<p>So, I'm interested in biomedical engineering at Wash U. I applied regular decision. Can a current student give me a sense for the workload. I know Wash U is very rigorous, but I'm not sure if people have time to relax and have fun sometimes. During the weekends, is everyone studying throughout Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or do most people just study on Sunday? This is kind of an open-ended question, so feel free to respond in anyway you would like from the overall atmosphere to the student body or classes, etc. Any responses are appreciated! Thanks!</p>
<p>It really depends on how long you take in understanding everything. From what I hear from my friends, BME is definitely one of the much harder classes in terms of difficulty and course load, especially if you add courses like physics, gen chem, and calc into the mix. How much you study really depends on how much you want out of it. Some people don’t study much and pull the minimum while others study every single day. If you are premed, BME might even be more stressful as the curve is pretty harsh for the intro class as it tends to weed out people, which can reduce your GPA by quite a bit. That is not to say I am discouraging pre-meds from taking BME, but that in general people struggle more in maintaining a solid GPA within that major, especially in the beginning.</p>
<p>I’m actually a mechanical engineer, but most of my friends are BME’s so I’ll try to answer.</p>
<p>Biomedical engineering is very rigorous here. First off, understand that 4-5 courses is a typical workload per semester for any major. As a mechanical engineer my first semester freshman year, I had three courses required for my major (physics, math and computer-aided design) and then I had the liberty to take two electives. Next semester, I can take three electives since I only have to continue math and physics. On the other hand, my BME friends all have to take 5 classes that are required for the major in both semesters of their freshman year. That is, they won’t have the freedom to take a course of their choosing until at least sophomore year.</p>
<p>Your freshman year will look like this:</p>
<p>Fall: Math, Physics, Intro. to Biomedical Engineering, Gen Chem, Gen Chem Lab
Spring: Math, Physics, Biology, Gen Chem, Gen Chem Lab</p>
<p>*Note that you cannot place out of chemistry if you are pre-med</p>
<p>There’s time to chill on weekends, but there’s also a lot of work to do. Freshman year, it’s a great idea to sign up for a Problem-Solving Team (PST) for BME140 and a Peer-Led Team Learning group (PLTL) for chemistry. These groups meet on either Saturday or Sunday, but they help you out a ton and probably lighten your workload in the long run by helping you understand the material better.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of try-hard who always strives for perfection and has spent hours studying in high school, you’ll be that same person in college. But if you’re looking to do hard work and enjoy some well-earned relaxation, you can do that too.</p>
<p>As a former bme, I can definitely confirm that you’re not studying 24/7.
Freshman year I’d go out both Friday and Saturday.</p>
<p>That being said, it is a lot more work than most other majors.</p>
<p>It really depends on you and your work habits. My first yar, I generally procastinated a lot, had work pile up, and then would study flat out for weeks trying to catch up. My sophomore-senior years, I’ve tried to do assignments and labs soon after announced. There are even some classes I worked ahead in. This allows me much more free time, without the pressure of knowing I was falling behind. My grades also increased dramatically from a B average to mostly A’s. </p>
<p>–>If you stay on top of everything, you’ll have plenty of free time no matter what classes you’re taking (assuming you’re taking ~15ish units).</p>
<p>Hey guys, what’s the big difference b/w the workload/ difficulty of classes of pre-med compared to BME?</p>
<p>BME is a major. A student can major in anything to go pre-med. Pre-med is just a track of classes in order to have the requirements to go to med school. From what I have heard, there are a lot of premeds that major in BME since a lot of the requirements for BME also satisfy the premed requirements. The workload for BME and/or premed is rigorous. I think you have to love science to go that route. I don’t know if I exactly answered your question, but I hope I was able to clarify.</p>
<p>Well im going to say that BME’s workload is harder than that of premed, because with the exception of orgo, you take all of the premed requirements anyway (with harded math to boot). And many people start out saying that they want to major in BME and pursue premed, but then they realize that they don’t want to put in the work required to get a 3.5+ as a BME, so they switch out. </p>
<p>Ravenzcroft hits the nail right on the head when it comes to describing the life of a freshman BME student. It’s a lot of (read: all) science and math, unless you have the misfortune of not placing out of writing 1. Hopefully, this doesn’t really deter anyone who really wants to major in BME. If it does, then you might want to ask yourself why you want to be an engineer.</p>
<p>That is not to say that these classes are impossible, I probably averaged going out 3 or 4 nights a week early in the semester. However, marcdvl is 100% right about getting behind on your work. Most kids who got into WashU never had to work hard in high school, but if you are taking BME, it is not going to be the same. Some kids come into WashU have this figured out and keep up with the work from the start. Some kids, like me, realize that procrastination sucks while they are in the middle of studying for finals. I honestly think i spent more time studying in the last 2 weeks than I did all of high school. And I’m sure some kids don’t have it figured out still. </p>
<p>tl;dr-BME is not a death sentence for your social life. Form good study habits, and you will still have twice the free time that you did in high school.</p>