Cole

Hello!

I am currently a freshman at Penn State. I have been limboing around between different majors just in my first three months at UP--and wanted some advice from some more seasoned experts.

I am currently enrolled in the Engineering School. We do not have to declare any major until our second semester of Sophomore year, so I have time to settle. I would like to potentially enter into medical school after college. I was focusing on a potential Computer Science or Engineering degree in the beginning; however, my focus has slightly changed over the last two months.

I can schedule classes today for the Spring semester, about two weeks before the rest of my normal class because I have about a semester of credits from high school already. So I am attempting to decide what I should be doing. I was thinking about putting a focus toward Bioengineering (with a chemistry option)--however, I cannot find information on how competitive the program is (it is screened within the university, accepts ~40 people into the major each ear), how difficult it is, or the like. I figure that this major will give me most of the required courses I would need for med school--but I do not want to have a work load that is overwhelming, because I need a good GPA for med school.

Also, in the case I don't get into med school, what are career options for a bioengineer? Or are there alternative ideas for majors that you would recommend?

Mcubed23

I'm also a freshman and fyi you are not two weeks ahead. more like a couple days. I have 18 credits for this semester and I can schedule monday. So don't sit on it for too long. I used to be interested in the bioengineering and if you have a 3.2 or a 3.5, im not sure which, by the time you need to declare, you are automatically accepted into the bioE. They take around the first 40 highest gpa's but if 100 kids have 3.5 and want in bioE, they will all get in. As for difficulty, its an engineering major, they will all be somewhat difficult depending on you interest in the area. And I have heard that if you want a career in bioE, you need to go to grad school for it as well.

cbd

^^ with 18 credits you can only schedule on Tues Nov 10

momwriter

cbd is correct. Nov. 10 would be the date for someone with 18 credits.

If you go to the page below, and enter Spring 2010 and University Park, it tells you the date on which you can register.

Registration Timetables

cwryan1

the enrollment restrictions to get into majors is strict, especially for the more popular majors (BioE, business, etc). They aren't going to let in 100 people into the major if they all have the same GPAs, the depts don't have the resources (class sizes, profs) to support that many people in the program. Rather, the dept will wittle down the class size to the max # and reject everyone else during the entrance to major process in the spring.