Leveling Courses

General Information

If you did not complete an undergraduate engineering degree, you may be required to complete some or all of the following leveling core courses based on your previous degree(s). This list of courses serves as a recommended guide. The final list of required courses will be determined by the student's committee chair and approved by the Director of the Graduate Program. It is not mandatory to complete leveling courses before applying or being accepted into the program.  

Leveling Courses are intended to meet three objectives:

1. To ensure an adequate background in mathematics, computing, physiology and engineering to pursue biomedical engineering graduate study.
2. To provide an adequate basis in biomedical engineering to ensure breadth in the field and to eliminate the need for remediation in graduate course work.
3. To ensure a foundation in engineering equivalent to the undergraduate accreditation requirements.

Students who have backgrounds in engineering, but disciplines other than biomedical engineering may only need to take a physiology course, but the final decision is made by the student’s graduate committee. A grade of B or better must be achieved in all leveling courses.

Leveling or prerequisite courses are not counted toward degree requirements since they are graduation requirements. However, they do count toward the cumulative GPA. The only exception to this rule is physiology which the department will allow students to apply to his/her degree.

Procedure

• Upon application to the Biomedical Engineering department, all students who are identified as requiring leveling are informed at the time their application is processed in the department.
• If an offer of admission is extended to the student, a leveling memo will be sent to the student along with the departmental admission documents via email.
• Before a student can be fully admitted to the Biomedical Engineering department, the student must return a signed copy of the leveling memo.
• Students can choose to obtain the leveling coursework before beginning coursework as a TAMU student or they can take it while in pursuit of their TAMU Biomedical Engineering degree.

*Physiology is required for anyone who has not taken it, regardless of previous degree (including biomedical engineering.) VTPP 605, VTPP 623, or completed self-study materials provided by the Graduate Advisor must be completed prior to completing the first year of the graduate program.