<p>I plan on attending Georgia Tech this fall, and I applied in Biomedical Engineering, since at the time, it interested me. However, after reading around these boards, it doesn't seem like there are many jobs out there for BME's. Does majoring in BME at even GaTech (ranked #3) make a difference at all? Or is BME simply not a demanding field in the real world, even coming out of a top school? </p>
<p>I planned on switching over to Civil Engineering or Mechanical, but I wanted to get some more final opinions.</p>
<p>I don't think a BME undergrad degree adds anything that an employer is looking for over that of a more standard degree(EE, ME, CivE too but not sure how useful it is for bio apps). It seems to hurt more than help, so in that regard, I don't think you'll lose anything by taking a traditional major and focusing on biological applications.</p>
<p>You can do biomed stuff in any of the 4 traditional disciplines, even civil! One grad student I know in my department was giving a seminar on her research, and it was actually more bio-related than civE-related. In fact , two profs from the Biology department showed up. The research had something to do with the structure of a cell... I'm not sure exactly. It went over my head. In any case, apparently its possible to relate civE to bio, but its not the norm to go into research like that in the civil engineering department, let alone studying it in civE undergrad.</p>
<p>I'd recommend EE, ME, or ChE (and NOT civE) depending on which area of biomedical engr you're interested in. That's if you want to change major.</p>
<p>I love BME and know I wouldn't have been happy in any other field. The job market for people with only bachelor's degrees is pretty meager though, so I wouldn't strongly recommend it for someone who doesn't have an interest in grad school of some sort. If nothing else, look into a 5 year BS/MS degree (I assume GATech has one). If you stick to BME and are aiming to go directly into industry, you will have to be extremely pro-active about finding summer internships or co-ops with a company that matches your interests.</p>
<p>During my grad school interviews, one of the professors talked with me about BME and said something to the effect of "Pure engineers who move towards BME stuff always will speak medicine with an engineering accent, some better than others. People who were in pure sciences that move towards BME later in life speak medicine perfectly, but have a really bad accent when they try to speak engineering. BMEs are essentially bilingual in engineering and medicine - they learn the languages at the same time and from native speakers." I thought that was an interesting way of putting it, and the more people I meet in the field, the more I agree with it. I really love being fluent in both aspects, and feel I wouldn't have gotten that training anywhere else.</p>