<p>I’m an incoming freshman into the Integrated Life Sciences honors program at College Park. I’m trying to decide on a major, and am conflicted between bioengineering and biology (PHNB specifically). Hopefully some current students/parents can give me some advice on this.</p>
<p>My motivation for aiming for a career in biology is twofold - first, that I’m interested in the physiology aspect, and second, that I want to help people who are suffering from disease. I feel like the biology major would better satisfy my interest in how living systems work, while the bioengineering major would give me the background to help others in a really cool and interesting way that is directly connected with physiology. Essentially, I’m interested in both PHNB and bioengineering (particularly in cells, tissues, and organs, and drug discovery/delivery), but don’t really know right now which I like more.</p>
<p>I’m currently a PHNB major. I’m considering switching into bioengineering for several reasons, keeping in mind that I am interested in both PHNB and bioengineering. I know that the engineering department is better funded than the biology department. Furthermore, I feel like majoring in bioengineering will be useful in the med school admissions process should I choose to apply to medical school, and more versatile than a biology degree should I choose not to apply to medical school and enter the workforce or further my education in another way. Last, I’ve heard from a bunch of people that while it is fairly easy to change majors from bioengineering to biology, it is not at all easy to change from biology to bioengineering while in college. So, just in case I get to college and decide that I’m more interested in bioengineering than in PHNB, I’m leaning towards bioengineering.</p>
<p>I was hoping some CC’ers could assuage some of my concerns about bioengineering though. Are bioengineering classes typically smaller than biology classes? I’ve seen on ourumd.com that most of the required bioengineering classes have actually lower average GPAs than biology classes. Why is this? Is it because of grade inflation, or better professors in the bioengineering department? Because bioengineering classes seem to have higher average GPAs, I’m having a hard time determining whether bioengineering or biology is a more “difficult” major. Overall GPA is important to me since I might apply to medical school. I’m willing to study a lot for bioengineering, but I want to know for sure what I’m getting myself into before I switch majors.</p>
<p>I’m also an incoming freshman (ILS + BIOE intended major). I obviously can’t answer your questions from an experience point of view, but I can try to explain why I chose BIOE over perhaps Biology.</p>
<p>From the medical school application point of view, engineering is much to achieve a better GPA. The course load you have to take is harder (a lot of math and physics). </p>
<p>I chose BIOE because I’m not 100% set on medical school yet. There’s a lot I can do with a BIOE degree from UMD once I graduate, but there might not be as many opportunities for a Biology major (assuming that no post-undergraduate studies are taken for either). </p>
<p>If medical school is where you want to be, I would suggest Biology simply because its a lot easier to maintain a high GPA. Unlike college admissions, GPA and standardized scores are the most important thing; there are no such thing as “hooks” or “extracurriculars” that might make up for a low GPA.</p>
<p>EDIT: Saw your correction. No idea why that’s the case; might be an anomaly unique to UMD’s BIOE students.</p>
<p>n0vad3m0n: That is exactly why I chose bioengineering.
doctorate: Bioengineering has excellent professors withing the department from what I’ve heard from students. Second, it’s not so much grade inflation as dynamic curving (from what I gather). Say you’re in a thermo class and it’s really really difficult (it almost always is). If this is the case, if you get a 65% final average and everyone else has lower, you will get an A. Granted, the class is extremely difficult and you will still work your tail off, but you don’t have to worry so much about the percentage (as compared to high school). </p>
<p>I’m also thinking about medical school, but I will probably change my mind later on (there’s so much to do in bioengineering!). You have to consider that you will have to take an extra organic chemistry class (Organic Chemistry II and Lab–CHEM241 & CHEM242), which is not easy to fit into an already-packed BIOE schedule without taking it as a summer class. </p>
<p>As far as your interest in neurology as physiology, you’ve got your bases covered in BIOE. If you decide not to pursue medical school, there is a specific specialization in BIOE/BME called neural engineering and another tissue engineering. I’m sure you will find what you like in BIOE. </p>
<p>By the way, I am also an incoming freshman to UMD as a bioengineering major in ILS. See you August 27!</p>
<p>Yeah, with BIOE you can get an MBA, a PhD, a MD, or whatever. I also feel it’s the safest. (What happens if you’re a biology major and fail to get into medical school? Or what happens if you’re a biology major and you suddenly don’t feel like medical school is your calling?) </p>
<p>Is August 27th the move-in date? I can’t find the move in date anywhere…</p>
<p>Yeah that was part of my reasoning. I’m also really interested in engineering as a whole, so I didn’t want to sacrifice that for pre-med, since there’s a possibility I might change my mind. </p>
<p>And yes, August 27th is move-in day. They sent me a letter a few weeks ago that discussed moving in and a little about class registration, among other things.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input guys! I’m leaning way way towards bioengineering right now, but like cyborg939 said, the major is completely full. They’re not accepting any transfers. I plan on fulfilling the gateway requirements, and then entering the department after freshman year or first semester, depending on when I get those courses taken care of.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if anyone can answer this, but do you guys know if CHEM131/2 will fulfill the CHEM135/6 gateway requirement? CHEM131/2 is a required course for PHNB, and it’s difficult for me to take courses in the summer because I have an internship. I’ll still probably end up taking one or two courses during summer session II anyways and dropping my internship, but I don’t want to overload my summer schedule either.</p>
<p>cyborg939 - did you get my pm? haha I sent messages three times, but it’s not showing up in my sent mail so I guess it’s not in your inbox either?</p>
<p>@doctorate I got your messages. Sorry I haven’t responded, I’ve just been a bit busy. Messages don’t show up in my sent box when I send them, either, which is weird. </p>
<p>As far as CHEM131/132, I’m not exactly sure. What I do know is that only a 5 on AP Chem or a 6/7 on IB Chem will ge you out of both CHEM135 and CHEM136 because the CHEM271 credit you earn from the 5 is equivalent to CHEM135. Thus, I am tempted to say that CHEM131 may not satisfy the requirements for CHEM135, but you should definitely talk to an advisor about that. </p>
<p>As far as getting into the department, take a look at the sample program for undergraduates at bioe.umd.edu. There, you will see that the major courses start second semester of the second year. Just be ready with all the prereq courses to start by then, and you should be good if the department accepts you.</p>
<p>I’ve talked to the department, and CHEM131 doesn’t satisfy the requirement for CHEM135. Personally, I think that’s dumb since the AP course should be just as rigorous as CHEM131. I won’t rant about the engineering department transfer policies here, but from the people I’ve contacted, it’s absurdly hard to enter engineering through the gateway courses and finish in four years. I’ll still try to do it, but it’s not fun at all. Thanks everybody!</p>
<p>I applied as a BioE major but changed my major to Biology before school started, so I can’t really speak for BioE classes but PM me if you have any questions about PHNB. As far as med school goes, I’ve heard that your choice of major is close to negligible, so I wouldn’t make any decisions based on that.</p>
<p>ohimtired - That’s what the ILS director told me as well. Since I’ve been looking at bioengineering courses, I’ve been getting more and more psyched. Granted, bioengineering is hard, but there are so many possibilities and breakthroughs in that field. Just out of curiosity, why’d you switch out of Bioengineering?</p>
<p>I just didn’t really think I’d like engineering since I didn’t find my calc and physics classes in high school to be too exciting. I’m pretty sure the only reason I wanted to be in BioE instead of Bio was bc of the financial security in case grad school didn’t pan out, which ultimately I decided wasn’t a good enough reason to potentially make myself miserable for the next 4 years and deprive myself of learning what I wanted to learn. I’m also really into humanities subjects, so I like having a lot more flexibility in terms of taking classes, studying abroad, double majoring, minoring etc. </p>
<p>But yeah, it’s great that you’re getting so psyched! If you do end up in BioE, I hope you enjoy it.</p>
<p>Hi again-
I’ve talked to several people at the lab where I work, and all of them have suggested I look at Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering over Bioengineering. They say that bioengineering shouldn’t really be an undergraduate major, and that biomolecular/chemical engineering should give me the principles I need, with opportunities to apply those principles in a research setting. Any thoughts? Besides which one I’m more interested in (I have no idea which I’m more interested in), how should I go about choosing my major?</p>
<p>^The people at your lab might be saying that based on today’s job prospects; chemical/biomolecular engineering is in high demand, whereas bioengineering is just getting started.</p>
<p>They are correct, at least in part, because current job prospects for bioengineering undergraduate degree-holders are not fantastic. But, if you intend on pursuing graduate study of any sort, your chances at a job improve quite a bit. Additionally, UMD’s BioE program is ABET-accredited, which is good because prospective employers will have at least the assurance that you have a certain level of understanding of engineering. BioE and ChemE are both interesting fields, with ChemE having more predictability when it comes to jobs. However, bioengineering is “just getting started” and you can expect good job prospects if you pursue Master’s and/or PhD-level degrees. That’s what I’m planning on doing, anyway. </p>
<p>Another interesting thing someone told me: if you’re going to be a chemical engineer, think about where you’ll be working. Chemical companies will never have their main facilities near a metropolis like NYC, DC, or San Fransisco; they will be in the middle of Iowa or Missouri. Ask yourself whether that is where you want to live when you get a job. Granted, you don’t HAVE to work for a chemical company, but seeing as bioengineering is a “new” field and if you intend on going straight into the workforce, working for a chemical company is the most likely scenario.</p>
<p>I think what they were focusing on was more curriculum-based. Cyborg939, I think you have a post about this also. The bioengineering curriculum seems really diffuse - you learn a little about a lot of stuff. Biomolecular/chemical engineering, on the other hand, is more specialized and goes into more depth.</p>