Greetings,
I am a rising senior who is considering applying to Princeton SCEA. I intend to major/concentrate in biological engineering and would declare a CBE concentration if I had the honor of earning admission to Princeton. I also aspire to attend medical school. Is it possible to cope with the rigors of Princeton engineering while taking med school prereqs and maintaining a decent gpa? Is this common at Princeton? I am deciding between applying to Princeton and Penn bioengineering early so I would appreciate any direction.
Thanks
A CBE major will take almost all or perhaps all of the premed required courses.
Compare the CBE requirements
http://www.princeton.edu/cbe/undergrad/requirements/
with premed requirements and you can see that taking all premed courses is almost automatic.
https://admission.princeton.edu/blogs/blogs/10-tips-being-premed-princeton
The Princeton med school admission rate runs 91% to 95% so a 4.0 average is not required to obtain admission to med school from Princeton. My former roommate was an engineering major and is a surgeon today.
The Washington Post had a good article on ED and EA. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/31/a-college-admissions-edge-for-the-wealthy-early-decision/
U of Penn has adopted the philosophy of admitting more than half of their freshman class through Early Decision- meaning if accepted ED you are required to send in your deposit immediately and withdraw all your other college applications. Princeton uses Early Action which means if you are accepted EA you have until May 1st to decide whether to accept to Princeton’s offer of admission. EA provide you with much more flexibility. Penn’s ED admission rate is perhaps three times higher than their Regular Decision admission rate. It is unfortunate for high school students that Penn has stacked the deck to favor wealthy ED applicants.
Princeton has a great CBE program, and like PtonAlumnus said, CBE and premed requirements have a lot of overlap. Engineering at Princeton is definitely difficult, and a “decent” GPA here is different than a “decent” GPA would be at Penn or Harvard. But employers definitely take that into consideration. I’m majoring in mechanical engineering here, and love it!