I think this does matter. A lot. If you haven’t taken the most rigorous science classes available and try to jump into a top tier school with the intention of being pre-med it could have a negative affect on your GPA. That can affect your ability to get into med school.
And if you are planning on pre med, BME is a tough major to maintain a high enough GPA for med school.
The engineers I know are NOT impressed with Ivy League schools. You really need to decide what you want to do. If you want to be an engineer, pick a top engineering school.
I wouldn’t recommend engineering for pre-med. My unweighted GPA in high school was almost 99. I had made only one B my entire life, in 6th grade. I went into engineering school overconfident. My first exam score, in honors engineering physics, was a 45, and there wasn’t that much of a curve. I did end up graduating with high honors, but I sure respected engineering more after that. It’s tough, no matter how strong a student you are going in. If I had wanted to go to medical school, I wouldn’t have studied engineering.
@WayOutWestMom can tell you the effect a lowish GPA would have on med school opportunities, and what would count as lowish. I’d guess a 3.6 would be low enough to affect your chances, but it could be higher than that.
I think @mom2collegekids has sons who majored in engineering then went on to med school. She may have some advice for you.
What is your safety college choice?
So you have discovered that you might want to study engineering, you don’t have to focus on a particular specialty yet.
Apply to schools with engineering departments, ABET accredited state flagships are great options.
Look at instate and OOS schools that would give you merit for your stats.
Apply to a few reaches if you want but be realistic.
Once you are in college you will probably take a general first year engineering curriculum.
Explore your particular interests then.
If you do end up with biomedical engineering, you might need graduate school as well, so keep this in mind for financial considerations.
If you want to go to school to major in biomedical engineering, you can. You just have to be open to a range of level of selectivity. Have you looked at a typical 4 year BME curriculum? There are around 200 schools with BME, of all levels of selectivity. That will be your universe as you develop your list…a couple of reaches, 4-6 matches, and at least one affordable safety. As others have said, while BME is a good major to get a job, for many students it is a poor pre-med choice because it tends to be hard on GPAs AND demanding in terms of time, which decreases your ability to complete the many hours of med school related ECs.
Regarding your senior year classes, AP Physics > AP Chem for BME majors. Taking two AP lab sciences at the same time is not ideal. Have you had a year each of bio/chem/physics so far? Does your HS offer an engineering elective of interest?
You haven’t been very forthcoming with info. Posters can suggest schools, but we need more info. What is your uwGPA? Rigor? State of residence? You mention you are planning on taking the math 2 subject test, take a science as well.
Lastly, it looks like you are considering applying for Questbridge next year. Have you gone thru the QB partners to see which ones offer BME? What can/will your family pay for school each year? Do you expect your FAFSA EFC to be zero, or near zero? Do the FAFSA4caster here: https://fafsa.ed.gov/spa/fafsa4c/#/landing As you build your school list, run each school’s net price calculator (NPC) to see if it will be affordable.
I wonder how much OP has researched and how much is “dream.”
True you dont need both AP chem and physics. But we still have no idea what rigor, grades, AP scores and the rest. Just AP bio or not even that? Any advanced math? Of course tippy tops look for this.
You’ve got to realize what the competition brings to the table. A lot of kids get a decent SAT or ACT and suddenly think a tippy top is realistic. It’s much more.
It is much more, but only the schools know what that “more” is. As the NPR interview made abundantly clear, student who actually get in don’t even know.
As for Harvard engineering in the top 50 it isn’t. USNWR w
may rank them that high, but as @MaineLonghorn said, most engineers don’t. Companies like to hire from pet schools based on their previous hires from said schools. Harvard is unlikely to be a pet school for many companies. There are lots of state schools, not just the big name ones like Michigan, Berkeley and GT, but ones like Iowa State and Utah, that I’d recommend over Harvard. Nor is Harvard known for their great teaching, at least at the UG level. Just look up articles in the Crimson if you want to know more.
I agree with the sentiment that engineering is a poor choice for pre-med. It’s just too hard to maintain a high GPA. The very hardest classes that a typical pre-med will take, Organic Chemistry and, if they are a Chem or BioChem major, physical chemistry, will be on par with many engineering classes.
Lastly, if you want real advice, you need to be more forthcoming with information. No one can guide you in any meaningful way if they don’t know your home state, GPA, financial constraints, hobbies, your “hook,” etc.
I’m so sorry, I hadn’t realized that you all would need this information. I wasn’t sure if I would need to make an entirely new thread for recommending schools and rating my chances. I’ll try to address as much as I can.
My school doesn’t calculate GPA but I’ve gotten all A’s except 2 A-'s (one in an art elective and another this year in French. I might be able to bring that French A- to an A. There are no A+'s). I have a 1470 SAT which was my first time. I’m taking it again in March. I’m in IL so I know that I have a great in-state option for engineering (though I’d still leave the state, ideally). I’m low income (low income enough that I’m considering applying for Questbridge). I’m first-gen (both in the sense that my parents are immigrants and I’m the first to go to a college in my family). And I’m an African-American male. A lot of my EC’s right now focus on social justice, ethics, philanthropy, and volunteering. But yes… there is math team which I love doing too.
As for my rigor, what I meant is there was an opportunity to take AP Chem this year at my school and I did not take it (and yes, I regret it). But I am taking AP Stat this year. The truth is, that’s the only AP I’ve taken but it’s highly unusual for students to have taken more than 1 by junior year at my school. I’ve taken three years of the three core sciences. And my school only offers AP Chem and AP Physics. We have a bunch of honors classes that are labeled as college-level courses and I’ll be taking the AP tests for Lang and Stat this year. I know that still doesn’t sound like a lot but I guarantee you I’m taking one of the most rigorous courseloads my school offers. And my school does tend to send students off to great schools every year.
I’ve only just started the college process so I still have a lot of research left to do. I’ll be sure to post again when I have more specific expectations. But I’m not at all expecting to get into a top 50 school and I know the importance of having targets and safeties.
I didn’t realize that about pre-med majors. I’ll keep that in mind as I continue exploring what being an engineering major would mean for my future.
I also didn’t realize the reputation of ivy league schools among engineers. Well, I definitely have other options I’m looking at too. I really don’t have a dream school or anything like that and I don’t plan on having one because I know I’d be setting myself up for disappointment.
Good for you for doing so much research / thought process. It will be helpful whatever you decide to do. An early start, especially for QB, is a good idea.
Engineering + pre-med is a tough mix. It’s difficult to fit into an engineering curriculum. Pre-med will more than consume all your electives.
Also pre-med requires some pretty time-consuming ECs which can make your undergrad experience even more time crunched. You will have to decide between doing engineering internships in the summer (which you’ll need to help find a post-graduation job) and getting your pre-med ECs done.
A good engineering GPA–say a 3.5-- isn’t good enough for medical school–unless you’re OK with attending a newer osteopathic med school. The median GPA for accepted MD students was a 3.75+ last year. Unless you live in a “lucky” state (i.e. one with highly protected in-state admissions that also has few applicants), you will need a much higher GPA. Engineering/physics/math majors do not get any boost in med school admissions just for having a “hard” major (says the mother of 1 physics/math major and 1 math/bio-neuroscience major who both went to med school). Nor will the name of your diploma offer any boost in admissions. (Harvard and your state directional U get the same consideration from the adcomm. The initial med school screening is all about your stats.)
The last issue with an engineering major is that if you don’t get tippy top grades in your med school pre-reqs, you won’t have room in your schedule to take additional science coursework to raise your sGPA. sGPA (only biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics) is arguably the more important of your GPAs for med school. Engineering courses do NOT count toward you sGPA.
I have a suggestion for you to consider. If you want to be a pre-med, don't major in engineering. Instead, consider doing a major or a second major in physics or mathematics/applied mathematics. One plus of this plan was that both my daughters, because they took a ton of math classes and engineering (calc-based) physics in college, had the option to go into BME/ME/CHemE at the grad level. While they would have had to make up some basic engineering classes (about 4-6), many of those classes could be taken concurrently with their grad classes. It was an Plan B option that they both considered. (And every pre-med needs a Plan B career option since every year 60% of those who apply to med school don't get a any acceptances.) So lots of great advise here. Take AP Calc BC with AP physics C.
As far as having just math team that’s fine. Can you be a peer to peer math tutor this /next year? Volunteer now. Many do this during lunch time.
Many kids find themselves in college. I wouldn’t trust any high school teacher to determine my future. If you were struggling in math /science then I would reconsider but your not. You are also only compared to your own school and district. If in Illinois you won’t be compared to students at Northside College Prep or Walter Payton.
The first year many engineering students take the same /similar classes as the general liberal arts students. It’s usually end of sophomore year that you have to declare a major. Maybe apply engineering. See what your interests are. If you keep your grades up then maybe decide premed. Lots of kids drop a full grade in engineering from high school. The easy classes are tough. If that’s your medical school won’t be a possibility.
You have time to research all of this. At some point your passion /desires will over take and help you decide.
“The first year many engineering students take the same /similar classes as the general liberal arts students” - That is not true at the engineering schools and universities that I am familiar with. (I can’t claim total knowledge of all schools, especially those with heavy concentration of liberal arts students.)
But… those freshman engineering classes are often mostly transferable to other majors,… not always true the other way. So it can make sense to start as engineering, transfer later if desired. The catch to watch for is that some schools/majors have a minimum GPA requirement for transfer, and often unhappy engineering students don’t have a stellar GPA.
Just a note that you are not necessarily compared only with kids in your own high school. Yes, that’s your initial context, but yours is just one of many hs in your closer area and the broader area, from which kids will apply. Ultimately, tippy tops want kids who can “fit and thrive.” So they will look at competitive preparedness. That means, in the end, the entire pool of finalists.
There are exceptions. But you want to carefully evaluate your “prepardeness” and work to fill in gaps. Partly, this shows the college you are aware. Partly, it adds to your own readiness. In that respect, tutoring isn’t what raises a kid’s experience level or practices the engineering problem-solving/collaborative mindset. (Yes, math team is good.) What other opportunities in math-sci ECs does your hs offer? Or sometimes, there are other local opps- some robotics team, some internship (it’s not what you do or how many hours as much as getting out there, being in the milieu, and seeing, firsthand, what engineers do.)
Thank you for the missing info. It’s a better picture, though you have things to work on. Don’t worry about the French A-, that is fine. But know that AP stats isn’t either a core or considered particularly rigorous. One thing to think about now is your relationship with your GC, see how good you can build that, for his/her best recommendation, best support.
Your other ECs (social justice, et al,) sound good. But we’d need to know what you actually do. Local community service, eg, tops working for some distant land or organization. Raising funds isn’t always as impactful as actually working with the needy.
Glad you are now considering the great range of colleges that can turn out to be the right match for you. Many posters on CC can give you great ideas of excellent engineeringschools, names you may not know yet, but very successful.
@colorado_mom. I had Michigan engineering on my mind and what I put is a true statement for them. But you are correct this is not necessarily the way it is at all schools.
At Michigan all students take the cores together like Calc, physics etc etc
Thank you all for the great advice. I definitely have a lot more research and introspection to do. I’ll probably make another thread when I’m more sure about what I want to do (and have more stats to give). This was actually really helpful!
I agree with all of the above comments. I will say that a school which might check most of your boxes could be Case Western Reserve University. They are more flexible with their degree programs than many research universities and it would be a good academic match for your current test scores. They are strong in Biomedical Engineering and would be an excellent school if you wanted to go the pre med route. I think it would be better if you wanted to be a Biomed Eng who might want to consider Med school than if you really wanted to get into a med school but wanted Biomed as a backup career. Good luck.
Yes, do put Case on your list. They have an excellent engineering program, and their location in University Circle puts them near several big Cleveland hospitals.
Read this before you choose BME: https://www.medicaldevicesgroup.net/medical-devices/biomedical-engineering/