<p>I can give a little bit of insight, considering I’ve dabbled into the fields of BME, ChemE, as well as MechE.</p>
<p>I’ll first start off by saying that you have lots of time. Assuming you’re not coming in with too much AP credit, the classes you’ll be taking freshman year are pretty much the same for all engineering fields. Physics, chemistry, math, maybe comp sci, rhetoric, and some intro classes. Depending on the curriculum, you’ll also probably take core classes such as thermodynamics. Use these to really hone in on what you’re interested in.</p>
<p>If you’re still debating towards the end of freshman year, then I’d look at what you want to do. I agree with a lot of what you said. At face value, ChemE might be far more superior to BME. ChemE graduates consistently out earn all of their engineering counterparts, except petroleum/nuclear engineers. Also, whereas for industry or research, BME is mostly stuck in healthcare, ChemE’s can go do many different fields, such as energy, pharmaceutical sciences, manufacturing processes, oi/gas, and healthcare as well. The flexibility is a big plus. And even though BME opportunities are expected to keep rising, the ChemE demand has almost always been high and will stay that way for as far as anyone can tell.</p>
<p>As for pre-med, it really depends on your school’s curriculum. I can’t say for Georgia Tech for sure, but where I go (Case Western), if you declare the pre-med track, a lot of the courses in the curriculum changes so that you complete the med school requirements as well as the ChemE course requirements so that you can graduate on time with a ChemE degree and be ready to attend med school. I think most people don’t associate ChemE with med school so this path is often overlooked. I would talk with your advisor asap on this to confirm it won’t be too big of a pain.</p>
<p>This is my two cents, and I’m sure you can also pick the brains of the different chairs/professors in both departments to look at your options. I’m sure both departments will try to convince to stay in their area and it might be entertaining to see the different arguments. Just a note, don’t pick something because other people told you to, or because they convinced you. If you don’t like what you’re doing, you’ll have wasted 4 years of your time and money and you don’t want to wake up for the next 50 years of your life dreading the rest of day. Pick the field that makes YOU happy. The strength and weaknesses in a field may not be the strengths and weaknesses to you.</p>