<p>Okay so let's settle this once and for all...
Ive seen multiple sources that do describe biomedical engineerig as a true engineering medium with design and building... But i have also seen many posts that discredit this notion. Many say that biomedical degrees just are too broad and lack depth. </p>
<p>Also, if you want to design medical devices, should you major in mechanical/electrical engineering or biomedical engineerig??</p>
<p>Is there anyone out there who can settle these two questions? </p>
<p>We are contemplating this too. Daughter is a freshman in engineering. She wanted to do bioengineering/premed but if a student wants to get a job with a bachelors I have heard from several friends its is harder. It is better to major in electrical or mechanical engineering as a bachelors degree that way you have more career options. It appears focusing on biomedical engineering in graduate school after that would open more career prospects. It seems to have a career in biomedical engineering you need to be multidisciplined in engineering. (electrical, mechanical, or computer) We are still trying to figure things out ourselves.</p>
<p>When my son was a premed, he chose Chemical eng’g so that if he didn’t go to med school, he could get a job immediately. BiomedE doesn’t really allow for that. I don’t really like that major because I think too many premeds with it end up not going to med school and then they have to go to grad school in order to get a job.</p>
<p>When my son graduated, his 2 housemates were also ChemE. Those two were immediately hired at high salaries. It sure made my son pause a bit while he was heading to med school and many more years of schooling. ;)</p>
<p>Currently, at his undergrad 1/3 of the ChemE students are premed.</p>
<p>HappySteve…choose MechE for your interests.</p>
<p>Check to see in which department the bioengineering program is offered.</p>
<p>At Ds school biomedical engineering is offered as a sub-specialty within the Chem.E department. In other words, all Chem.E.'s take the basic Chem.E. requirements and can then chose from amongst the six (I believe) sub-specialties to complete the Chem.E major. </p>
<p>Other schools have placed biomedical engineering in other departments.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman and is also interested in Bioengineering: however her school has a bioengineering department and there are 3 specific tracts to select from. Perhaps it is because the area is a booming biotech corridor, and the university partners with NIH and other local biotech companies to do research, etc. Hmmm…will have to do some more research…</p>
<p>Any familiar with electrical engineering could also say that it’s “too broad”, yet people graduate and get jobs all the time. Back when I got my degree, I wanted to work in computers, yet I had to take courses in power generation and distribution, electrical machines, control systems, communications systems, digital circuits and logic, semiconductor theory, electromagnetic theory, and a host of other courses that were very tangential to what I eventually wanted to do. All engineers even had to take a whole year of statics and dynamics, even though those have very little to do with most of electrical engineering, but you do need to understand where other engineering disciplines might be called for on your projects. </p>
<p>By its very nature, most of undergraduate engineering education is very broadly based and needs to be - you need to understand where something might be called for outside of your area. I might have wanted to work on computers, but computers are also physical things that require design input from mechanical engineers especially, and to not know that will only cause your project to fail.</p>
<p>I know a ME grad student and a former EE grad student that are both doing research in BME. I think all these fields can be very board and have some overlapping with each other.</p>