FedforMed89

I went to admit day and i was shocked to find out that within the first 3 weeks more than 50 - 70% drop out. It doesnt seem logical to me, but if it really is a large number and i want a good gpa for med school should i switch to biology or human biology so i dont have to take the killer courses like MATH 20A,B,C, and Physics 2,ABC and BENG...and such killers too save my gpa or is it really worth it to stick it through and graduate with bioengineeringre-med from jacobs at sd? more prestigous than biology (3rd in nation) but way harder?

TheRighteous

If you are sure that you want to be a doctor and that you can not handle the courseload as a Bio-E: premed, then by all means switch out of the major. There is no point in slaughtering your GPA just to get an engineering degree when you want to get a MD, which requires a high GPA.

FedforMed89

Yes the problem is that i do not know whether i am cut out for such courses but i want to do it because it is so prestigous at UCSD, and i have good job prospects...is there any way to preview courses for ucsd, like actually get detailed material of what they cover?

oneday

wow! that is really.. shocking.

but if I drop out, I'd have to take 6 more classes (for warren GE)

everlasting13

First off, take those statistics with a grain of salt. They didn't say "50%-70% drop out" because their GPA is too bad and their classes are too hard. I'm sure many of those people "drop out" despite a <3.5 GPA because, hell, it's just not what they want to do.

Also, bioengineeringre-med will not give you a full (and thus not a real) engineering degree. So "good job prospects" ? I doubt it.

But really, what gets me is that you want to do it "because it is so prestigous at UCSD." Is that why you want to be a doctor too? It's so prestigous? Prestige by itself is a moronic reason to do anything.

My advice? Please switch to something you actually like.

Peppers

It doesn't seem to follow that the reason they dropped out the first 3 weeks is because of GPA issues. A quarter is 10 weeks, and you can drop the class without affecting your GPA up to pretty much the very end. If you're dead set on med, you might as well head off to bio or something that's easier.

cr_book

yeah i agree with the above posts about gpa, but at the same time, that does not exclude the possibility of people dropping out because they are scared of how hard the program is/will be.

also if this rate is significantly higher than the average dropout rate, you cannot attribute the dropout rate simply to those who change their mind. if that were the sole reason, the program would have a similar dropout rate to all other majors.

to counter what i just said however, many people could choose the program simply because BIO E. is well known and respected for sd and then quickly realize that is NOT what they want to do

everlasting13

I think a HUGE factor in the 50%-70% drop rate is the fact that people find out that they're not getting a real engineering degree. It doesn't seem like most people know that when they apply for the major.

And of course, there are definitely people who drop out becasue the program is too hard or they're afraid it will be. But I'm willing to bet that the reason most people switch out isn't difficulty.

gocheechoo

a lot of people drop out because they realize they don't want to be doctors anymore. ask around, many a student in different departments were pre-med and changed their minds.