BME major post graduation

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>What are the advantages of choosing med school over grad school for BME majors? Granted Im at jhu with a tough grading system and I have not decided what to pursue .</p>

<p>But are the admission criteria similar for both? I mean med school is mostly gpa(might have to sacrifice a tough coureload schedule) and mcat BUT then grad school might look more closely at what classes I take and outside experience. </p>

<p>What careers do bme majors who go to med school pursue?
What careers do bme majors who go to grad school pursue?
I guess Im kind of confused on what I should pick/how I should decide and whether I need to tailor my coursework if I decide to do either one</p>

<p>Also, what are some other options for bme majors?(I know a few bme majors at jhu who did well and went on to immediate high finance positions). What other options are out there for me? I dont want to follow a rigid track for the next four years but I would like to know my options as a bme major .</p>

2

<p>Well, the outcomes of medical and graduate school are very different. The main advantage of going to medical school is you choose a profession where you get to help and impact people directly, while the advantage of grad school is that you perform more research and apply the science and engineering disciplines in a more theoretical setting. Financial differences aside, it's more or less what type of setting you'd prefer to work in for the rest of your life. Also, MD's can do research if you decide on that route, while a MS or PhD in BME is more limited in terms of what you can do clinically. Then again, there's always a MD/PhD if you really feel like being in school for 7-8 years.</p>

<p>Being a graduated BIOE major myself who's now in med school, I'm familiar with both ways of thinking. Graduate school is much easier to get into, GPA-wise. I know several people who are now PhD track who had around a 3.0 GPA. However, considering that you can be an art history major and get into medical school, and that you have to be an engineer to enter a BME program, it's more understandable. Individual classes are probably more important for graduate school, since you'll be using that knowledge later on, whereas I could forget everything I learned in undergrad now and probably be just fine.</p>

<p>Strictly speaking, bioengineering isn't the best major for medical school. It won't hurt you if you can keep your GPA up, but it's harder to do that and you will never use most of the topics you covered as an undergrad. Hell, I think I've seen one integral in med school so far, and it was quickly reduced to an algebraic equation so as to not "scare the students". That being said, I'd still do BIOE again simply because I enjoyed the material, and it gave me an engineer's viewpoint on problems (something I think is worthwhile).</p>

<p>And there are other options for bioengineers other than med/grad school. I have a few friends who went into finance, a few into law school (who will probably be forced into patent law), and some who took jobs already, such as at NASA and several small biotech companies. I'm personally of the opinion that whatever a bioengineer can do, a mechanical, chemical, or electrical engineer can do as well or better after taking a couple of biology related classes. BIOE is kinda of mix of all the engineering disciplines, and as the old saying goes.. Jack of all trades, master of none. It makes a good base for a manager overseeing different engineers since you'll know a decent amount about every field, but more specialized engineers have an advantage on pure engineering.</p>

<p>I decided on medical school after doing research as an undergrad. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, decided to shadow a surgeon, and loved that much more. Experiencing both sides really helped my decision, and I'd recommend trying both. Plus, it'd look good on your resume no matter where you go.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

3

<p>that is some great no bs info there! straight from experience </p>

<p>About your friend who went to finance, what exactly did he do in finance? The ones who went straight into the NASA and biotech job industry, how was the pay and did they enjoy it? </p>

<p>Hmm you have a point with the manager thing but I dont think recent graduate will be considered for the position hmm</p>

4

<p>A couple of things...</p>

<p>BioE, BiomechanicalE and BiomedicalE are all very heavily interrelated, but are in fact very distinct...I think I answered this somewhere else. Not that I was any of those (sociology major here!), but I think that the distinctions are important.</p>

<p>There likely will be more overlap with BiomechanicalE in medical school (I"m thinking about the muscle physiology/function and stretch receptors and the like). But still, that's not a whole lot.</p>

<p>I think that Knaack has a very good point about experiencing the two sides and using that experience to determine where your passion lies.</p>

<p>In a more "theoretical" sense, I think most doctors are doctors b/c they like talking with people, meeting them, interacting with them and such. And certainly that's not always the case, and there are specialties where you don't have to talk to patients, but for the most part you do have to be comfortable doing so at least as a medical student. If you don't like that, you can "hide" in fields like pathology, radiology, anesthesia, and in a more limited sense surgery. But most other fields certainly require interaction, empathy, the ability to converse to the patients level and so on - all the warm fuzzy stuff, skills that not everyone has or enjoys doing (not that there's anything wrong with that).</p>

<p>On the other hand as a Biomech, biomed or bioe your interactions depending on your job are going to be with other researchers, physicians, or engineers, and rarely with patients or other laypersons.</p>

5

<p>Agrophobic -- </p>

<p>My friend who's on wall street now is making over 100k this year (signing bonuses must be nice...). He's working for an investment firm, but I actually haven't talked to him recently and I can't say exactly what he's doing. The girl I know who's working for NASA is updating a body monitor system for astronauts to wear during space flight. I don't know her starting pay, but I think the standard for engineers is around 60k, give or take. So far, she loves it, and is having great fun. Plus, it's pretty nifty to say you work for NASA... I think you get a pin with their logo! </p>

<p>And yeah, you definitely won't be a manager straight away, but you might be put into some position where you have to interact and synthesis an optimal solution from two different teams of engineers. Engineers are all about teams, and oftentimes the hardest part is getting those to work together. I have to admit I didn't look into industry too much myself, as I was just debating PhD or MD, so take my industrial know-how with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>bigmedred makes a good point about there being a distinction between BIOE and BME. However, I feel that doesn't come into play until graduate level and beyond; before that, the degrees are essentially the same as you have to learn the same concepts in either case. No undergraduate institution has both degrees (as far as I am aware), though several have bioengineering and biomedical engineering for graduate school. It wouldn't make sense to limit a student's options so early on when the basic concepts between the two are so similar.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how JHU sets up the degree, but my school had separate tracks, essentially letting students "specialize" in biomechanical, biochemical, or bioelectrical engineering to learn more in their preferred field. Even if JHU doesn't have that, I'd think it'd be preferable to take extra classes in one or two of the classic disciplines if you want to head into industry, for either BME or bioengineering. If you're going into medical school, the extra classes probably won't help you, since the added information is more theoretical and much more mathy than you'll ever need (I pray I'll never see another Fourier transform again).</p>