Cell and Molecular Bio and Biomedical Engineering Major?????

College Majors
1

Hi-
As of late, I have decided against pursuing a pre-med or (at certain schools that don’t offer Pre-Med) human biology undergrad in hopes of attending medical school one day. That being said, I feel very lost, as if the security blanket of knowing what I want to do has been snatched from me. My problem is that I love every subject at school; there’s not really one area to which I feel particularly drawn, so not knowing what I want to do means REALLY having no idea.
For me, the downsides of becoming an M.D. involve the huge commitment in terms of time and money that it would require. I do not like the idea of not being able to begin my career until I am almost 30, and the rigorous volunteer and research requirements needed for applying to a professional school throughout your undergraduate seem like they would consume my entire youth. Believe me, I’m not really a party gal, but I would like some time to enjoy myself.

A little bit about me: I am 18 years old, a female, and the valedictorian of my 225 person high school. I’ve taken many AP classes, including AP Chemistry and AP Calculus AB, which I scored high enough to fulfill credit hours at all the colleges I’m looking at. Right now, I am in between University of Michigan (LSA) and the Honors College at Michigan State University (where I would get an automatic paid research job my freshman year).

Now that I have decided against committing to the grueling process that seems to be med school, however, my decision on where to go/what to do has gotten even tougher, and I could really use some unbiased advice.

Although I don’t know exactly what I want to do, I think I would like to still pursue a career in STEM. Recently, I have been looking into the Cell and Molecular Biology and Biomedical Engineering Major at U of M (http://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/academics/degrees-requirements/joint-degrees/engineering.html). This sounds awesome! A 5-year program toward your masters, and it combines alll the science disciplines with an element of creativity that I would not have in a strictly clinic setting.

So… does anyone have any extra information on this program? Stories of your own experience? Do you think I would be able to succeed in this? Will it only be 5 years or am I misinterpreting this?

Also, this major is only offered at UMich, not at MSU, so I would be giving up the paid research opportunity (Professorial Assistantship) as well as the $8,000/yr scholarship that I received to MSU, while I received only $1,500 (for the first year only) to UMich.

I am very conflicted; please help!

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First things first, are you asking for advice for picking between UMich & MSU?

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STEM is a career field with lots of varied ares: biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, agricultural sciences, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics, earth/atmospheric sciences, statistics…the list goes on. And then there are subdivisions of those. Both Michigan and Michigan State offer lots of majors in these areas. I started to type out a full list and stopped because just the Michigan State majors were getting way too long.

Are you actually interested in the biological sciences? Or are you moving onto this because it seems like the next natural thing to be interested in once you decided against medicine?

One important thing to keep in mind is that you have to gain admission into this program twice - once, you have to apply to both departments (which you can only do after completing the prerequisites with a 3.2 or higher), and again, you have to apply to the MS phase at the end of your third year (which happens automatically if you continue to maintain a 3.2 or higher).

The additional money at Michigan State and the paid research job, as well as admission to the Honors College, are things you should definitely take into consideration. With the money you save ($32,000 over four years), that’s enough to pay for at least one year of an expensive master’s degree somewhere else. And depending on your major, you may not need a master’s degree right away.

I think if you are still undecided and exploring you shouldn’t necessarily jump into something else right away. Take your time to explore. There are plenty of really, really interesting science majors (and minors) at LSA, and you’d have to do a year at LSA first before getting into this program anyway. I wouldn’t turn down the money and experience at Michigan State (assuming you are actually interested in research) just for the opportunity to do this program. But if you decided on Michigan solely because you liked it more, take your time to investigate lots of science majors and see which one you like!