<p>I've been previously considering on taking BioME for a graduate major, but I was also wondering if Medicine would become an easier and shorter route if I want to stay out of any serious engineering math courses. Would I regret not taking BioME, and taking Medicine instead?</p>
<p>While medicine is much less math-intensive than BME, medicine is not the “easier and shorter route”.</p>
<p>You can finished a MEng in BME in 2 years easily. A MD takes 4 years of school plus another 3-8 years of post-graduate training (residency + fellowship) before you’re a fully qualified physician. </p>
<p>An engineering grad degree is much less expensive. Many employers will pay you to take grad classes and most PhD engineering programs are fully funded. (IOW, you get paid to be student.) Med school is expensive and there is very little financial aid except for unsubsidized loans. The average med student graduates around $200K in debt. (And debts of $350K+ are not unusual.) </p>
<p>And IIRC, graduate BME has no additional math requirements beyond those already required for a BS in engineering/math/comp sci/chemistry/physics. </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>On the off chance you’re talking about undergraduate engineering vs. pre-med: pre-med requires 1 semester of calc & stats; engineering requires 3 semesters of calc plus linear analysis.</p>
<p>I feel like the math level requirements would differ between specific 4 year universes, because I know that UCLA definitely goes past calc for math requirements. </p>
<p>Also, would the 3-8 year post-graduate program be with my medicine major, or just pre-med overall? </p>
<p>In the US, you need to complete a 4 year baccalaureate degree before you can be admitted to medical school. (You can major in any field so long as you complete all pre-med requirements: gen chem, ochem, biochem, physics, bio, calc 1, stats, English/writing, sociology, psych.) Medical school is another 4 years after your BS/BA. Residency is 3-5 years post med school graduation and fellowship is another 1-4 years post residency.</p>
<p>Residency & fellowship are specialty training programs. You simply do not graduate from med school and start practicing medicine. You pick an area for further study. (For example, pediatrics requires 3 years residency plus 1-3 additional years of fellowship training. General surgery residency is 5 years plus an additional 1-3 years of fellowship training.) Residency is required for medical licensing. Without completing residency, you cannot practice medicine anywhere in the US. Fellowships are optional but are becoming more and more expected for employment.</p>
<p>If you really wanted to, you could major in BioE and apply to med school. BioE covers most of the pre-med requirements.</p>
<p>I looked at UCLA’s math requirements for Bioeng. It has basically the same math requirements as every other BME program I’ve looked at: Calc 1, 2, 3 (though it appears UCLA divides Calc 3 into 2 quarters–Ds’ semester based colleges taught multivariable calc in a single semester) , plus linear analysis with differential equations (2 quarters at UCLA, but a single semester-long course at most colleges). A quarter course only is worth 2/3 of the credit of a semester long course. (6 quarter classes = 4 semesters) So not more math requirements–just divided up differently</p>