Biomedical Engineering - Is the Grass Greener?

The hype for BME has grown significantly in the last few years; I remember first hearing about it about 3 years back, when a friend went to Stanford for BME. Since then, I’ve decided to major in BME as well, with my top college choices at the moment being Duke, Dartmouth, and the UCSD Jacobs Scholars Program (full ride + research opportunities). Initially the plan was to pursue premed, but I don’t know if I still want to pursue that goal.

Ideally, I would like to find BME job opportunities immediately after undergrad. However, despite all the paradigms indicating “significant job sector growth”, it seems that a job in BME is not that easy to find after undergrad. I’ve spoken to a somewhat limited group of graduates so this may not be completely true, but I would like to clarify several points as the internet resources are mostly positively biased towards careers in BME.

  1. How practical is it to find a BME career immediately after undergrad?
  2. Are these careers worthwhile, or would it be better to pursue a masters/PHD before finding a job?
  3. How long (generally) are masters programs? PHD programs?

Essentially, is the BME job market’s health exaggerated or is it really the opportunity-filled wonderland that undergrads dream of?