engineering with pre-med track

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I've heard that it's difficult to earn a respectable GPA by majoring in an engineering discipline. I'm pretty that I'll be majoring in BME, bioengineering, or ChemE come fall 2009. Most likely I will be on a pre-med track as well. </p>

<p>so can anyone give me insight into how my experience with engineering and pre-med will be? will tough engineering courses hurt my GPA that much for med schools? i know engineering comes with a tough work load, but i think it will be worth it. also, are engineering professors good for recommendations or are pre-med track professors recommended? </p>

<p>any suggestions and experiences would be appreciated!</p>

2

<p>We have at least a couple of biomedical engineering students from JHU in my class. We have some MIT students, too, but I can't remember off the top of my head if they were engineering, too.</p>

<p>In short, engineering and pre-med leading up to a successful round of applications to medical school is certainly doable. How hard it is will depend a lot on you.</p>

3

<p>I'm doing BME for pre-med, and it seems like a major that would be very attractive to not only med school but hospitals who end up hiring you should you successfully graduate from undergrad, make it to med school, and graduate from med school. im working in the BME dept. for a hospital right now and everyone including those i work with, doctors, and the administrative officers who runs the radiology dept say that it is definitely something that stands out for future employers and probably to a certain extent, med school admissions.</p>

<p>That being said, for me, its not been a very easy road so far. Ive just finished my freshman year, and while its been pretty general classes, its been really heavy and it doesnt look like it'll get any lighter/easier. There seems to be a much wider variety of classes you have to take since you'll need bio and chem for the MCATs in addition to a lot of physics and math for your major. I'd say that its definitely the best road to take if you can make it but its pretty risky since it is tough to succeed.</p>

4

<p>ok thanks guys. the general consensus i'm getting from this thread and another one is that BME is a good major with a pre-med track. However, courses are difficult and the course load is heavy. </p>

<p>Do you guys have any other suggestions for any other majors? Also, is bioengineering technically biomedical engineering too?</p>

5

<p>Biomedical Engineering is a subset of Bioengineering with more emphasis on mechanics<->prosthetic<->devices whereas Bioengineering can be more of micro-stuff like tissue engineering.</p>

<p>What type of things do you enjoy? Writing, programming, building, mathematics, philosophy, history? Major in what you enjoy, as opposed to what you think will impress admissions committees. Think about it, you do best in what you enjoy. What if you did engineering just because you wanted to impress people? If you graduate with a subpar gpa, don't get into med school, now you've screwed yourself over big time; not only did you not reach your ultimate goal, you just wasted ~$200K on a degree you will not use since if you don't enjoy it, why would you want to work in that field with the degree? It's a loose loose situation if you don't major in what you enjoy. Just pick a major, score a high gpa, and then come back for application advice.</p>

6

<p>I love math and I'm very interested in science. So I thought engineering would be a great fit. I think I would enjoy a business major as well though. So I'm kind of stuck between the two. I'm not trying to impress anybody. I'm just trying to lay down the tracks for my future and find the easiest, yet best path. The only problem is that I'm basically taking a risk on the major I choose. Okay i like math and science, but how do I know if I'm really going to enjoy my major until I'm actually taking its required courses? </p>

<p>Also, I don't think 200k for an undergraduate degree is worth it for any school especially if you're planning to go to graduate school or med school. That's just unreasonably expensive. </p>

<p>To solve these problems I'm seriously thinking about attending a good public university that I can attend for less than 20k or even for free and possibly double major if possible.</p>

7

<p>I'm in a dilemma similar to this. I'm pretty sure I want to go to medical school and become a doctor. Right now I have two choices for majors: Biology and Biomedical Engineering. Biology would be easy and prolly get me a high GPA, but it has little job prospects. A lot of my friends are doing Bio due to these "advantages". Biomedical Engineering is hard and will bring down my GPA, but can get me a job if I don't want to do medicine.</p>

8

<p>Well, being pre-med doesn't mean you can never switch majors. I forget where the statistics are but the average college student switches majors twice or something like that. Follow what you think you'll like, if you like it, stick with it, if not, you can always change.</p>

<p>That's very true about the $200k thing, but the truth of the matter is that private universities' tuition are on the rise, which will make it even greater for future generations, which is most unfortunate. Public universities are an exceptionally great value and it's great that you choose this route. Also, double major if you truly are interested in them, not to impress (just another friendly reminder).</p>

<p>As with all threads like this, it will end in the following: major in something you enjoy, whether it be biomedical engineering, biology, english literature, computer science, math, art, etc. Just obtain a high gpa, do well on the MCAT and you're golden.</p>

<p>What you need to get out of this is that the MCAT only tests you on the basic pre-reqs (Chem/Orgo/Physics/Bio) and so really, the pre-reqs are all you need to do well on the MCAT. Anything else is just to fluff up your knowledge into a new level, which is not necessary at all. As bigredmed, shadeschildren, and other med students on this forum will tell you, there is not much in undergraduate that will give you such a massive leg up as to warrant majoring in something because you think it gives you an advantage. You will learn all you need in med school and learn all the biology you will need in the first year. Med school goes by very fast in terms of material covered, so even if you had a slight advantage, after the first week or so, you're on level ground again.</p>

<p>/end: majoring in biology will not give you any major advantages besides the fact that the pre-reqs are built into biology majors' curriculum. Other then that, you can major in anything, and just take the pre-reqs on the side.</p>

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<p>astor, thanks for your posts. you've been very helpful. would you say that an engineering and business double major is practical though? would i be able to graduate in 4 years? although i want to go to medical school, i really wouldn't mind getting a masters degree in an engineering discipline or business field, and I think having a bachelors in both would be great. </p>

<p>what do you think? </p>

<p>edit: i will also have AP credit for chemistry, biology, calculus AB/BC, us history, European history, and possibly english and psychology. if i receive college credit for these will that ease my schedule?</p>

10

<p>I'm a pre-med BME, though now I'm thinking I'll probably just go to grad school instead. My problem hasn't been that engineering courses have been lowering my GPA. My problem has been that in semesters where you're expected to have 4 engineering requirements and then a fluff humanities elective, I've had the 4 engineering classes and then orgo, but I gave priority to the engineering classes...leaving my chemistry grades lower. </p>

<p>So now I have a science GPA that's definitely less than stellar, with a much higher engineering GPA.</p>

<p>So my advice to you is to figure out what your priorities are early on.</p>

11

<p>AKittka, more than likely, you will have to retake chemistry and biology, possibly calculus and english as well, most medical schools will want to see that you've taken your prereqs at a university and most will not accept AP credit in lieu of taking classes at a university. But the other AP credit you have should help out in fulfilling gened requirements for your university, which will make your life easier as far as scheduling and not killing yourself every semester.</p>

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<p>yeah i probably wouldn't skip bio/chem classes even if i could. however, i hope i can get credit for my humanities AP scores.</p>

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<p>I wouldnt try and get too overambitious especially if your thinking about doing premed on a biomed track with a business double major. Its hard enough for some people to do just pre-med that they have to first go to grad school and then come back and take the MCATs. Not trying to shoot you down or anything but I too thought I could do this and balance that only to get there and realize how hard it pre-med really is. I stumbled a bit GPA-wise because I tried to do too much so my advice for you is to focus yourself around your classes and organize everything else around it. Your GPA is very important if you want to do medicine and trust me, you dont want to be playing catch up later. Its very tough.</p>

<p>I'm not sure what year your in but as for what undergrad school you attend, I'd advise one that you can afford not only to save yourself money that you can save up for med school but also because you really dont need to go to a great school for undergrad if you feel like you cant afford it or cant keep up once your there.</p>

<p>One of the interventional radiologists that i shadowed even told me that it didnt even really matter what med school you went to so imagine what he'd say about undergrad (of course when i asked, he said he attended to Northwestern's med school so...yeah). Interestingly, he also said that most (or at least some) of the stuff they taught in med school was useless and what mattered was getting into a really good residency program ("I mean who's really going to ask about the kreb cycle during an operation" he said).</p>

<p>Anyways, hope this helps.</p>

14

<p>I'll second swim4china89. Take it one at a time. Start with one major, the one you're more set on, and do pre-med with that. You can always throw in another major later on if you decide you can handle the workload. Best to go bottom up than top down and realize it's too much and have already wasted some course slots. Work your way up.</p>

15

<p>bioengineering / systems biology = the future of biology and medicine. i would say that it is, in itself, distinct from the field of biomedical engineering.</p>

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<p>i know that double majoring with a pre-med track would be tough. i'm just having second thoughts on med school seeing how competitive and expensive it is. in the end i probably won't double major unless i don't take a pre-med track. </p>

<p>edit:i'm a rising senior in high school. just looking very far ahead in the future.</p>

17

<p>As a bioengineer, I recommend engineering as a premedical major.</p>

<p>Engineering is no cake walk. But, neither is medical school. You will get a very good preparation for medical school as a bioengineer.</p>

<p>As a medical school applicant, I feel like I'm in a really good position. Not only does engineering make my academic record a bit more eye catching to admissions, but having an engineering degree also provides a fantastic plan B...so I haven't had to agonize over the possibilility that I won't get in to medical school. Worst case senario, I stay at my school to complete a biomedical engineering masters degree and reapply to med schools and some grad schools next year.</p>

<p>Engineering may have lowered my GPA slightly, my AMCAS application was verified last week, and I ended up with a 3.58 . Not an off the charts score, but enough to be competitive, especially with a course load averaging about 20 credits a semester.</p>

<p>Also, I didn't realize until this year, that engineering courses don't count towards your science GPA...so if something goes wrong in a really difficult upper level engineering class, it won't hurt your BCPM GPA.</p>

<p>Whatever you decide to do, I cannot emphasize enough that there is no "best major" for a premedical student. You can major in whatever you want, as long as you take the required classes. You are most likely to stand out in a major that you are interested in and thoroughly enjoy. Good luck!</p>

18

<p>thanks for the post Stplayrxtreme. i'm assuming medical school is much more difficult than getting an engineering degree. so if i can't handle an engineering load then i definitely won't be able to handle medical school. hopefully i will be able to though.</p>