<p>I will be applying to colleges next year, and am trying to decide on the major that I would like to take. I was wondering if any of you guys had any suggestions/opinions regarding biomedical engineering and computer science engineering. I find both interesting, but I need to consider the potential of both fields in the future, starting salaries, etc. Also, I plan to eventually go into business either way, and hope to get a MBA from Wharton. I have been "google-ing," but I can't really seem to find anything too useful. Thank you cc community!</p>
<p>Have you looked at specific course requirements for the two majors at potential schools? Just as an example, at the university my son attends, both computer science and biomed engineering are majors within the School of Engineering. However, BME results in a bachelor’s of engineering, and computer science results in a bachelor’s of science. In practical terms, this means the course requirements for a cs degree are rather different than for any of the other engineering fields. The types of research available to students in the two majors is also quite different. Since there is a medical school on the university campus, there is a lot of interaction between BME and the med. school. There are also research opps for cs majors, but they are not so much medical-issue oriented.</p>
<p>If your goal is an MBA, it doesn’t seem to me to matter a lot which field you choose. Both are rigorous fields, require a lot of math and analytical skills. Do you have reason to believe one will make you more attractive to Wharton than the other?</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ve thought this through. Do you have any idea how difficult CS is? I’m a CS major, and there’s no way in hell I would suffer through all the all-nighters and infinitely long projects if I didn’t actually want to work in CS. And trust me, what’s left of your soul by the end will be sucked away by algorithm design. </p>
<p>Really, if your goal is MBA I fail to see why you would want to spend so much of your time and suffer so much pain studying something you wouldn’t really use. Don’t know how hard BME is, but it’s probably not much better.</p>
<p>Well, I’m trying to think this through, which is why I am asking help from cc. The reason why I want an undergrad in an engineering field is because it will provide me some stability, and also I plan to incorporate what I learned from engineering into a business that I hope to create (after attending a really good business school such as Wharton for MBA). Thanks!</p>
<p>anon, </p>
<p>You are not the only student interested in getting a background in engineering while concentrating on business applications. You might look into programs such as those I’ve linked below. These links are to two programs in the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. There are probably similar majors and minors at other universities, but I don’t know anything about them (and I don’t know much about these, either, except that they exist).</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/es/]Engineering”>http://frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/es/]Engineering</a> Science at Vanderbilt University<a href=“Engineering%20Science”>/url</a></p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://engm.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/]Engineering”>http://engm.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/]Engineering</a> Management - School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University<a href=“Engineering%20Management%20minor”>/url</a></p>
<p>Go to college first, and then decide which one you like better.</p>
<p>It’s hard to pick a major in high school. You think you know what you like, and you find out that’s actually totally different in college. I thought I wanted to be a biology major, and then I changed it to political science. I found out in college that I actually liked psychology.</p>
<p>I know at some engineering schools you need to enter with an engineering major selected already, but honestly at the vast majority of schools it is relatively easy to change your major and it is far better to enter undecided and decide later. Chances are you’ll change your mind anyway.</p>
<p>I have heard from several people that attaining a bachelors in biomedical engineering is essentially worthless, and that it would be more worthwhile to get a masters in BME. Is this true?</p>
<p>bump (10 char)</p>