<p>1) Is it like Biology where you memorize a lot, or is a lot more math and critical thinking?
2) Is it hard to get good grades or easier than other engineering majors like computer engineering
3) Finally, what is life after bioengineering after graduation, such as pay and job opportunities, compared to computer engineering </p>
<p>Some background: I have been accepted to a college for computer engineering, but I want to switch to bioengineering to knock out pre-med requirements. But I also heard you need good grades for pre-med and engineering is not exactly the 4.0 giver</p>
<p>Bio-medical Engineering is best pursued at the graduate level. A B.S. degree in Bio-medical engineering will yield less desirable job opportunities than most other engineering degrees. There are an ample amount of physics, mathematics, and biology classes in an undergraduate curriculum. Just like any other engineering major, bio-medical engineering majors must work very hard in order to do well in their classes.</p>
<p>Medical schools take into account the difficulty of engineering compared to other subject areas when computing their GPA standards for each respective major.</p>
<p>An Engineering GPA of 3.5 is approximately equivalent to a Biology GPA of 3.9</p>
<p>Possibly the most blatantly incorrect statement I’ve seen on these forums. An engineering GPA according to actual statistics of students admitted to medical school is given virtually no extra weight. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for engineering premeds, med school admissions is a GPA/MCAT game, the higher the better.</p>
<p>PLEASE look this up and do not be misled by people like the above poster who feel that just because engineering seems harder than other majors they must have more weight in med school admissions. It’s your future, don’t take my word for it and don’t take alchemist007’s word for it either. Find the statistics, they are widely available. </p>
<p>Also, this statement seems to make the assumption that a 3.5 is equivalent to a 3.9 in biology. That is also statistically incorrect. At Georgia Tech, for example, the average GPA of engineering majors is HIGHER than pure science majors like biochem, bio, and chem.</p>
<p>In response to your questions:
I don’t believe biology at the college level is all about memorization, but I (as a non-BME engineering student) haven’t taken bio. But to answer your question, all engineering majors will be about critical thinking and problem solving and while you will need to learn lots of information and theories, you will be required to apply them as well. Your tests won’t ask you what velocity is, they’ll make you figure out what initial velocity an arrow needs to have to hit a falling coconut. Engineering majors are all similar (perhaps save Industrial). BME will involve a lot of physics like any other engineering major.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Depends on the school but it should be generally the same. Everyone likes to sit around and talk about which engineering major is harder. The truth is they are pretty similar in difficulty for the most part.</p></li>
<li><p>BME job prospects aren’t as good as other engineering majors. CompE grads have average-ish job prospects. A lot of them end up being programmers rather than hardware guys. Pay is pretty situational. Payscale.com and BLS.gov can give you some very generalized statistics, but they depend on region, school, GPA, etc. Engineering job prospects are extremely cyclical. In 2005, civil engineers were making bank. In the middle of the recession, nobody was building anything. Salary for both majors is rumored to be similar, for those who do find jobs in their field.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You heard KamelAkbar, take peoples words on the internet with a grain of salt. It is your responsibility to do your own research. I recommend emailing credible sources such as college advisers and asking them your questions. The emails and numbers of many credible people can be found through college websites. Although I was wrong about how Medical schools treat low GPAs regardless of major, You can be sure that the other information I gave is true and comes from sources such as the BLS and college website 4 year curriculum sheets.</p>
<p>Thank you both.
I realize that a high GPA is critical, but I still want to do engineering, in case I don’t make it into Medical School. I would hate to major in Biology and then not get into Medical School you see.</p>