<p>In general, I was wondering how lenient Columbia is with AP’s.</p>
<p>Right now, I’m thinking of double majoring BME and Economics. Do you think that would be possible at Columbia considering the 16 credit limit?</p>
<p>Also, am I allowed to get past Calc III. I am taking the class at my community college, and I will be so frustrated/bored if I take that in Columbia. I also took Diff Eq, but my knowledge of that is shaky. </p>
<p>Also, what are the differences in the requirements for premed and BME?</p>
<p>ok the BME advisor was faced with that question and laid it straight out:</p>
<p>No. You cannot major in BME and get an econ minor in SEAS. You’ll be needing to take 7 classes a semester. Too much.
If you want to do the 3-2 program that is a different story, but BME is so intense as a workload that it doesn’t really make sense. </p>
<p>However, that 16 credit limit really isn’t a limit. I don’t know where you got that number from but the number is 21, which is the amount of credits you can register for without having to seek special permission from your advisor. If you want to take more than 21 credits, the advisors will let you, they just want you to be prepared for what you are doing.</p>
<p>Also for people who have advanced mathematics knowledge, Columbia will say that you should take calc 3, but we split a normal Calc3 sequence into a mulitvariable differentiation and multivaribale integration, with random topics that are like some random complex variable and ode. Many people in your situation take Calc 4 first semester and then are finished with the sequence. Columbia also needs to know that the preparation that you received previously wasn’t bs so they want you to take at least one semester, in order to give you credit for earlier calcs.</p>
<p>BME is an epic amount of classes pre med is just chem, bio orgo and physics and their repective labs, along with some math to go along with all of that. Pre med is more of a minor than a major or anything like BME.</p>
<p>You cannot double major between SEAS and CC. However, you can have minors from CC. </p>
<p>You could probably major BME and get an econ minor if you have a lot of AP credit and skip out of intro Economics, Computer Science, and earn nontech elective credits as well. This will open up much more space for you to take the courses you want to. You should still take Calc 3, it is an easy course, doesn’t take up too much time, and will help boost your GPA considering that you want to major in BME.</p>
<p>i want to preface this by saying that i majored in BME…for those who don’t know…feel free to ask away OP</p>
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<p>this is misleading…you CAN major in BME and get an econ minor…its just really hard as was pointed out.</p>
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<p>you cannot have a second major in college when you are in SEAS. you can however have two SEAS majors but thats suicidal. The typical route for those who chose to pursue it is to major in an engineering discipline and then minor in either another engineering discipline (most popular for BMEs are IEOR or ChemE) or minor in something in the college (most popular for BMEs is philosophy)</p>
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<p>going over 21 points is pretty ridiculous and i wouldn’t advise it, especially with a tough major like bme…the most credits i ever took was 20.5 and needless to say i had no life that semester</p>
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<p>you can start at calc 4 no questions asked but i highly doubt they’ll accept credit for an ODE class that was taken at a community college. </p>
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<p>the class of 2007 was the last class to go by the old BME syllabus which was very premed friendly. under the old syllabus the only additional class you had to take to fulfill the premed requirements was physics lab.</p>
<p>That is (unfortunately for you) no longer the case. Orgo 2 and orgo lab were dropped from the syllabus and GPA unfriendly classes like mechanics, intro to electrical engineering and “elements of materials science” (for cell and tissue track) have been added. The most commendable addition in my view is statistics, which is actually extremely useful. (The GPA-unfriendly classes i’m sure will also be useful but will cause a premed alot of heartache). So you now have to take 3 additional classes to finish the premed requirements. The caveat though (are you confused yet?) is that they now only require 4.5 of the 9 technical elective credits to be engineering courses so you can actually have 4.5 credits from your premed requirements (not already required by BME) count toward your BME degree. (The three additional classes you will have to take for premed add up to 9.5 credits). </p>
<p>An additional word of advice since you expressed interest in premed. If you do end up at columbia SEAS i would strongly suggest you start in calc 3 or even 2. The way your GPA is calculated for med school, your bio/physics/chem/math grades are calculated separately so it is in your best interest to pad your GPA with As in math classes where the competition is relatively weak. </p>
<p>…I know, i hate myself too for talking like an annoying premed who cares too much about GPA but I wish someone had told me this stuff before I started college.</p>
<p>Will Columbia accept 5s for Statistics and Physics C: Mechanics? Then, would I need to take those courses in SEAS?</p>
<p>And about Calc III. I’m dying from boredom in the class at my county college. This is probably the 3rd of 4th time I’m rereading the material. There’s no way I would want to go through the same torment in college. </p>
<p>Next question. Suppose I get a BME degree. What non-engineering options do I have besides premed, given that I get the requirements?</p>
<p>the mechanics class i mentioned is an upper level class that you can’t place out of. Statistics they might let you place out of but its doubtful. As for physics: you aren’t allowed to completely skip physics…there are three sequences that you can take…only the 2801-2802 sequence will save you a semester, the other two sequences are three semesters. </p>
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<p>not to sound elitist or pretentious but county college is like the minor leagues and columbia is like the major league…the worst thing you can do is to underestimate it</p>
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<p>Everything! Very few columbia BMEs actually go on to work in engineering or get a masters/phd in an engineering discipline. You can go into consulting, finance, public health, law, medicine, etc etc etc…and I and many of my friends have chosen one of these “alternative” routes</p>