Starting her career at Ohio State as a freshman in undecided engineering, Anna Ralph has had a truly unique experience at Ohio State. From her time on the Women’s Varsity Rowing team to her current studies at OSU’s College of Dentistry, Ralph opened up to me during a recent interview about her undergraduate degree and what lead her to pursue a major in biological engineering.
Madison Graham, interviewer: You’re currently in the dental school, but you’re undergrad was biological engineering. When and why did you choose biological engineering?
Anna Ralph, interviewee: It was about halfway through sophomore year when I kind of decided.
MG: Did you start in Exploration as well?
AR: I started in undecided engineering. And then it was the end of my freshman year [when] I decided, okay, I’m going to go into biological engineering because I was thinking about something in the medical field. I was looking at either medical school or dental school, so I decided to commit to dental school sophomore year. I started applying and looking into that; but for biological engineering, that was more so towards the end of freshmen year when I kind of started looking in to that.
MG: And what made you choose biological engineering?
AR: A lot of the overlap with the prereqs for dental school. So, I knew I’d get O-Chem [Organic Chemistry] out of the way, and I think Bio-Chem. Everything just kind of overlapped.
MG: Do you feel like you made the right choice of majors?
AR: I do, yes.
MG: Why is that?
AR: I was looking at biomedical, and with that one, I’m glad I chose biological because I think it is, and it was, more manageable. It’s not as selective as biomedical engineering so I went right into the program, which was kind of nice. Biomedical would have been cool because it’s more related to anatomy and the human body whereas biological is more [of] a biological system in general. [It’s] a lot of farming, plants, and just biology in general. It wasn’t as specific towards humans, but I do think the classes were definitely manageable, so that’s what I liked about biological [engineering].
MG: That’s something I’m definitely worried about because I was looking at biomedical [engineering] too, but biological [engineering] seems more manageable. What was your favorite major course?
AR: My favorite major course was the bio-engineering course we took. It was really cool because we got to learn a lot about enzymes and there was a lot of food engineering in it– so we made our own beer, we got to make our own pizza and cheese. We did a bunch of tours of different breweries around Columbus, too. I liked it a lot because it was as dry as something like fluid mechanics or thermodynamics. It was more related to what, I think, we were all interested in. It was definitely my favorite class.
MG: That sounds like a lot of fun. What was your favorite class outside of your major and why?
AR: I took some cool electives. I took a German Science Fiction and Popular Culture [class], so that was kind of cool and the History of Rock and Roll. It was pretty fun because you got to listen to different songs and learn about the history of Rock and Roll. I liked those two [the best] because they were different from any engineering class and you got to learn about something different, so that was fun.
MG: If you could go back and do it all again, would you choose the same major?
AR: Yes, I definitely would.
MG: How engaged or accessible are faculty in the biological engineering department?
AR: I thought they were pretty accessible. You can go upstairs and find them in office hours or the TA’s were very accessible too. They were definitely there to help.
MG: What kind of extracurricular experiences, like research, internships, or co-ops have you had? Why did you choose them and how have they benefitted you?
AR: I didn’t have any directly engineering related internships. I interviewed for some- one for Pepsi and an Under Armour Operations and Supply Chains internship- but I didn’t get any of those. So, what I ended up doing was a soil science research internship at the OARDC in Wooster. They have an extension there where they just do agricultural research, so I went there for a summer and just did soil science. It isn’t really related to biological engineering, but I could pull in a lot of the science and just getting research experience was nice. That was my main research/internship that I did.
MG: Did you do any dental internships?
AR: I shadowed for dentistry, so that was the main experience that I got.
MG: What are your plans after graduating from dental school?
AR: I would like to and hopefully I’m ready by the time I graduate to go out and practice. If not, I would like to do a general practice residency, which is like a medical residency where you just go in and get more hands on experience. So, we’ll see where I am at the end of graduation and hopefully I can go right into the workforce.
MG: Do you have a specialty, such as pediatrics, etc.?
AR: I’m thinking general right now.
MG: Do you have anything else you would like to add?
AR: I chose [my major] knowing that I was going to go into something and continue on after undergrad. I think that if I had just gone into engineering, I would have gone into something like mechanical [engineering] or chemical [engineering] because I think a lot of companies are looking more for that. It’s kind of a niche market for biological engineering where I think if you wanted to work for P&G or GE, a big company, they look for a lot of chemical [engineers], a lot of the broader engineering majors. So, I kind of picked bio [engineering] knowing that I was going to dental school.
While Ralph was the only student and recent graduate with an undergraduate major in biological engineering that is registered in the Buckeye Bank, I’m glad I interviewed her and not someone else. She provided a lot of insight into biological engineering and reassured me that it’s okay to not declare a major right away. I would still like to learn more about other job opportunities in the field of biological engineering after graduation, however I now feel that I am confident in declaring a biological engineering major as it feels like a perfect fit for me. After interviewing Ralph, I found out that she was a member of the Novice Rowing team and that she eventually moved up to Varsity. As I am a current member of the Novice team, it was comforting to know that majoring in biological engineering is manageable with Crew.
So far throughout this semester, I have utilized the Buckeye Bank, as well as my Exploration advisor to help me decide on a major and career that best suits my interests and goals in life. They have both been good resources that I hope to continue to use during my time at Ohio State.