<p>I am going to be senior in high school next year and I'm dedicated to attending med school. I have heard from many people that biological sciences are the best way to prepare for med school. I have also heard that the reasoning and the abstract thinking that is involved in an engineering degree can help as well. Has anyone here heard of a double major in biology and general engineering and if so, how hard is it? Does anyone have a better suggestion? I guess what I'm looking for is a major/s that will prepare me for med school. I was also considering BE but I was concerned with its scope.</p>
<p>I'm MechE and it would have been hard for me to do the pre-med track at my school. A lot of the classes that you need (organic chem, bio, etc) are usually not part of an engineering curriculum. Thats just my experience. I'm not sure about other disciplines.</p>
<p>You might want to look into ChemE. Most ChemE programs that I have seen require at least 1 semester of Orgo and some of the other med school requirements, so that may make the number of extra courses you need less. Some Schools with BME departments offer a Pre-Med BME track.</p>
<p>Doing the premed curriculum, working at hospitals/doing research/etc, keeping a very high gpa, and rocking the MCAT's are the best way to med school. Engineering tends to be very gpa-deflated, so unless you want to do it, there are better ways of getting into med school.</p>
<p>That said, a premed bme/bioe track may be a safe bet for you if you do in fact want to have an engineering background.</p>
<p>what do you think about a double major? possibly biomedical engineering and biology since some of the classes would overlap... is that too hard?</p>
<p>There is a good deal of overlap and therefore is possible, but again - for med school, your gpa is much more important than any advantage from a double degree, especially if that second degree is in a very related field.</p>
<p>If you are set on that path, look into applying to 7-8-year hybrid programs. These are great because they guarantee you admission into med schoo.</p>
<p>in course requirements, biomedical engineering and biology overlap possibly in only biology, math, and chemistry. biomedical engineering courses mostly likely can't count towards a biology degree. The fundamental concepts involving biology might be the same, but the courses will differ vastly.</p>
<p>thank you for the information ecnerwalc3321. Slorg, what is a 7-8 year hybrid program.</p>
<p>Joint BS/MD programs:</p>
<p>Yeah all of these are good suggestions. It will definetly depend on what school you're going to and how they handle credits in different programs. I'm personally a ChemE (as you may have noticed) It's basically a Chemistry degree with a ton of math. All that math may not be usefull to a pre-med. I've also got a degree in BioChem which I think would help immensly. If you like math see if you can go into ChemE specializing in BioChem (ie. Pharmaceutical directional). Then take some anatomy courses as electives (as I did)
I was playing with the notion of med school at the time but decided for my PhD in ChemE instead.</p>
<p>I like math a lot and from what i've heard, engineering can be infinitly harder than a biology degree. My goal was to develop the thinking strategies of an engineer. The problem solving skills, that you develop as an engineer, (I'm sure) could help me a ton in med school. Also, med school admission counsolers must get sick of seeing all the applicants with biology degrees. Do you think theyd take into account that engineering is much more difficult? My aspiration is to get into a top 10 med school and I want to know everything I can do to increase my chances of admisson. btw, please dont direct me to the premed forum. They are not very helpful...<br>
Your opinions are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Re: Effect of major on med school admissions. A good friend of mine was a BME major in undergrad and just started med school at a top 20 med school without a perfect undergrad gpa, he asked the same question about how an adcom would view a BME gpa vs. a Bio gpa vs. a Psych gpa from some of the pre-med advisors, med school admissions staff, professors etc. The general response was that they took note of your major but it didn't make much of a difference if any. It's possible some med schools treat this differently but it's not guaranteed. Doing what karthhikito suggested would probably be more beneficial and also doing things that you're genuinely interested in regardless if they're related to medicine or not can't hurt either.</p>