Biomedical Computation

Prospective Students

Welcome to BMC! Computation will play a major role in biology and medicine in the coming years, and the Biomedical Computation major aims to provide students a solid foundation in this exciting interdisciplinary field. The major involves building a foundation in computation and biology in the first couple of years, and then specializing in a specific depth area during your junior and senior years.

We encourage you to browse this website to learn more about the major and see if BMC is right for you. An overview of the curriculum can be found on the curriculum page; details of the course-by-course requirements for the different tracks are here. One of the benefits of BMC is its flexibility; you will notice on the requirements that a large part of the upper division curriculum is made of electives. The complete list of electives is located here. Common questions are answered in the FAQ.

If you have additional questions, feel free to contact the Student Coordinator.

Preparing to declare

Once you decide BMC is right for you, it is time to declare. Before declaring, you will need to do the following:

• Four-year plan

  Choose the track that you wish to pursue and create a preliminary four-year plan using the four-year plan worksheet and the School of Engineering Program Sheet.

• Academic Advisor

  It is best to choose an advisor who works in an area similar to your field of interest. Importantly, BMC requires independent research. Your academic advisor also agrees to become your default research advisor, so that in the case you have trouble finding a research mentor, you may complete your research requirement under your academic advisor.

  Because BMC is in the School of Engineering, the academic advisor must hold an appointment with a School of Engineering Department. BMC does allow for co-advisors, but the primary must be a School of Engineering faculty member.

  A list of potential advisors can be found here. Faculty not on this list may serve as advisors with approval of the BMC Directors.

Declaring

To declare, you will need the following forms:

• BMC four-year plan worksheet (Excel)
• BMC Program Sheet (Excel || PDF)
• BMC Supplementary Declaration Form (PDF)
• Unofficial Transcript (Axess)

1. Meet with academic advisor

   Meet with your academic advisor, review the four-year plan, and have him/her sign your completed program sheet.

2. Meet with Professor Altman or Koller

   Meet with Professor Russ Altman or Daphne Koller to have them approve your declaration. Bring the following to the meeting:
   1. Completed Supplementary BMC Declaration form
   2. Two (2) copies of your signed program sheet
   3. One copy of your four-year plan.
   Professor Koller or Altman will sign your Supplementary BMC Declaration Form.

3. Form drop-off, Tiffany Murray, BMC

   Take the signed BMC Supplementary Declaration form, and one copy of your signed program sheet and your four-year plan to Tiffany Murray (tiffany.murray@stanford.edu), Clark S170. E-mailing a scanned copy to Tiffany is also acceptable.

4. Form drop-off, Darlene Lazar, SoE

   Take the other copy of your signed program sheet, your four-year plan and an unofficial transcript to Darlene Lazar in Huang 135 for review and approval.

5. Enroll in Axess

   You must then declare your major in Axess:
   1. Select “Engr” as your Major
   2. Select “BMC” as your subplan
   3. Email Darlene Lazar (dlazar@stanford.edu) to approve your major in PeopleSoft