<p>very good post...</p>
<p>MIT recently introduced a new BioE major - do you think it's better to major in Chem-BioE as an undergrad, or do BioE straight away as an undergrad? Is it also easy for the ChemE undergrads in MIT to get into the BE grad program in the same school? Thanks!</p>
<p>All of this info is very helpful, but I'm still as confused as ever about my own college decision.
Rice and Johns Hopkins are the options. JHU obviously has a stronger, more reputable program, whereas Rice is not even ABET accredited. If I am looking toward grad school anyway, should I go for the big name for undergrad, or somewhere where I will get a decent education and have more fun? Also, Rice is closer to home: a four hour drive as oppossed to a long flight to Baltimore.</p>
<p>This post does not factor in things like "fun" into ur college decision. I thought JHU has a VERY good grad medical program too? Sounds like u really want to go to Rice but do not want to give up JHU.</p>
<p>hmm, as for me, i was initially going to put bioengineering as my first choice Then chemcial_biomolecular engi but in the end i fell it is bttr to have a main chemical engi deg with option of specialisation in biomoleculr and put bioengineering as my 2nd choice..
but still, can anyone tell em the diff btw bioengineering and biomolecular engi??? thnx!!
(if u are wonderin why the hell i put biomolecular above bioengi if i am not even sure of the diff, it is cos i wanna do chem engi and will perhaps speacialise in bio later)
:)</p>
<p>As a prospective BME major am i correct that it would make more sense to get a BS in either ChemE or ME (possibly Material Science.) I have no problem attending Grad School for a Masters if not PhD.</p>
<p>Does anyone know about any SUNY BME programs? Lehigh?</p>
<p>Calkidd, you seem to have a bit of experience in this field. What advice can you give me? I'm a high school junior right now, thinking BME is what I want to do. I'm more sure of the bio part than the engineering part however, probably from lack of experience with anything else at this point, and I have to admit I was really turned off by how many people (on this forum, at least) seem to think it's their thing too. My first choice school is Northwestern; second is Duke, which has the 5-year BME bachelor's-master's program, which shouldn't be too tough since by then I'll hopefully have Chem, Calc, Bio, and a few humanities out of the way through APs. Also maybe MIT, maybe U of M since it's in-state, maybe something else. Your thoughts?</p>
<p>Last summer I interned with a company that just hired a new chemist. This guy had just graduated with two degrees: bioengineering and chemistry. He got the chem degree because he couldn't find any opportunities in BioE. I felt bad for him because his chemist job entailed mixing chemicals at a lab bench and my monthly "intern" MechE salary was more than his full-time chemist salary. And my workspace included my office and the entire manufacturing facility while he had no business being anywhere except in one small lab. He walked off the job before the summer was over. I'll be graduating with a MechE degree but I may opt to study some EE in the future.</p>
<p>justinmenche ... thanks for your post. I think it is really important to look down the road a bit and get the facts about what your degree is likely to bring you in terms of employment, admission to grad schools, etc. Do you know where the Biomed/chemist you spoke of got his Biomed BS degree? I have heard more than once that if your degree is from one of the "top" Biomed programs you will be ok as far as employment with a BS. But I guess I'd like to hear some stories to verify that this is true!</p>
<p>He said "U of I" which I thought was the Urbana-Champaign campus but according to their web site, their bioE program is fairly new. So he must have went to another Illinois school (probably UIC). I don't know how good his program was and I also don't know how hard he searched for bioE jobs.</p>
<p>deuxanfants,</p>
<p>One of my friends got his undergrad degree (I think it's BME) at U of Wash and got his MS in BME from JHU. He's a "researcher" for a biotech firm in South San Francisco. Guess what? I wouldn't want his job--doing experiments in the lab, taking data, and sitting around between sets of data. It's like still being in school. But that's just one person I know.</p>
<p>People working for pharma's R&D division are "researchers". Biotech industry is like that. If you want to do something different, try consulting. Great money and possibly easier job.</p>
<p>from what u guys say...for BME, is there really a very poor market for undergrads who come out to work for a while? how about if u decide to go on to take...dentistry or something? are there many accelerated programs for dentistry for people with a undergrad degree in biomed engineering?</p>
<p>question: how is bioE different from bioinformatics?</p>
<p>bioinformatics is a branch of BioE. at our school we actually have two departments (BioE) and BME. BioE here is more like agricultural type engineering/genetic engineering. BME is more related to designing devices for use in the medical field.</p>
<p>bioinformatics is usually for computer science majors. who are interested in pursuing something biology related.</p>
<p>As a freshmen applied bioE student at Cal, I'm having second thoughts about bioE. Too many difficult decisions..</p>
<p>Nothing to add, but thank you so much for that post - very informative :)</p>
<p>Seems that BME is too new a field to be established for the public to accept its status as an engineering major...Like having trouble in finding job which are posted as chemE or EE or having a hard time persuading them to believe in BME's credentials... But is it also true for a well-known BME program like those offered in JHU and Duke ( undergrad I mean)? From what I have gathered, their BME prog are not as easy as one might think.It's really hard core, like courses in thermo, modeling, systems and signals and physiological foundations... Are the public (employers) aware of that or it's an insider's knowlege?</p>
<p>How well are Chem and Biomolecular Engin prepare one for the research field like grad studies and career prospects as compared to BME major?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Continue from the above message:
Suppose that I have a choice between chemE and BME in a top school like Duke or JHU, which major should I go for considering that BME program is only recognized widely in those top schools? I'm more interested in Bio stuff though.</p>
<p>Any advice is appreciated,
thank you!</p>
<p>I posted in this thread before I got to college (this is a very old thread) and now I am actually a BME student @ JHU. As far as engineering "lite" goes -- it's not, and I'm not blowing my own horn, ask any JHU student what they believe the hardest major on their campus to be and it will be 8/10 times BME. This is not likely to be true at other schools (from what people tell me), but it is true at JHU. There are plenty of opportunities for BMEs out of JHU so I wouldn't worry about jobs. If you want to do BME you already have better job prospects then 90% of the college students graduating with liberal arts degrees anyway, do you really want to push yourself out of something you want to do because your starting salary will be 5k larger, trust me it won't matter soon anyway. And if you get into JHU/Dukes/Other top's BME program, I assume (I don't know for sure), that your salary will be good.</p>