Prospective Undergraduate Students
Biomedical Sciences Undergraduate Program
The mission of the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) Undergraduate Program is to educate students who will create a healthier future for humans and animals through the medical professions, biomedical innovation and discovery, global service, and outreach.
Inspired by the One Health model, BIMS focuses on applied biology directed toward health and disease. Rather than simply understanding biological concepts, BIMS emphasizes active problem-solving to address health challenges that affect humans, animals, and the environment through interdisciplinary interventional approaches. Students learn to identify, analyze, and actively intervene in health challenges that cross species and environmental boundaries, developing the skills to become health innovators who create real-world solutions for today’s complex, interconnected problems.
The College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is ranked 3rd nationally and 5th globally for veterinary science. The BIMS program is the only undergraduate program within this college and is the largest single major at Texas A&M with about 2,200 students currently enrolled.
BIMS at a Glance
The BIMS degree plan is 120 credit hours of coursework. This is further broken down into specific areas that we use to help students meet whatever goals they have.
Main Coursework
This makes up 56 credit hours and includes most of the main science courses. These are set within our degree to ensure that all requirements for any further education (medical school, veterinary school, etc.) are met without having to take extra courses.
University Core Curriculum
Texas A&M requires 42 credit hours of Core Curriculum classes. These are all courses that are here to make sure you have a well rounded education.
Electives
Electives make up the remaining 21 credit hours of the BIMS degree. There are two types of electives you can take, BIMS Directed Electives and General Electives.
BIMS Directed Electives
Almost all of the electives spots are taken up by BIMS Directed Electives (BDEs). These are classes that we have partnered with other colleges around campus for to ensure that any BIMS student can tailor their degree to fit their specific interests. We have processes in place to allow for students to petition classes to count towards this requirement, so this list is always growing.
General Electives
On top of the BDEs, students may take any course at Texas A&M and count it towards their General Electives requirement.
Real World Experience
Within the BIMS Directed Electives requirement, our students can get real world, hands on experience through research, directed studies, shadowing, internships, or Study Abroad Opportunities.
Research
With Texas A&M being a Tier 1 Research Institution, we many faculty members in our program with research opportunities on a variety of projects. Our students are able to register as research assistants in a lab by contacting a specific professor based on their specific interests and joining them in their studies.
Directed Studies
Similar to the research above, a directed study allows for students to do their own research projects with a research faculty member serving as a mentor.
Shadowing/Internship
Students may also reach out to their community and secure internships in the health field. These can count towards their degree after a review and with posted hours.
Study Abroad
Our college has many International Programs where our faculty members will go to other countries to conduct their research. They usually bring a team of graduate and undergraduate students with them and conduct classes that will count towards the degree.
Post-Graduation
While our program is located within the same college as the School of Veterinary Medicine, we are not only a pre-vet program. Following the One Health model described above, our students go into a wide variety of health fields, including veterinary, human medicine, pharmaceutical, clinical industry, and more!
Texas A&M University has a centralized office for Professional & Graduate School Advisors (PGSA) who can help students meet their goals of going to whatever professional school they are planning on attending. They also keep statistics of matriculation data on their PGSA Resources page.
BIMS also has students who finish their degree and decide that they would be better served going out into the health field without further schooling. The Career Center at Texas A&M does a very good job of keeping track of where BIMS students go after their degree, including specific job titles, companies and salaries.
Current Texas A&M Students & Transfers
Current Texas A&M students who are interested in changing their major to BIMS will be required to attend a change of major meeting during the semester in which they wish to change. Please visit our Change of Major page for more information.
If you are a current student at another college or university, you will also have to meet certain requirements to transfer into our program. The Transfer Student page of our website has more information on this.