<p>My ultimate goal is a career in Biomedical Engineering. The nitty gritty designing, making, and problem solving. Not sales or anything else. I know I'll probably have to get a masters or PhD in Bme but I'm not sure what i can do in undergrad. I hear a bs in bme is useless but I'm not sure what other type of engineering id be interested in. Mechanical I guess because I like to work with tangible things? I really would like to design and make products (biomedical or anything really). I feel like it would do me good to have an internship in bme in undergrad but i can't do that if I'm majoring in ME can I? Will it be more difficult to get into a bme grad program with a bs in ME? Will I have to take a lot of extra classes? In general what should I look for in an undergrad college? Affordable obviously so I can pay for grad school, but what else? Strong internships/co-ops or just reputation in general? </p>
<p>First, it’s not “probably”, it’s definitely in terms of master’s or PhD. My friend graduated with a degree in Bioengineering: Biotechnology and was one of the officers of a BioE organization at my school. He hosted fairs and presentations, had a good GPA and a lot of activity and he is still unemployed. (Graduated last year, we walked together but I stayed an extra year for fun) On the flip side, another friend of mine who graduated in 2012 got a job, albeit a year later in 2013, working for a very high profile biotechnology group in a very nice part of San Diego, making over 60k a year and he does a lot of bioreactor design and implementation type of stuff. They do medical devices and biotech research.
However, he had an ‘in’ because one of our close friends had a relative that works there. Luckily the close friend was a film major so he couldn’t use the ‘in’ for himself. All you need to do is look up biomedical engineering jobs and you’ll see that the requirements very very quickly jump into MS/PhD/7 years of experience route.
And in bioengineering, experience very rarely makes up for the terminal degree. You’ll see 5 years of experience substituted for a 2 year MS and 8 years of experience substituted for a 4/5 year PhD.
The best thing you can do is get good grades, get a research student position and max your GRE. Get into a paid PhD program and enjoy a debt free graduate degree.
Don’t get nervous about the time invested. I have a full time job and I miss school and want to go back for my master’s. (Which you will get en route to your PhD).</p>
<p>So your friend in bioengineering only has a bachelors correct?
Yeah I’ve been looking at jobs offered in Maryland because that’s where I would like to live but the jobs seem really ■■■■■■ and you need a masters and experience so maybe I’ll have to move far away. I’m thinking of getting masters/PhD and getting an internship at a place that I would actually want to work at and pray for a job offer after I graduate. </p>