Biomedical Engineering - Do most go on to med school?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi, I was planning on majoring in biomedical engineering when I go to college. I've been reading that many people major in BME to go on to med school. Is this true? Also, is it worth majoring in BME and not going on to med school but possibly get my masters? By "is it worth it?", I mean, do you think there are jobs available?</p>

2

<p>well if u don’t want to go on to med school, then take pure biological engineering. from there, you can move on to genetics, biotechnology, etc</p>

3

<p>I’d do a big 3 for BS and then BME for MS.</p>

4

<p>Post-undergraduate study of one sort or another (whether MD or MS) is almost a necessity for BME majors. I don’t think just a BS will give as good job prospects as it would for other engineering majors.</p>

<p>I concur with NeoDymium, mostly because while BME is a jack-of-all-trades, it’s also a master of none. If you’re going to go to grad school, anyways, you might as well focus in the area you’re interested in (EE, ChemE, or ME) and then later use that towards medical applications.</p>

5

<p>I tend to disagree with the others, although I may be biased. I’m currently working on a BS in biological engineering. There are a few reasons why I chose bioengineering. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>I know that I want to solve biological problems</p></li>
<li><p>I know that I want to go to grad school</p></li>
<li><p>It has GREAT potential</p></li>
</ol>

<p>People (especially students from the “big three”) tend to think that biological/biomedical engineering, or whatever you want to call it, is useless with simply a BS. I disagree with this… Although this may have been true five years ago, the biological engineering job market is certainly growing. Check out these statistics from my school for job placement from the different majors:
<a href=“http://enrollment.missouri.edu/docs/2010-2011%20Survey.htm[/url]”>http://enrollment.missouri.edu/docs/2010-2011%20Survey.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you look at years past, biological engineering was pretty bad but its marketability is steadily increasing (along with salary which is second highest behind chemical). I realize this is only one data source but it still something to think about.</p>

<p>Someone said that if you are planning on going to graduate school in BME then you should do undergrad in one of the traditional engineering fields (ME, CheE, or EE), but I find this logic reversed unless you are unsure about grad school. Most people that might want to do BME for graduate school but choose one of the traditional fields for BS do so because they are unsure if they will really want to go to grad school. This way, they are able to have more options when looking for jobs with simply a BS… BUT if you know you want to go to grad school for BME then do BME for your undergrad. You won’t even have to worry about marketability because you will not be looking for a job after you graduate. You will though, have a better idea of what you want to study in graduate school pertaining to bioengineering than a person who studied EE for example. They may be stuck studying a more narrow aspect of BME while a person with a bioengineering background will be more flexible in grad school.</p>