<p>I was accepted to Cornell's College of Engineering as a Bioengineering major. However, I am not sure this is the best route to take as a premed; thus, I have considered a Biology major. </p>
<p>Lately, however, I have been hearing that engineering students are much more prepared for their exams (as compared to Bio majors); is this true? Which major would best prepare me for medical school and which would leave me with the best gpa?</p>
<p>I personally chose to go the biology route at my university since it seems to offer more options in the long run and really you are as prepatred as you strive to be regardless of your major</p>
<p>give it a try…if you dont like it switching should be easy if you kept decent grades…</p>
<p>Compared to the engineering courses, the premed requirements are a walk in the park. As far as being more prepared for the MCATs, the BioEng classes cover completely different material than the science that’s on the MCATs, therefore they are of no help for the MCATs. If you know you want premed, then engineering is going to make your life more difficult than it has to be. However, if you later decide against medicine/don’t get accepted, with a degree in engineering you have a skill and will have an easier time getting a job than if you are a bio major. There are those that do BioEng & go to med school, but they work incredibly hard.</p>
<p>You can try the BioEng & if you don’t like it, you can always switch to Bio. If you’re only doing BioEng to go to med school, I advise against it.</p>
<p>What about all the rumors that the Biology and science intro courses in general are so difficult? I hear that the exams are very open-ended, whereas engineers are much more prepared due to the large number of problem sets they receive daily.</p>
<p>why work hard now and get burned for med school?</p>
<p>i mean either way it’s hard work, you can’t get into med school without a solid gpa.</p>
<p>some people use engineer as backup incase they dont get into med school, but being an engineer lowers your chances of getting into med school cause of lower gpa. like what they said above, if you want to get into med school more than being an engineer, do another major, unless you are certain in your abilities that you will ace every class. there probably are some possible overlaps with pre med requirements and engineer requirements like chem/physics, not sure if they overlap with bioengineer though</p>
<p>How would Cornell’s pre-med advising/program compare to that of, say, Johns Hopkins or WashU?</p>
<p>I agree completely with Anbu.</p>
<p>Regarding the overlap of pre med requirements & bioeng, there is some overlap, specifically for intro bios & physics. There are differences in chemistry & you need to look carefully at what you take for bioeng, or you’ll have to retake it for premed. BioEngs need to take only 1 semester of intro chem (I don’t remember the course #), but make sure that you can take 208 after that (premeds need 207 & 208). BioEngs need to take 1 semester of organic 257, premeds 357 & 358. </p>
<p>With regards to problem sets preparing you for intro bio & science, I can’t imagine problem sets helping with intro to bio, not to mention that intro bio is your 1st & 2nd semesters, way before you’d reap any benefits from daily problem sets. Orgo might seem easier for bioeng majors, but I’d never suggest majoring in it for that reason.</p>
<p>I know several kids who are bioeng majors with great gpas who hope to go to med school, but certainly aren’t the majority. They work incredibly hard. If you have no interest in engineering, don’t do it.</p>
<p>I am currently a premed bioengineer minoring in biomedical engineering. Premed engineering is definitely much more difficult than being a bio or chem major however it is definitely doable. I came to Cornell thinking i was going to transfer out of engineering because of the difficulty but now Im not even considering it. While intro courses in engineering are curved to low means, major courses have much nicer curves. Additionally, you get to take really interesting courses such as tissue engineering that you wouldnt be able to take in Arts. To satisfy Premed requirements you have to take about 4 extra classes outside the major which will lead to some heavy semesters but as long as youre genuinely interested youll do fine. Don’t transfer because youre too worried about Med School, it will always be there however if you transfer youll be missing out on a really interesting and important major. </p>
<p>Plus Premed courses like Chem will seem so easy as an engineer.</p>
<p>^Med school will always be there. Doesn’t mean you’ll be part of it =(</p>