If you want to be a doctor, get a high gpa, internship experience and destroy the mcats. </p>
<p>BME is also a bad engineering major.</p>
<p>Read “Avoid bioengineering if you can” . Its a thread on this very site. </p>
I have heard this plenty of times, but I’ve never seen it actually materialize - not even among the very best at math that I’ve met. </p>
<p>Sooner or later, everyone reaches a stage where mathematical talent doesn’t allow you to just breeze through everything. Differential equations is definitely a few steps up from calculus (unless you go for the “memorize formulas and number crunch” route), and I have yet to meet anyone who claimed that advanced calculus, the foundation for the higher-level math courses, is easy. </p>
<p>High school “math genius” status is highly overrated. Sometimes it does materialize into real mathematical talent, sometimes it proves to be entirely unfounded. Either way, you absolutely, definitely won’t have an easy time of it, and it’s foolish to think you will.</p>
<p>As a former “high school math genius” I met my match in the 3rd year, 4th year math courses at college. I loved my math major, but there is really nothing about high school level math that prepares you for Set Theory and Calculus of Imaginary Numbers. Its a 100% different ball of wax and problem sets have gone away and been replaced with pages long written papers of theory (as long as a History paper, for example) and proofs.</p>
<p>I did about half of my required pre-med courses in the summer b/c they were over and above my usual coursework. </p>
<p>Math major >> premed is plenty to put on your plate. If you are really interested in biomedical engineering research you will be amply prepared to apply for MD/PhD programs to continue down that path. The undergrad BME is likely to just be a drain on your time and GPA. </p>
<p>Anybody who thinks that college classes will be a “walk in the park” is badly mistaken. But, it is a mistake that a lot of high school students make. The pace of the a college class (at a decent or better college) will just blow you away. I know because it happened to me. I received all kinds of awards for math in high school without opening a book much at all. I got to college and everyone else was as good as I was and the professors assumed that. The study skills needed to keep up I didn’t have. I struggled until I learned those study skills and then I did well. But that took all freshman year and into sophomore year to get there.</p>
<p>You like a challenge, OP, so prove these cats wrong and start out BME and math and see how the first year goes. If your GPA remains a 3.6 or so, do another year. if it comes out a 3.7 at the end of sophomore year, you’re in pretty good shape. But third year is where the math majors hit the wall. Don’t let it kill your GPA; keep an eye on it and bail if it looks like it’s going to hurt the GPA. You’ll still have engineering, perhaps. </p>
<p>There are other things you can do to assure your success at this difficult task. Spend summers working in labs and with graduate students. See if you can RA for a math professor. Spend the summer off-hours reading math textbooks and talking to the grad students and profs about the textbooks.</p>
<p>I’m supposing math is more likely to be the challenge. If engineering is the challenge, if you’re right about your skills, it won’t be because of the math. The engineering challenge too can be addressed by summer work. </p>
<p>The more likely challenge is going to be the two of them together. You’re not going to have a lot of time for socializing or your gen ed requirements. These are important to med schools, too. they want their physicians to be humans with good communication skills before they want them to be of superior intelligence. the ability to listen and take suggestions from other people is an important part of your education.</p>
<p>Nothing is standard in a BME cirriculum. Let me rephrase, upper divisions can vary between schools. The lower divisional is 2 years of math (Calc i,II,III, Diff Eq, Lin alg) between 1 and 2 years of physics, molec bio, inorganic and organic chem. Past that, it’s up to the school’s discretion. Look at the school in question for a course planner. </p>
<pre><code> MATH 2177 (Ord & Part Diff Eq) 4 hr
MATSCEN 2010 (Intro to Engr Materials) 3 hr
BIOLOGY 1113 (Gen Biology) 4 hr
BIOMEDE 2000 (Intro to BME) 3 hr
MECHENG 2040 (Statics/Strength of Materials) 4 hr
CHEM 2310 (Intro to Organic Chem) 4 hr
PHYSICS 1251 (E&M, Optics, Modern Phys) 5 hr
MECHENG 3500 (Fluid, Thermo, Heat) 3 hr
ANATOMY 2220 (Physio/Anat Lab) 4 hr
BIOMEDE 2700 (Num Simulation in BME) 2 hr
STAT 3460 (Prob and Stat 1) 3 hr
BIOCHEM 4511 (Biochemistry) 4 hr
EEOB 3510 (Animal Cell & Develop) 3 hr
BIOMEDE 3703 (Quantitative Physiol) 3 hr
</code></pre>
<p>Those are sophomore/junior BME track courses. What I’m asking is how many of these classes have a strong numbers/math based background to them. Obviously organic chemistry and general biology have minimal math. What about “statics/strength of materials”, “Num simulation in BME” and “quantitative physiology”? How much of those classes involve a relatively good amount of math?</p>
<p>Numerical Simulations in BME requires diffeq as a prereq and uses matlab and comsol programs. I would imagine it is similar to most “here’s the foundations of analysis in matlab” classes for engineers. The math probably won’t be the tricky part if you’ve made it successfully past math2177, but if you’ve never taken a programming class it might take some adjustment. That said, once you get comfy with it you’ll really appreciate how much faster software packages solves systems of equations (differential, complex numbers, etc). 3703 looks like the follow up, where they dive into the actual numerical methods for more advanced analysis than just the basic curve fitting and Runge-Kutta functions they’ll show you in the 2700 class, so probably more akin to a math course.</p>
<p>Obviously your E&M/Optics/Quantum class is going to involve a decent amount of math.
Statics/Strength of Materials will require a math mindset, but once the problem is set up correctly, it’s just solving a system of equations (yay linear/elastic region assumptions!). </p>