I need to choose a major to apply to college and I’m choosing between Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemical-Biological Engineering, or chemistry.
I want to go to medical school, most probably with an MD-PhD. I’m basically interested in biotech and pharmaceuticals, so I’d really appreciate it if someone could tell me what would be best to major in. I know I want to study something related to medicines and drugs.
Each college has different programs so I’m a little unsure of what to apply for. I’m not really interested in medical devices; my interests are closer to chemistry.
If you want to do Biomedical Engineeringish stuff, from talking to a professor who has worked in industry they think it better to major in Electrical/Chemical/Mechanical/Materials engineering and then you can take more Bio med classes or learn on the job about the bio stuff.
I would pick out something like Chemical Engineering to start with and then see if you can focus it toward Bio chemical engineering when you get to college.
Do you want to design new drugs? Or new drug delivery systems (implantable materials or nano-devices)?
The former is more biochemistry/molecular biology. Engineering is more process -oriented and more likely to do the latter.
Do you want to spent 100% of your time in the lab doing research? Or do you want to participate in hands-on patient care?
If your goal is to spend 100% of your time in the lab, then a MD/PhD is the wrong path for you. MD/PhDs split their time between research and clinical duties. Most splits are 30-70 or 50-50 lab/patient care, though at a few very high powered & generous programs the split is 70-30. If you want to spend 100% of your time on research, then you really want a PhD. (And a PhD will get you into the lab about 7 years sooner than MD/PhD will since you get to skip the 4 years of med school plus the 3-7 years of residency.)
One consideration–engineer majors tend to have a more difficult time maintain the high GPA needed for MD admissions. (3.7+ was the median GPA for admitted MD students last year. It was even higher for MD/PhDs.)
As @bopper mentioned, you don’t need to major in a biomedical engineering type field to work in the BME industry/research. ChemE, EE, MechE, material science and physics majors will also allow entry into biomedical engineering jobs. Many entry level BME jobs require a MS degree.
(I’ll mention here that D1 was a physics major and she was able to apply for MD/MS programs for BME without any issues. D2 spent 2 years doing BME research & was offered a place in a big name MS BME program before she went to med school; she was a biological neuroscience & mathematics double major. IOW, there are plenty of ways to get where you want to go by taking additional coursework and getting involved in research that emphasizes your focus of interest during undergrad.)
@FireReed Since you have stated you are not interested in devices, Biomedical may not interest you.
Rather explore Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemical-Biological Engineering.
Remember though every one does a major and that forms only 36-45 credits. You can always take more courses which are interest to you related in Pharma and Medicine with a related major. Once you finalize a college, explore along with advisers.
True for arts and sciences majors; for engineering, including co-reqs, the number is probably closer to 60-72 credits. Engineers
have a lot less space in their undergrad requirements than do LAS majors.
Another path to doing drug research is a PharmaD or PharmaD + PhD. Or DVM/PHD.
I used to work at a biomedical research institute that did mostly basic (not [translational](https://www.ucdavis.edu/one-health/translational-research/)) research. The institute had zero engineers working there. (We don’t market or manufacture our patents. We hire outside firms to do that or sell the patents.) Lots of PhDs in chem, biochem, molecular bio, biophysics, neuroscience, genetics. A few MD/PhDs. Several DVM/PhDs. (more of those than MD/PhDs actually). And a handful of plain MDs (who ran our clinical trials).
A MD interested in research (translational, not basic–to do basic research you really have to have a PhD), you can pursue a research fellowship after you complete your residency. NIH, CDC, HHMI and a number of other specialized research programs offer them.
It all really depends on what exactly your interests are. There are many paths that will lead you to the same place professionally.
Engineering majors typically require 30-32 or so credits of math and natural science plus at least (often substantially more than) 45-48 or so credits of engineering science and engineering design. This means a minimum of 75-80 credits for the major, but many engineering majors at many schools require substantially more than that (up to about 100 credits out of the four year total of 120-128 credits). Some of the remaining space must be used for humanities and social studies general education courses.
The math and natural science will have some overlap with pre-med requirements, but (a) engineering majors typically have to take more advanced math than pre-meds, (b) engineering majors typically have to take a more math-intensive version of physics, and (c) engineering majors typically do not have biology (except biomedical), biochemistry, or organic chemistry (except biomedical or chemical) in their required science courses, and some may not have statistics (or at least as a well defined course that can be listed as such for pre-med purposes).