<p>Hi, I am going to be an incoming freshman at Washington University in St. Louis this fall. Right now I am enrolled in the business school but I am really on the fence about what I want to do. A finance/econ major seems to have good job outlooks but Wash U's BME program is very strong and the career is interesting to me. What is strange is that many of these BME students want to go to med school to become doctors and are not actually interested into going into making medical devices. I am not interested in med school but moreso the engineering side. So a few questions:</p>
<p>My dream would be to work as an engineer for a biomedical company, move to management and have the company pay for my MBA. How do I do that? Is majoring in BME too narrow of a major or should I do mechanical even though BME job outlook is very good? I also don't have much money so if I wanted to get an engineering master's degree do companies often pay for this, and would undergrad engineer + masters of engineering + MBA be a feasable option?</p>
<p>I could also double major in BME/ME + economics/finance, do people do this (and is finance too different from engineering to make this work, are the careers too different)? Again, job security..</p>
<p>Look, most of us that read and respond to Wash U forum are current Wash U undergrads, maybe some MS’s as well. For things like job outlook, etc. this really isn’t the place to ask as we don’t know. Finding a job that pays for graduate school is also something we don’t know about. </p>
<p>Here are some things I’ll say
BS/MS programs in Engineering are 5 year programs that result in getting a BS in whatever, and a MS in engineering. Thus you can get a Masters in BME if you wanted to in 5 years at the same cost as undergrad.</p>
<p>You can easily double major in whatever you want – double majoring at Wash U is simple. Finance and engineering isn’t too remote.</p>
<p>As for what you should do, it’s really up to you.</p>
<p>But I mean questions like “My dream would be to work as an engineer for a biomedical company, move to management and have the company pay for my MBA. How do I do that?” have nothing to do with Wash U…not to mention it seems extremely remote. Some companies do offer money towards night courses (you can get a Professional MBA or PMBA), but again it’s up to the company and not every company does it, and we certainly don’t know.</p>
<p>To get into an MBA program, you usually need 3-5 yeats of job experience, especially at top schools like Olin. The average age for incoming MBA students at Wash U is 27. But again, most of these are being paid by the student/financial aid. There are 4+2 programs that offer admission immediately following undergrad, but this is hard to get into.</p>
<p>Take things one step at a time. First decide what school you want to major in, and then take it from there.</p>
<p>I’ll disagree with marcdvl here. Students can certainly answer this question, and several of us are well aware of the job market.</p>
<p>
Answer: then don’t do bme undergrad. For the most part, companies really don’t hire bme undergrads to do engineering work. Seriously. All of the bme graduates I know either: went into med school, went to grad school (not necessarily in bme), went to law school, or went into sales in a bme-type company. And of the 20 or so internships I was interested in for last summer, I was only eligible for 1… the the 19 others wanted mechE’s or EE’s. Ended up doing lab research, which I hated.</p>
<p>This is one area washu totally lacks in: letting you know as an entering freshman that if you want to do actual bme industry work, you’re far better off majoring in electrical or mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>(You really need a masters in bme if you want to go the straight bme route).
And yes, I know a ton of jaded upperclassmen now (furthermore, I am sort of one of them).</p>
<p>Sure, there’s the few that do get industry work, but it’s a small (lucky) minority.</p>
<p>If you want more details, pm me (not about to give away who I am completely…) For the record, I do absolutely love love love WashU and the Engineering school.</p>
<p>I would second Johnson181 about BME not being the best route if you’re really interested in BME. Though I would recommend taking a few BME courses as part of your engineering coursework. </p>
<p>Just wanted to correct the claim that “you can get a Masters in BME if you wanted to in 5 years at the same cost as undergrad”: Some departments offer the option of integrating your masters with your undergrad so that you can finish in 5 years, but you will have to pay for the 5th year, and any financial aid or merit scholarships won’t extend into that year. The part about the aid not extending to the 5th year of a BS/MS combined program is fairly new; I believe it went into effect within the past 2 years.</p>
<p>^I meant the same yearly cost as opposed to the more expensive graduate cost (which is about 10k more). Wasn’t thinking about scholarships/aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Basically reinforcing my previous assumptions.</p>
<p>
I’m confused? Last I checked, the grad tuition for engineering was the same as undergrad tuition. $39,400 for both undergrad and grad for this past year; <a href=“http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/20114.aspx[/url]”>http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/20114.aspx</a></p>
<p>The real benefit to the bs/ms is that 6 credits overlap (so it’s really only an additional 24 credits, as opposed to 30). That plus no gre, and you can get in with a significantly lower gpa than for outside applicants.</p>
<p>It should be noted, for those that are interested, there is no official bs/ms program in the bme department (it got axed a few years ago by Yin). There are some weird exceptions (ie if Yin likes you) though.</p>
<p>I personally cannot have any personal input on this matter, but generally speaking, companies will not hire an engineer with the intent they will be in upper management. However, if you double major in Econ/ BME, you have flexibility to choose your future in the BME field. Also, try to contact big BME firms (Zimmer, Stryker, etc.) just to are if they offer a paid masters program</p>