Aerospace vs Biomedical

I’m looking into engineering and I think Aerospace and biomedical look very interesting. I saw there was an old form on this but it was back in 2008 and things were very different then. Some of the main concerns of aero was cost of fuel but that has dropped quite a bit. Also, Obama put a new focus on space exploration; how would this affect the industry? Biomedical is supposed to have a very fast growth rate and it seems pretty cool. I’ve also thought of chemical a little bit it’s quite a bit harder isn’t it? What do you guys think is the best?

Be ready to go to grad school if you choose biomedical.

It may have dropped for now, but fossil fuels are still a finite resource. The price will rise again sooner or later and in the long term there will always be the need to move away form fossil fuels entirely.

Not a whole lot. It’s good for making headlines, but at the end of the day, the President doesn’t fund NASA; Congress does. Further, space exploration is a tiny slice of the aerospace pie compared to the money floating around in the aeronautics side of things.

Biomedical companies are experiencing fast growth. These companies need a whole bunch of different types of employees, not just biomedical engineers.

There are no harder or easier engineering disciplines. It is all about what interests you and where your own personal skills lie. Even if you do subscribe to the theory that some courses of engineering study are more inherently difficult than others (I don’t), most people would tell you that aerospace is right up there among the “hardest” with chemical and electrical.

Be ready to search hard for “aerospace engineering” careers. Not too many out there.

Yes, but the demand for this is growing quickly and the unemployment rate is below one percent. I would probably major in something like mechanical and then get a masters in bio.

Well this is not a true statement in the least.

Yeah, I didn’t think that sounded right.

My EE husband interviews engineers for his corporation in the “aerospace” industry and hires EE, Mech E., Physics, and CS grads but does not hire AE, because he says, the degrees are too narrow in scope. DD’s company also does not hire AEs, but hires other engineering disciplines because it is more efficient.

Maybe @boneh3ad has some corporate leads for you, but as far as the two big companies that my family members work for, it’s not in the companies “best financial interests” to hire AEs. Just my personal experience since my neighbor has tried for a couple of years to get into my husband’s company and only has an AE degree, but they can’t hire him.

Future jobs are predicted to slow down in AE.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/aerospace-engineers.htm

If u specialize early w a narrowly tailored undergraduate degree, u run the risk of getting “burned” if the job market for that specialty is mistimed w your graduation.

Then your husband’s company is the exception to the rule, and it sounds like your husband doesn’t really appreciate what is included in the AE curriculum. In truth, there is very little different curriculum-wise between aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering. It is the same science taught using different examples in class.

Yep, your personal experience based on your neighbor trying to get a job at one company does not signify a trend industry-wide. In the meantime, aerospace companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Ball Aerospace, SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Scaled Composites, Cessna, United Technologies (Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, and Sikorsky), GE, Rolls-Royce, Rockwell Collins, Bell Helicopter and more all hire aerospace engineers here in the US. I know this for 100% fact because I have aerospace engineer friends and acquaintances who have careers at every single one of those companies. I am sure I am leaving plenty of them out, too. Further, that doesn’t include the list of companies that aren’t in the aerospace industry but still hire aerospace engineers, like Ford and other automakers, Vestas and other wind turbine manufacturers, and many other companies in industries involving the principles covered in aerospace engineering.

That’s not to say that there aren’t more job opportunities for the broader degrees like mechanical or electrical engineering (there are), but saying that there are not too many aerospace careers out there and that even aerospace companies don’t hire aerospace engineers is just flat out incorrect.

What do you mean exactly? Should I not major in BME. I’m planning on getting a masters.