Hey, I'm a highschool student and I was just wondering is the biomedical engineering area competitive to get in at McMaster?

Because I did hear that it's by the second year you get to choose for what stream in engineering you want to go in and who gets in first is based on marks.

It varies year to year. It is a small program ~40

Biomed,like management, isnt included in free choice. Any other question, feel free to post here or PM me

its fairly competitive, but not the most. That said engineering in general is harsh compared to highschool. Its no walk in the park.

one thing to consider is that a lot of people change their mind in first year. I for example originally came for eng phys nanotech and ended up very happy in biomed (as first choice). Another example is maybe you decide Chem and Bio (the other side of biomed) or Mech and Bio (a program that has/is soon to launch??...another side of biomed) would be better than Elec and biomed. Some people just find they hate the elec part of first year physics (although its not really electrical).


Also note that the averages to get into any program (without society/management) are lower than expected (lower than a 7). However this year and following years will likely have much higher admission averages for small programs with fixed student caps due the massive increase in number of first year students.

Mech and BIO?!?!? After I start...

Originally Posted by MacPack

Mech and BIO?!?!? After I start...

Me had this reaction too, anybody have infos about it?

first i heard about it. oneof the reason i was considering carleton .. sigh

a biomed prof said they were bringing in more researchers in the field / getting more mech profs interested in the biomed side. A mech friend also said that the idea was to offer some technical electives in the bio-mehanical side for a while then eventually make it into a program. Its not on website yet so I guess its not official by any means but It will likely happen eventually

its honestly a shame they dont have it as a "minor" as they called it specialization yet. In mech its only four requirec tech electives.. how hard is for them to make ppl take bio 1a03, the two htl sci courses, maybbe chem 1aa3/2e03 . they already have mech eng 4bb3 (biomechanics)and 4cc3, just add another two

Originally Posted by MacPack

its honestly a shame they dont have it as a "minor" as they called it specialization yet. In mech its only four requirec tech electives.. how hard is for them to make ppl take bio 1a03, the two htl sci courses, maybbe chem 1aa3/2e03 . they already have mech eng 4bb3 (biomechanics)and 4cc3, just add another two

They currently have a cap for the amount of eng students taking those courses and with increased student population it will most likely have to be cut down due to more science/hth science students coming to Mac.

I heard that they are going to raise the limit on how many students are allowed into each program since there are so many eng students this year (but I don't know if it's for all the programs)

What were the cutoff averages to get in to elec or chem biomed in previous years? I know it might be higher this year but I still want to get an idea.

Also I know free choice doesn't work for elec biomed but does it work for chem bio? I heard it doesn't apply to any of the five year programs is this true?

The cutoff 2 years ago was (apparently) a 6.9. It may have been higher last year. Also note for biomed that 1) most people in it do have a higher average despite the cutoff and 2) biomed is a program that collaborates with other faculties and such has a fixed number of seats (~40). Just because there is a huge influx of new applicants does not mean that programs like biomed will be able to expand. Such an expansion would require cooperation across 3 faculties (science, engineering, health sci) all of which will be facing professor and space shortages from the large influx of first years across the entire university.
To give you an idea:
# first year eng 2011: ~1400-1500
# first year eng 2009/10: ~900

Similar increases were seen in other faculties as well.

Originally Posted by qwerty91

The cutoff 2 years ago was (apparently) a 6.9. It may have been higher last year. Also note for biomed that 1) most people in it do have a higher average despite the cutoff and 2) biomed is a program that collaborates with other faculties and such has a fixed number of seats (~40). Just because there is a huge influx of new applicants does not mean that programs like biomed will be able to expand. Such an expansion would require cooperation across 3 faculties (science, engineering, health sci) all of which will be facing professor and space shortages from the large influx of first years across the entire university.
To give you an idea:
# first year eng 2011: ~1400-1500
# first year eng 2009/10: ~900

Similar increases were seen in other faculties as well.

Exactly ! what qwerty91 said is absolutely true and makes perfect sense, I used to wonder why wouldn't they expand the spots for the second year programs. For ECE they have a fixed number of labs, for other programs, the situation is very similar. Also, they have a limited number or professors. Although this is debatable, but some profs are just lazy and won't take on more sections :p

For 2010/2011 the number of people was similar to 2009/10 , around 800 something, but this year eng 1 is like more than full.
You might wonder why they take more people in first year but have a limited number of spots for second year. I think this is the case, because they want to get rid of as many people as possible in first year, so they let more people in and give the first year profs more sections.

Every school has its own on "weed out" methods...for example, at ryerson my friend told me that if someone fail a course in second year eng (term 1), he CAN NOT go on to the NEXT term, he/she has to skip second semester and wait till the following year again... that's absolutely ridiculous lol

Originally Posted by jim1

Exactly ! what qwerty91 said is absolutely true and makes perfect sense, I used to wonder why wouldn't they expand the spots for the second year programs. For ECE they have a fixed number of labs, for other programs, the situation is very similar. Also, they have a limited number or professors. Although this is debatable, but some profs are just lazy and won't take on more sections :p

For 2010/2011 the number of people was similar to 2009/10 , around 800 something, but this year eng 1 is like more than full.
You might wonder why they take more people in first year but have a limited number of spots for second year. I think this is the case, because they want to get rid of as many people as possible in first year, so they let more people in and give the first year profs more sections.

Every school has its own on "weed out" methods...for example, at ryerson my friend told me that if someone fail a course in second year eng (term 1), he CAN NOT go on to the NEXT term, he/she has to skip second semester and wait till the following year again... that's absolutely ridiculous lol

Don't let the post above mine scare you though... It's not as in they're keeping a "fixed" number of seats in all programs, despite the much larger first year class. That would require they to fail out ~500 students, which simply isn't going to happen.

I've spoken to administration, and the second year classes for *almost all* level II programs will increase in size to accommodate the larger incoming class.

I say almost all because, as has been mentioned earlier in this thread, BioMed is capped, and will not increase, due to strict limitations placed by other programs and departments in the university. This is for a number of reasons, but mostly because it is a relatively new field, and the only way it could be established at McMaster was with the permission of various other programs that felt they would be "losing" students to BioMed. This does not apply to other Engineering streams, and they will either hire more profs, or increase class and lab sizes to accommodate.

Originally Posted by *spark*

I heard that they are going to raise the limit on how many students are allowed into each program since there are so many eng students this year (but I don't know if it's for all the programs)

What were the cutoff averages to get in to elec or chem biomed in previous years? I know it might be higher this year but I still want to get an idea.

Also I know free choice doesn't work for elec biomed but does it work for chem bio? I heard it doesn't apply to any of the five year programs is this true?

Nope, doesn't work for chem bioeng.
http://chemeng.mcmaster.ca/ungrad_admissions.htm l

Originally Posted by Elliott779

Don't let the post above mine scare you though... It's not as in they're keeping a "fixed" number of seats in all programs, despite the much larger first year class. That would require they to fail out ~500 students, which simply isn't going to happen.

I've spoken to administration, and the second year classes for *almost all* level II programs will increase in size to accommodate the larger incoming class.

I say almost all because, as has been mentioned earlier in this thread, BioMed is capped, and will not increase, due to strict limitations placed by other programs and departments in the university. This is for a number of reasons, but mostly because it is a relatively new field, and the only way it could be established at McMaster was with the permission of various other programs that felt they would be "losing" students to BioMed. This does not apply to other Engineering streams, and they will either hire more profs, or increase class and lab sizes to accommodate.

agreed. There is certainly a lot of room for decent sized increases in classrooms and adding a few more lab sections only requires an additional TA or two. You can expect sizable increases in every major eng program. Biomeds one of the exceptions but If you really want in, and you try hard you will probably make it.