Hey everyone,
I got accepted into Mines EA through the Golden Admission application. I’m currently trying to decide between Mines and University of Colorado-Boulder. I’m an IB student taking HL Bio, HL English Lit, HL Euro History, SL Spanish, SL Math, and SL Chem. (My school had limited options when it came to IB classes). Anyways, I plan to major in chemical engineering as well as pre-med. Would Mines be a good fit for me? Is pre-med at Mines as good as other schools? I’m honestly so split between the two schools.
I am an IB diploma candidate as well! I know CU is pretty well known for giving 24 automatic credits (80% of a year) to successful diplomas, but it can vary based on your major (I know engineering majors tend to get less credits because classes are usually harder/mandatory). The benefits of Mines are that it is smaller so more time with professors and access to internships/research, they have one of the highest first job salaries in the country, and they have a student body that is 100% STEM meaning there isn’t a lot of segregation between colleges/majors. CU is cheaper, and is a lot bigger. Honestly if you were considering doing STEM and liberal arts, CU would be better because there are a lot more majors/minors to chose from and it’s easier to double major (or minor) in two completely separate subjects. CU is in Boulder which is much larger and more of a college town than Golden. I am not going to Mines or CU, but there definitely was a time where I thought they were going to be my only options. I was leaning towards Mines because I liked the environment there better, but I knew that at the end of the day I could not afford it. Hope this helped!
Chemical engineering is the one field where Mines and CU are both excellent. CU has a slightly more biological focus, with a big biochemistry department, but CU is much bigger with a bigger drop out rate. IB credits will work at either school. Both CU and Mines will require a year of physics, so I hope you both have had honor high school physics, but if not, try to learn some physics, before you get to college using Khan Academy -
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics
For premed, CU does have many connections to the Medical school research in Aurora, on the Anschutz campus. Mines students can also apply and work at the CU Medical school in the summers, too.
Also, chemical engineering will require calculus 1, 2, 3 and probably differential equations at either school.
So review calculus also using Khan Academy, although SL Math is good enough to have an introduction.
You could try to take AB Calculus exam, the AP exam as an IB student, if you feel you have mastered calculus
and want to test yourself. the SL math exam will be less calculus.
IB students can take AP tests, by simply paying. If you have time to study for the calculus AP exam, take it.
That will force you to review calculus in an organized way. If you don’t score well,you then know, you should take Calculus 1 and Mines or CU Boulder.
Mines also has some biological tissue research and drug delivery research too-
https://chemeng.mines.edu/research/
CU Boulder is well ranked in Chemical and Biological engineering, many research programs that might suit a premedical student –
https://www.colorado.edu/chbe/research