<p>I am certain of becoming an engineer but have bounced back and forth between Aerospace Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. They are different ,obviously, but they apply the same fundamentals but you deal with them differently (body vs airplane). I just can not decide. I am a junior in high school and I feel that I need to make decision right away. I am fascinated by the universe and would love to work for engineering corporations and be part of a team and build air crafts, parts to an airplane etc. But also, I have had pretty insane surgeries throughout my high school career and would like to engineer prosthetic body parts , or new machinery to better surgeries. I would also like to do stem research. I just do not know what to major in. I would like to get some feedback from BE's and Aerospace/Mechanical Engineers and know what they like about their job.</p>
<p>Salary wise they are about even. However there is going to be a MUCH greater demand for biomedical engineers and it would be quite easy to form a startup company in that field. Also with greater demand for biomedical engineers, there salary is bound to go up. Just make sure as biomedical engineer you don’t get stuck in a research position unless you really REALLY like it because their job is very laborious and underpaid. If your passion for both is equal then go with biomedical engineering. If your passion for one is greater then choose that one.</p>
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Do you have sources to support any of this?</p>
<p>^I agree with bleach, and I think it’s only logical.</p>
<p>If you want to startup an aerospace corporation, well… you need millions and millions of dollars to get the manufacturing capacity to build aircraft, and you have to build aircraft and test them. If you don’t have that much capital, you can certainly build aircraft parts, but contrast this to bioengineering, where the capital required is only a lab, rather than a workshop. Though labs are certainly expensive (with all the high-tech machinery), you can run a lab with just a couple scientists, whereas running a workshop that builds aircraft will take significantly more labor and materials.</p>
<p>I would also say that logically, bioengineering seems to have greater demand for labor. For an aerospace job, you are typically going to work for NASA, Lockheed, Boeing, etc…
Whereas for bioengineering you can work for pharmaceuticals, prosthetics companies, drug research companies, genetic engineering, agriculture, etc…</p>
<p>With BME, I’d also warn of bubbles. The demand for BME’s may not exceed its supply for long. AeroE is stable, though it does have its own problems.</p>
<p>You can always major in something more general like MechE or EE and take a bunch of electives in BME and AeroE…that way you sort of have a flavor of both and once you figure out (through research, work experience, internships, etc) which one you like more, you can get into either MS program. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, in both fields, it is advisable to at least get an MS. So no harm in doing something more general for undergrad.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much! Clarification: Mechanical and Aerospace, what is the difference? I mean yes it is obvious, Aerospace, you focus on flying objects, but I find them rather similar to the extent where I can be a Mechanical engineer and work for an aerospace company, but the question is, which one would be more stable? I have done research throughout my high school career and feel that there are more ME opportunities.</p>
<p>Aero has a lot of overlap with the big 3. It’s just specialized.</p>