shavingcream66

Hey guys, suggestions/comments?

CA resident, asian, male, not first year college

UC gpa: 3.88
SAT: 2110 (retaking it)

SAT II's:
760 math 2c (retaking it)
720 chem
740 bio
750 mandarin (haha... ; _ ; )

EC's:
200 hrs hospital volunteering
10 years boy scouts..almost eagle scout
sign club 1 year
ICC representative for Media Club 1 year
4 years band

CSF, didn't do NHS because i was lazy (stupid me), principal's honor roll

So from what I've researched, the only way to get into UCSD's bioeng program is to apply as bioeng. Do i have a shot at the program? I'm really interesting in bioengineering but I'm confused about whether or not I should apply as bioengineering to bioengineeringremed. Does applying to either one make my chances lower? Is there a big difference between the two? I'm still undecided if I want to go to med school, as of now.

jasonlee576

i would say match. GPA is a bit low though.
Apply for premed only if you are sure that you want to go to med school.

astrina

what do you mean 'not first year college' ?

are you a transfer or something?

other than that, your stats are pretty close to mine and i got in as BE:PM and ditched my plans for med school and my major about a month into school. yay for picking CSF over NHS.

shavingcream66

oops sorry, not first year as in I'm not the first in my family to go to college

Also, I was looking at the courses that you take as a Bioengineer major compared to a Bioengineer: premed major and found that the classes don't really differ that much. Is it possible to apply at Bioeng and then just take classes over summer? Yeah, I'm not sure if i want to do med school

astrina

if they don't differ that much, then what's your worry? just pick one that seems to fit your interests best, and you'll have plenty of time later on to add on electives that you deem interesting. once you're welcomed into the folds of the bioengineering department, you already have a leg up on future requests ... unlike the poor souls who decide on BE only after spending a few quarters as something else.

woolrich

make sure to get your eagle scout before apps go out. it will help you alot

Slorg

Bioengineering is impacted, whereas bioEremed is not, so you might as well apply as bioE.

shavingcream66

Haha, THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH

Well, I'm going to get Eagle before November, that's for sure. So it'll all be good. What do you mean by "bioengineering is impacted?"

LifeTranscends

You can change to mostly any major very easily (its only a few clicks on the internet now). An impacted major, however, is one that you cannot just switch into. You must be admitted as a freshman. I guess you could try to fight the department, but I don't know how useful that would be. Anyway, BioE, BioE:Biotech, CompE are the impacted majors that come to mind. So, if you are confused about BioE vs BioE premed, apply to BioE. That way, you can be BioE if you decide to, and if you don't want to be BioE you can easily switch to BioE Premed, which is not impacted.

shavingcream66

Thanks guys, I'm so worried since I have like no faith in making UCSD.

z7xfla

You definitely have a good chance. Your GPA is below average but your test scores and ECs are very impressive.