<p>I recently considered receiving a double major in Computer Science and Bio/Bio-medical engineering. I am not currently attending the University of Washington but plan to transfer in a year or two because I hear is has great programs in CSE and BME. Is it reasonable, practical, and realistic to attempt this. Will there be a job waiting for me after graduation using both skill sets. If it matters, I also plan on taking Japanese courses as I hear I would like to work in Japan. I also have a significant amount of experience with Spanish which seems to be useful in medicine. Any thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>CS and BME are probably the two most competitive majors at the UW. It will also probably take you 5.5 years to graduate instead of 4 (you could get an MS in that time). </p>
<p>My advice is not to try to do everything at once…</p>
<p>How would you recommend going into the field of neuro-robotics then? I also plan on taking a couple Japanese courses and going to grad school at the UW so I don’t know if that 1.5 years would make that big of a difference.</p>
<p>I would like to work at a lab similar to the following link. <a href=“http://neurobotics.cs.washington.edu/[/url]”>http://neurobotics.cs.washington.edu/</a>
I don’t know for sure but I doubt they would let me work there with just a CS degree or just a BME degree.</p>
<p>I recommend applying to both CSE and Biomed. Just take it one step at a time. Unfortunately again, these departments accept like 20% of applicants. </p>
<p>If you get in both, you could double major…but I think its a waste of time. Just do one major and fill up your electives from the other. You can also do undergraduate research in the neurobotics lab and see if you like it.</p>
<p>Where did you get 20%? I knew that it was hard to get into but that seems a little low. If it is true, I am truly scared. I would like to do work in the neurorobotics lab but it looks like they only take Juniors and Seniors. By that time, I will already be too far into whatever path I choose to go back. Do you have any recommendations to overcome that?</p>
<p>I pulled the 20% out of my behind. But, I have met many people in my UW days, that picked another major because they could not get into CSE or BioE. </p>
<p>Anyway, don’t worry too much about the neurobotics lab, for now. Just get into UW, take a few classes related to whatever field piques your interest, and then once you have a better idea of what you want to do, then you can do research.</p>
<p>My main concern is why they were rejected. Those two majors seem to very popular majors to apply to but I think it is mainly because of the high salary they are associated with, not the actual subject matter or the aptitude for the subject matter. I think that I should be able to get into CSE as long as I keep up with my grades and my extra curriular activities. BioE is most likely another matter. </p>
<p>I like the approach you mentioned by taking classes I am interested in. The main problem is that when I enter the UW, I will most likely be a junior where I won’t be able to take extra classes because I am busy with my major. I might take some at CC but I doubt they are equivilant to the UW and won’t provide the nescessary weed out to show me I may not be meant for the major.</p>
<p>If you are transferring as a junior and still are not sure what you want to major in, there is maybe some chance that you would graduate a quarter or two late (although this can be rectified by taking summer quarter, etc). I think, in the grand scheme of things, this is not such a huge sacrifice to make, to determine the career trajectory of your entire life!</p>
<p>I suppose my greatest fear in regard to what you mentioned is debt and time that could be spent gaining experience. I plan on going to grad school so a year or two more could cause problems in the future. I also feel that I would be lost if I ended up liking both after taking a couple of classes in bio, chem, etc. There is also the problem of having no idea what I want to do after spending all that money.</p>