Good Biomedical Engineering for Pre-med Colleges

Quick question: why do you want to pursue BME? I am obviously not at expert in the topic, but wouldn't it make sense to pursue Biology as a major instead of BME for pre-med? In Biology, you would be able to complete a ton of pre-med courses as part of your major, and BME is a specified engineering discipline where you would be learning aspects of electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering all in one instead of pure biology. Obviously if you would like to experience an engineering field as well as go pre-med, then BME makes sense. Again, I could be completely wrong on this as I am still a high schooler, but would just like to know. Thanks!

p.s. I am also applying BME, but more on the Biomechanics and prosthetics/medical devices side, not pre-med.

I'll continue answering your questions here...

First, I'll clarify a typo I had: I kinda DON'T mesh with engineering so I'm not doing biomedical engineering at my current school, though it seems fun and all for others. Physics was a headache more than Calc, Chem, and Stats combined, so extra time in high school helped me figure that out senior time (which you do too). Anyways, at JHU where I applied, that's the only major they have that you have to apply for specifically as its a top if not the best program in the world for it with undergrads (lol I chickened out)...

So, to kind of answer Q1, at my school for example, you can't transfer into biomedical engineering unless you apply as a freshman and get in, thus you can't put biology major and then "psyche them" and switch there... Otherwise, the whole school might try to transfer, lol. Same at CMU for computer science and probably a lot of schools with top programs anywhere for any major. (Good news for me is I can switch into any other major at Hopkins until end of my sophomore year, which is a dream for me as an indecisive kid like and one of the big reasons I love the school. Though, a bit besides the pt)

Anyways, in the case you mention, if you want to apply to a crazy good program that is hard to get into, I'd say my biggest regret was not going for it, so I'd advise you to be upfront (instead of pulling the major switch) . A lot of schools like Hopkins also might admit you even if they don't let you into that top program, as I've heard dozens of kids who had that happen, so I wouldn't say it blows your chances anywhere.

I will say though, there are colleges where you can switch pretty easily (Northwestern was one of the one's I had on my list before deciding) between engineering and other STEM fields, so at those handful of schools, it would be alright.

2) Lol, YES IT WOULD BE GREAT to go to schools that are really well renowned and give out high GPAs... Mostly, schools like Harvard, Brown, and Ivies might fit into these categories with inflated grades which makes it a dream if you get in... Problem is, these days its hard to get that free pass with plummeting acceptance rates. All the other schools lean one way or another mostly, I'd say with the exception maybe of GIT and Duke which I would check out because I am not sure.

Non-Ivy top schools like JHU, MIT, Northwestern in engineering have grade deflation, but are well renowned so you can survive there coming out even if you struggle a little. Grad and Med schools from research I did, will have knowledge of where grade deflation is at certain schools, so a 3.99 at Harvard might be equivalent to a 3.80 at MIT in cases like these.

Lastly, I will note that I did not include schools like Harvard, Brown, Cornell, etc. in my rankings and lists that I researched (due to not wanting to apply) so they might have great programs, that I would check out beyond the schools I recommended. Good luck!