Biomedical Engineering Major Program

Curriculum Planning/Bingo Sheet

Admission to Major FAQ

When can I apply to the major?

BME major applications are accepted in the spring and the autumn semesters, however, the majority of students will be admitted during the spring application cycle. Students interested in applying to the BME major should refer to the College of Engineering Admission to Major website.

How many students apply to the major each year, and how many are admitted?

Approximately 100-110 students will be admitted to the BME major each year.

What is the application process?

Students will select and apply to three majors of interest (ranked in order of preference), during the semester that eligibility courses are completed. The process requires students to respond to three short essay prompts (about 250 words each). Students will address their interest in the three selected majors, their experiences working with teams, and their life experiences influencing their desire to pursue engineering.  Once final grades are available at the end of the semester, applications will undergo a program review.  Applications will be reviewed in the order of the their preferred major choices. 

Does taking a more challenging course schedule increase my chance of admission / does taking an easier schedule hurt me?

No. We do not prioritize admission for students who take honors classes or higher credit hour loads, nor do we have punitive policies toward those who take lighter loads or GEs. We find that these factors do not make a significant difference in students’ future performance in the major. Please also be aware that GE classes do not always equate with “easy A’s” and will not necessarily raise your grade point average.

Here are links to some other major programs that overlap with Biomedical Engineering:

Curriculum

The curriculum follows a standard first year engineering sequence of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and introductory engineering courses. The second year coursework will expand to include life sciences (biology, organic chemistry), more specialized engineering sciences, and the initial biomedical engineering courses. Life sciences and engineering sciences continue in the 3rd year, but the focus is on biomedical engineering with biomedical measurement and techniques labs and the "domain" courses. Each of the 6 domain courses (students are required to take at least 3) are intended to build on previous engineering and life sciences courses to truly integrate engineering with biology and medicine. Pedagogically similar (each domain course emphasizes creativity, technical communication, in silico modeling and simulation, hands-on experiments), the domain courses are pathways to advanced biomedical engineering courses and research. The 4th year has a 2-semester, team design project. The design projects will allow student engineering teams with 4-5 members to work with a disabled client from the local community. For these real-world, open-ended experiences, students will determine what is needed and will design and construct a device to meet their client's needs, with a public show of the designs in the spring of the senior year.

Students may combine the Biomedical Engineering major with OSU's pre-med or other pre-health/pre-professional curricula, though students who choose to do so should plan their course schedule well in advance as completing all the requirements in 4 years may require taking very full course loads certain semesters and/or summer classes.