BME Degree Requirements

The Indianapolis location directly admits to BME.

The West Lafayette location admits students who have successfully completed First-Year Engineering requirements.

Students completing their BS-BME will spend a minimum of five semesters in our program, learning about the breadth of the field of Biomedical Engineering during their first two semesters and choosing an area or areas to focus more on during their final three or four semesters.

INDIANAPOLIS STUDENTS FOLLOWING IUPUI CURRICULUM ONLY: BME Degree Requirements for Indianapolis students who began BME courses before fall 2025

Indianapolis students who began BME courses before 2025, please refer to this handbook (PDF). Students who start their sophomore year of BME course in the Fall of 2025 will follow the updated Purdue curriculum.

WEST LAFAYETTE AND INDIANAPOLIS STUDENTS: BME Degree Requirements for all West Lafayette students and Indianapolis students who began BME courses in fall 2025 or later

The degree broadly consists of five categories of coursework which a student must complete:


Major required courses are courses which every Biomedical Engineering student at Purdue must complete. These courses include those required for First-Year Engineering, BME courses, Depth Area courses and additional STEM courses.

Students are required to select a primary and secondary depth area. For more information on the depth areas, please visit the Depth Area page.

  • FYE Courses
    • ENGR 13100 & ENGR 13200 (or equivalents)
    • CHM 11510 and 11520
    • MA 16500 & MA 16600 (or equivalents)
    • PHYS 17200
    • Oral Communication Course
    • Written Communication Course
    • Science Selective (CHM 11600 or CS 15900 recommended)
  • BME Courses
    • BME 21400: Fund of Biomech Analysis
    • BME 21401: Biomed & Biomaterials Lab
    • BME 23100: Fund of Bioinstr & Meas
    • BME 23101: Bioinstrumentation Lab
    • BME 22000: Biomol: Struct, Funct & Engr Apl
    • BME 25600: Physiol. Modeling of Human Health
    • BME 28000: Frontiers in BME
    • BME 32000: Biomaterials Course
    • BME 32001: Biomolec & Cellular Syst Lab
    • BME 38000: Junior Professionalism
    • BME 38900: Junior Design Lab
    • BME 39000: Profes Devlp & Design in BME
    • BME 48901: Senior Design
    • BME 49000 or (BME 49101 and BME 49200): Professional Elements of Design
  • Depth Area Courses
    • Bioelectronics/Bioinstrumentation: BME 33000 & ECE 30100
    • Biomechanics: BME 31300 & BME 31400
    • Bioimaging: BME 36000 & ECE 30100
    • Computational Biomedicine: BME 35600 & BME 35700
    • Biomaterials: BME 31300 & BME 32600 (Applied Biomaterials)
  • Additional STEM courses
    • BME 20300 (Cell Biology for BME)
    • CHM 11610 and 11620
    • CS 15900 or CS 17600
    • MA 26100
    • MA 26200 (or both MA 26500 and MA 26600)
    • BME 20200 or ME 20000 (Thermodynamics)
    • PHYS 24100 (or PHYS 27200)
    • STAT 35000 (or STAT 51100)

Courses listed in BME Courses, Depth Area Courses, and Additional STEM Courses make up a student’s major GPA. Students must maintain a 2.0 major GPA or better in order to remain in good standing in the program and to graduate.

Technical Engineering selectives are courses approved by the BME curriculum committee which allow a student to gain a deeper understanding of engineering principles and concepts. Technical Engineering selectives are mainly courses in the various engineering disciplines including BME and other core STEM areas such as Computer Science, Statistics and Mathematics. It is recommended that students complete technical engineering selectives that correspond with their depth area, but it is not required.

For in-depth information about the technical engineering selectives including policies and a breakdown of selectives based on depth areas, please visit the Technical Engineering Selectives page.

Life Science selectives are courses approved by the BME curriculum committee that provide a student more knowledge about biological and chemical principles to supplement their engineering coursework. Life Science selectives are taken from various departments including Biology, Chemistry, Public Health, and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.

For in-depth information about the life science selectives including policies and a breakdown of selectives based on depth areas, please visit the Life Science Selectives page.

General Education Selectives are non-technical courses that provide a broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context.

For in-depth information about the General Education selectives including policies, please visit the General Education Selectives page.