<p>I've applied as a CSE (comp sci/engineering) major at UCLA and I'm considering pursuing a career in medicine. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'd like to maybe take the pre-med classes (bio and so forth) so I can take the MCAT and decide what I'd like to do, etc. So my question is this.. is it feasible to graduate in 4 years as such a major with pre med classes? I assume I could fill up some elective units with these classes so it wouldn't increase my course load too much.</p>
<p>I wouldn't mind taking a summer quarter or two's worth of classes, but I do want to have time for a social life too :P .</p>
<p>(I asked the same question on the UC Berkeley forums and was met with a resounding "it'll be torture" response; I'm wondering if the same is true of UCLA :) )</p>
<p>Why not just do Chemical engineering with the biomedical option, or Bioengineering. I think they cover the pre-reqs for med school, although you'd need to take 1 more writing class as HSSEAS only requires 1 writing II course and I believe, 1 more biology class in addition to the majors 2(or 3, depending on the major) life science/biology courses.</p>
<p>doubt it. i'm cse and i don't see where you'd be able to fit in the classes in the regular year without summer session (but you said you might take summer so i wouldn't know about that) but i would probably agree with berkeley that it'd be torture :p</p>
<p>i would advise against engineering+premed. gpa is one of the most important factors when you apply for med school, and those engineering courses are really bad for your gpa.</p>
<p>btw, it's near impossible to do it in 4 years. most engineers take 5 years without premed. add premed in and you're looking at a long time at ucla.</p>
<p>dt_, look up "cis study area ucla" and look at the requirements for the majors that you're interested in. Go to <a href="http://www.career.ucla.edu%5B/url%5D">http://www.career.ucla.edu</a> and scroll down to the pre-health section and read about pre-med requirements. After that, you can get an idea of what courses you can take in your first few quarters here before choosing pre-med, engineering, or whatever.</p>
<p>Thanks mme-lin, that's an excellent resource :) but I'm a bit confused about the chemistry requirement (as seen here</a>).
It says </p>
<p>
[quote]
Life science or non-science majors: Chemistry 14A, 14B/BL, 14C/CL, 14D; plus 153A/L (biochemistry).</p>
<p>Physical, life or non-science majors: Chemistry 20A, 20B/L, 30A/AL, 30B/BL, 30C*; plus 153A/L
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Both of those mention "non-science majors"; what's the difference? (I assume any of the engineering majors count as "non-science"?)</p>
<p>Also, if I were to take 3 summer quarters (intense, I know) and a medium to slightly heavy course load during the main school year, would it be possible to feasibly graduate CSE+PreMed in 4 years? I wonder if it'd be notably easier at UCLA or UCSD than at Berkeley EECS for instance :p (which I hear is ridiculously difficult)</p>
<p>CSE takes the 20 series, they don't need to take 20B i believe(or was that EE?) but if you want to do premed you have to continue to 20B and you can't go to 14 series once you start 20 series... my roomate is doing engineering+ premed and he said it might take him 5 years with him coming in with a lot of units... I think he is a junior standing now with only 1 quarter of UCLA classes</p>
<p>You'd have to take 2 quarters of biology on your own (1 quarter for GE I think), then Chem 20B, organic chemistry series, the labs, and 2 more quarters of English (assuming you take English Comp 3) just as a starter. Medical schools prefer that core courses like chem and bio be taken at your university and not a CC, so keep that in mind before overloading summer with classes as well D:</p>
i would advise against engineering+premed. gpa is one of the most important factors when you apply for med school, and those engineering courses are really bad for your gpa.</p>
<p>btw, it's near impossible to do it in 4 years. most engineers take 5 years without premed. add premed in and you're looking at a long time at ucla
[/quote]
You're already assuming dt_ can't be a genius. I know people who are doing BE and have membership for TBP. Yes, grades can be difficult for engineering courses, but most aren't impossible to get As in.</p>
<p>
[quote]
they don't need to take 20B i believe(or was that EE?)
[/quote]
Both don't require 20B, unless you're EE-Biomed.</p>
<p>Initially, I would have suggested EE-Bio, but I just noticed you were interested in CS. If you still prefer an engineering major with your path, I'd suggest an engineering option (BE, ChE, EE options).</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
i <em>think</em> engineers are required to take 20A. not sure about CSE, but a lot of my engineering friends took it their first quarter here.
<p>Could you please elaborate? What majors that are suitable for pre-med would have an engineering "option"?</p>
<p>Also, .. what do you mean by "a genius"? ;) I took both AP comp sci classes in high school and got 5's on both exams, but obviously that doesn't qualify me as a genius, and I had a tough time with IB Physics last year (but nearly everyone did, really).</p>
<p>You could do chemE/bioE with a technical breadth area in CS if that's what you want to do. It is very possible to get a good GPA, tough, but possible. (Not that mine is spectacular right now)</p>
<p>Sorry to bump a fairly old thread, but I'm hoping to maybe get some more responses on this. Deuces, how rigorous would a "technical breadth area" in CS be?</p>
<p>You wouldn't survive in 4 years of ChemE with pre-med option. I know that for fact, why? </p>
<p>Most pre-meds in ChemE are 5th years and take very few classes to balance the amount of studying. They stagger their courses so they don't have to take two classes that just are torture. The medical schools they are going to aren't the premier, just so you know. Out of the class of 40 (~3 are going to medical school, ~2 are going to graduate school in ChemE, ~1 is going to pharmacy school, ~1 is trying to get MBA right out of college, rest are going to work/doing 5th year in ChemE).</p>
<p>The salary is good for right out of college, some are already in bid wars and bonuses that break the bank. Even though the economy is in a recession, the job market for chemical engineers is very good due to the baby boomers retiring. </p>
<p>As they say, if you're serious about pre-med, take a major that doesn't take a hit to your GPA. </p>
<ul>
<li>TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>P.S. - Most of the UD ChemE classes are applied physics and physical chemistry based. We don't deal with how to synthesize products, only reaction you ever will see in chemical engineering is</p>
<p>"A + B -> C"
Substitute A, B, C for some chemical. </p>
<p>People think, chemical engineering, you must be good in chemistry. We can do the chemistry, just we really don't care about naming some isomer that has the name that could fill a page. We care more about the physical properties, temperature/pressure and how they affect the system. Is it ideal or nonideal? If we're pumping some fluid, how much pressure is needed, what's the optimum pipe diameter, what happens if we increase the temperature while increasing the pressure and so forth.</p>
<p>Why are some of you guys suggesting chemE or bioE? The OP wanted to do CSE and premed. Yes, the chemE and bioE will cover most of the premed courses, but from what I know, they barely scratch the surface of CSE. Enlighten me if I am wrong. </p>
<p>What I can suggest if to major in biology with an emphasis on computing. Not sure if that is the right name of it and what not, but I am a bio major and I saw it in the catalog. The bio major is VERY versatile and you can customize a lot of it to you liking. I believe that the bio major with an emphasis on computing is basically the bio major, plus knowledge of programming and how to apply that to databases blah blah. Not much hardware stuff, which CSE's main focus is on. I didn't realize that there was a difference between CS and CSE until recently, haha.</p>