I am currently a freshman in Cornell’s College of Engineering. I had applied to Cornell Engineering hoping to be a biomedical major and pre-med. However, I have now learned one semester in that such a task will be incredibly difficult, seeing as the beginning engineering courses (i.e. calc for engineers, chem for engineers, etc.) are extremely difficult and tend to curve against you (with the average curving to a B- at best). I know that med schools look at a number of factors when viewing your application, including your GPA. I need to know what science majors related to pre-med at Cornell will produce higher GPAs, any major at all even if it isn’t in the engineering. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
It is incredibly hard to receive a high GPA in engineering, however I wouldn’t pick your major just looking for the most easy classes. To some extent medical schools are looking at how difficult your classes, and of course your college, are. If you are truly committed to medical school as a pre-med the more popular majors would be chemistry/biochemistry/biology.
I’m a non-pre med sophomore BME at Cornell, and I will say it’s not necessarily easy to do both premed and biomedical engineering here from what I’ve seen from my peers who are doing both. Particularly because you have to add a few chemistry courses to the mix.
But GPA does tend to rise sophomore year if you learned good habits freshman year, so your GPA could rise to the level you want.
Just keep on working hard and you might see you can get the GPA you want. It’s not the end of the world after just one semester.