<p>Does math or chemistry make more sense to do with a bio major? I'm thinking I'll probably go to grad school, and possibly get a PhD for some specialization involving the two, but which makes more sense?</p>
<p>I'm interested in doing research, consulting, and creating bio related models after I finish school.
Thanks for any advice.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve been looking though websites for Biological Systems programs, and they all say something like this for the requirements: “The most competitive applicants have an undergraduate degree majoring in any of the disciplines in the biological sciences, the physical sciences, computer science, mathematics, and a strong background in the complementary disciplines.”</p>
<p>Would a double major be advantageous in the admissions process?</p>
<p>Also, would math or CS be more useful in getting me involved in related research/internships?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>For modeling? I would say either applied math, physics, or cs. I worked in a neurobiology lab doing some computer modeling for a year and I would have to say that majoring in biology wouldn’t be all that useful. In fact my mentor told me this. Being comfortable with mathematical techniques and a programming language would be much more beneficial to you… especially for grad school. The biology you can easily pick up as you go. At least, that has been my experience.</p>
<p>Are you debating between math and chemistry, or math and computer science? CS is the abbreviation for computer science, but you said chemistry in your first post so I’m not sure which you meant.</p>
<p>I’m debating between Math and CS. I’m already planning on doing Biochemistry (similar to micro biology) and whichever of the two I choose would be a second major.</p>
<p>Computer science will likely always be in demand, so I recommend that. It still requires you to learn a decent amount of math, and will give you a useful skill set that you could apply if you want to do computational modeling or if you decide that you’d rather go into industry or hold off on your PhD. Math would also be a solid option, but computer science would give you something to fall back on if you need to.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks guys. I guess Math/CS double major is looking like a better and better option for me. One last thing. I was looking at the more advanced classes at my school, and there is a class on Biological systems, which is one thing I’m really interested for, but it’s intended for only upperclassmen Bioengineers. I had never really considered Bioengineering before, but considering what my career interests are, do you think I should switch to Bioengineering? Or stick with Math/CS?</p>
<p>You certainly can get into modeling in bioengineering. In fact, when I was doing computational neuroscience, I was a bioengineering major. For modeling of physical/biological systems you need to have a good grasp on physics and an engineering degree will definitely give you this. Also, if you find that modeling isn’t for you (which happened to me), then you have something to fall back on. For example, you can get into the instrumentation side of things such as brain-computer interfacing, prosthetics, etc.</p>
<p>Do you have one that you’d recommend more? Or are they both equally viable? Right now it’s pretty much between applied math/CS double major, or just Bioengineering.
I really have no clue if modeling is actually what I want to be doing, but I think I want to go to grad school afterwards for something that relates Math and Bio like Bioinformatics or something similar.
I know that I don’t see myself building machines or something like that. The closest I can see myself to being an engineer is either Computer programming or genetic engineering or something with engineering tissue or something. I’m trying to learn about the two options, but I’m just having trouble finding much.</p>
<p>Also, it’s just Bioengineering, not biomedical.</p>
<p>Personally? I think math/CS will give you more options to jump around and try different fields. With bioengineering, you may have more freedom to do something other than programming, but you are stuck with biological sciences for the most part. This is the reason I ended up switching to physics (it was between that and EE)… Once I started taking classes, I realized biology bored me and earth science was awesome. I’m now doing geophysics research and enjoy the larger scale. Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that math/CS will allow you to jump into essentially any field of science for grad school while bioengineering would be more difficult. A good question to ask yourself is whether you like “hands on” type stuff or more theoretical (thought it’s hard to know for sure until you actually start taking classes and doing research).</p>