Looking at a Chem/Biomed Program

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
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<p>Hey,
I'm new to CC, but I had a quick question if anyone is able to answer.</p>

<p>I've been looking a lot on the site and CMU is one of my top schools that I want to go to. I'm most intrigued by the Chemical Engineering program and how it fits together with a double major in Biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>I know to do biomed you're required to take a second, "traditional" engineering discipline so that you don't miss out on some of the universal topics, and I read/calculated that Bio E + Chem E with the BMTE track would be the best way of going about this. I was wondering then if the biomed and chem courses are integrated so that you can learn the fundamentals of chem e and apply it to biomed? Or instead are they two separate degrees/majors with entirely separate course credit requirements?</p>

<p>Another thing that I'm interested in (it sounds a bit cocky, but I want to keep my options open) is that I want to be able to apply to medical school if I'm still interested in it, though right now I feel that I want to be an engineer. My logic behind this is that although right now I want to be an engineer, if I make the choice, the track at most tech schools is pretty much a guaranteed 4-year endeavor with little leeway for switching around outside of the engineering departments. I want to combine engineering material with medical material in a research lab (end goal). Luckily, with the track I mentioned about (CE+BME with BMTE track), it is possible to do the course requirements for CMU's HPP. My concern though is... how tough would this be? It says students have done it, but are there any students here in this forum that could give me their experiences with this track or know of friends who've done it?</p>

<p>My questions, to recap,</p>

<p>1) Are biomed and chem integrated if I so choose to do the double major program?
2) Is it a ridiculous load to expect to be able to do all of this and still try to apply to medical school? If so, I can look elsewhere for pure BME programs that don't require a second degree, but I really love the feel for CMU and have been excited when I visited</p>

<p>More general questions:</p>

<p>3) How are the extracurriculars? At my school I take pride in being involved in a couple of different activities and like to put my all into it outside of the classroom (though if I pursue the track above, I don't know the likelihood of this). Are EC's pursued by many CMU students?</p>

<p>4) I heard that there isn't much social life, but I've always been of the opinion that you've gotta find fun for yourself anyways. Is there a lot to do in nearby Pittsburgh? Do we see students from the nearby colleges pretty often throughout the city?</p>

<p>Please let me know if you can answer any of these; I'll be much obliged!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>BME is a major designed with the idea everyone in the class will be double majoring (or at least picking up a minor), so there will be a lot of ways to try and mix what you’re learning in the two classes. Keep in mind there are four other majors that are designed to go with BME, so ChemE isn’t considered in any sort of special way by the BME professors. I know about half of my classmates in Materials Science (which, honestly, you should look at doing if you’re interested in medical materials and not chemical/drug interactions themselves) were double majors with BME. A lot of them were able to combine their senior projects for materials and BME, so it definitely made that last term easier.</p>

<p>One of my friends did ChemE & BME and wound up going to med school. It’s certainly doable, but ChemE is a really tough major everywhere, and the lower grades associated with it can make med school admission difficult.</p>

<p>ECs at CMU are fine. You’ll find you’re generally better off choosing just a few activities to be involved in since they’re typically a larger time commitment than what you have in HS.</p>

<p>Social life at CMU is fine as long as you can get yourself to leave your dorm room. There’s a lot of school sponsored activities (and clubs) and if you’re interested in fraternities/sororities it’s certainly available. The city of Pittsburgh is great for college, as there’s pretty decent public transit (which is free with your student ID), it runs until 2 AM, the city is inexpensive, and there’s actually pretty decent food all over the place. Pittsburgh has a lot of different neighborhoods, each with their own personality, so there’s always somewhere to explore.</p>