Engineering and fabrication

How is biomedical engineering for a major if you want to go to a medical school?

I will be going to college next fall, and I 'm interested in biomedical engineering because I want to be better prepared to get into a medical school. I was wondering... 1. What kind of courses you take if you major in biomedical engineering? 2. Also, do I need to apply to a engineering college in a university to take a biomedical engineering major? Or can I apply to a science&arts college? 3. How is it compared to a biology or biochemistry major? Is biomedical engineering a lot harder?

Public Comments

1. Well, I don't know a whole lot about biomedical engineering, but it is probably too ambitious. Usually only people who want to be engineers would go into that. And engineering is HARD. I would stick to bio, chem or biochem major.

   First of all, you should find out what schools offer biomed engineering that you want to go to. From that schools website you can see what the required courses are. But seriously, you should just major in science if you want to go to med school.



2. BioMed Eng or Molecular Bio will give you a good base for Med school. Just remember to choose your electives with an eye on what classes you will need to get into the Med school of your choice.

   BioMed Eng is not so hard if you are good at the hard sciences like physics and math. And it depends on the school whether you go in through the Eng school or S&A.



3. I posted the url below for the Biomedical Engineering Society that may provide better answers to your questions (including how to pick a school).

   Answering your question is a bit difficult. If your intent is to become a primary care physician then a biomedical engineering background is not going to be any better of an asset than a music major. But if your intent is to become a physician engaged in biomedical engineering research, then certainly, any undergrad coursework would be perceived in a favorable manner.

   Most med schools are advising students to only take the prereq science courses and to fill out their degree requirements in other, non-science, programs. Of course, the exception to that is if you plan on going into research. Then, med schools do expect you to be somewhat of a nerd (said affectionately). But if you want to treat patients, then they want you to be "normal".

   It all comes down to whether you want to know how to repair the equipment or to know how to use and interpret the equipment's results.