<p>I would like to go into the medical field (neurology) but I am not sure if medical school is right for me.I honestly don't know if I will be able to afford all that time and money. I am considering majoring in biomedical engineering with pre-med so I can keep my options open - after completing my bachelors I will be able to go into engineering or medical school, whichever suits me best at the time. However, my parents are advising me against majoring in biomedical engineering because there isn't a good job market for it. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>“However, my parents are advising me against majoring in biomedical engineering because there isn’t a good job market for it.”</p>
<p><a href=“Biomedical Engineer - Fastest-growing jobs - CNNMoney”>http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/jobs/2013/11/13/fastest-growing-jobs/</a>
<a href=“The 15 Most Valuable College Majors”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/05/15/best-top-most-valuable-college-majors-degrees/</a></p>
<p>Having your undergrad degree be biomedical eng is great for the reason you listed.(open options)
Just note that a graduate degree is needed in biomed eng, not just a bachelors! </p>
<p>@redrising8 Though biomed eng might be one of the fastest growing jobs, that does not mean that there’s plenty of jobs available. It’s a new field. For example, if A has 100 jobs and B has 10 jobs, and both add 10 jobs in the same time frame, then the growth for A is just 10% whereas the growth for B is 100%. In the end, A still has more available jobs.</p>
<p>On other forums I’ve read that in order to become a biomed eng, you don’t need to major in it for your undergrad since undergrad courses leave the student a jack of all trades and master of none. Apparently it’s better to major in EE or mech eng and get a graduate degree for biomed eng.</p>
<p>This has been discussed extensively in other threads, but the bottom line is this, engineering, of any kind, is a poor premed choice. BME is one of the worst since employment opportunities are worse than with other engineering degrees. </p>
<p>The secret to med school admission is to make great grades, get your prerequisites out of the way, crush the MCAT and incur as little debt as possible. </p>
<p>Very little engineering is applicable to med school, including BME, plus it hard, so your GPA could suffer. You’ll have to take extra course work to get needed classes for admission.</p>
<p>Most majors, including Music, would be better.</p>
<p>I want to scream every time someone writes that engineering and medicine are a bad fit. The reality is that there are a large (and growing) number of MD’s with engineering backgrounds. There are even blogs written by engineers that became physicians. </p>
<p>The courses behind a biomedical engineering major will allow you to complete your med school prereqs, and give you the background to do well on the all important MCAT. I know my alma mater had an excellent medical school placement record for BME’s. And, don’t forget, there will be a lot more you’ll need to your medical school application than your GPA and MCAT. The one advantage is that if you decide you don’t want to do medicine (an understandable decision, given a number of factors), you still have your engineering degree to fall back on; try getting an engineering position as an art history or music major. </p>
<p>The biggest drawback to the biomedical engineering degree is that, as you noted, it’s not viewed all that positively by employers looking for engineers. Part of the problem is that a medical device firm will generally say they want an EE or MechE or ChemE, and the BME major is therefore unable to get past the HR screening. This is more of a problem at the bachelor’s degree level. Advanced technical positions in biomedical engineering often require a graduate degree. </p>
<p>One consideration is that it is possible to get into a BME graduate program with just about any engineering degree, especially if you use your precious electives to boost your bio/chem background. If you do go the BME route, you should at least consider a concentration in one of the other engineering disciplines (or computer science). Also, networking with your school’s career placement office and your professors can help you find a summer position or undergraduate research assistanceship, either of which will go a long way to boosting your resume in the mind of employers and graduate admissions committees. </p>
<p>Finally, the bottom line: if you want to be an engineer, or think you may want to be one, then major in engineering. If you don’t want to be an engineer no matter what, then don’t. </p>
<p>My father was an engineer, BS and MS from MIT and then 7 years later, went to medical school and became a practicing physician. I’m well aware that engineers have and will continue to go to medical school. Most of them however don’t start with the intention of going into medicine. They leave engineering. They are VERY different fields. Choosing engineering of any flavor makes the route much more difficult. If the goal is to have a fall back degree, then pick one that’s useful like ME or Chem E, not BME.</p>
<p>As I have done in the past, I suggest this thread. <a href=“Avoid bioengineering, if you can! - Engineering Majors - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/222845-avoid-bioengineering-if-you-can-p1.html</a></p>
<p>Albeit nearly a decade old, the BME/BioE situation has not bettered much. </p>
<p>Since you’re into Neurology, I would say do EE if you want to be an Engineer. You could work with the brain. After all, its mostly electrical impulses. </p>
<p>If you stick with engineering, I don’t imagine it would put you at much of a disadvantage against more traditional disciplines if you’re trying to attend BME grad school, although wouldn’t be incredibly advantageous either and it would hurt you if you were trying to do anything else.</p>
<p>I think that BME is also a decent route to medical school as well because of it’s medical foundation though you’ll probably be left to squeeze in some of the med school prerequisites on your own depending on the curriculum. Just be aware that another curriculum like biology might have more of the prerequisites you need and might be easier to get a good GPA in.</p>
<p>I’d say the most beneficial thing that BME has doing for it is that it may be easier to get into grad school in BME than to get into medical school (with any degree) thus you would have more of a security blanket than you would have with a more biology oriented degree. I’m not sure how competitive the two graduate options are so correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>The bottom line: biomedical engineering is like straddling the fence. You have a foot on each side, which gives you a starting point and covers all of your bases. But, if you picked a side (and picked a good major to match) then you’d have TWO feet on that side and would be more prepared for that side. (You don’t even have a fence to straddle in the to-grad-school-or-not-to-grad-school department because it looks like you’ll most likely be going to grad/professional school in either field with a bachelor’s in BME.)</p>
<p>If you honestly don’t know where your passions lie and need more time to do some soul searching, BME may be the perfect open-ended route for you. My recommendation though is to pick a side of the fence and run with it. Do you want to deal with medical devices and equipment and enjoy designing and engineering things? Stick with BME Do you want to throw yourself into neuroscience, research, and/or healing patients? Try something with more flexibility like biology. Designing medical devices/equipment, conducting research, and practicing as a doctor/neurosurgeon are all on three different sides of the medical spectrum and involve similar but different passions and skill sets.</p>