<p>Is there a difference between these majors?
In education?
In careers?
If you want to go into a biomedical engineering career (ie prosthetics), is one major better than the other? Both would be better than a minor (complemented by another engineering major), right? You'll probably have to go to grad school, no matter what you study, right?
Is grad school immediately after undergrad or do you work in the middle?
Thanks!
(And I'd especially like an answer to the first question.)</p>
<p>Son is interested in biomedical engineering, and is currently working toward an undergrad degree in mechanical engineering, perhaps minoring in biology, or even double majoring, if he has time, but intends to do grad work in biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>His current school does have a chemical and biological engineering major, but it is very chemistry based. The mech eng department has an elective in biomedical engineering and there are professors in the department working in rehab engineering/prosthetics, so he hopes to volunteer with them.</p>
<p>Many kids in the chem and bio eng program are premeds. If you want to do biomedical engineering because you want to go to med school, this will be the major for you. They have to take full year general chemistry and full year organic chemistry, plus more chemistry, I’m sure. I don’t think their physics is as involved as the mech eng majors, but I’m not sure on that. The mech eng majors only have to take one semester chem at son’s school, but can take another semester, to complete a full year of chem, to satisfy a science requirement. Some, though, give up chem after one semester and take something like astronomy to fulfill the science requirement. </p>
<p>Also, some schools that offer a bioengineering major are working more with agriculture rather than the medical/human aspect of engineering, so the best thing to do is look at the curriculum and different course offerings that can be used to satisfy elective requirements.</p>
<p>ChemE is pretty much process engineering, how to take a chemical process and scale it up. For instance its well known how to make aspirin, however in order to make the amount that is consumed each year you need to scale that process up. This requires both knowledge in chemistry, but also fluid dynamics, reactor design, thermodynamics, ect.</p>
<p>Biomedical is a hybrid of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. It involves designing various parts and machines that are targeted towards the medical industry. Things like pumps and magnetic imaging come into play a lot.</p>
<p>There is some overlap in classes such as OChem, pretty much all the math classes and maybe statics depending on the program. But for the most part the classes are much different because of the nature of the programs. Career wise ChemE is much more broad, you can work in fields such as petrochem, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. Biomed is obviously more narrow in terms of fields you can work in, and Im not an expert on the availability of jobs for Biomed so I’ll let someone else chime in on that. </p>
<p>If you want to go into the Biomedical industry than go with EE, MechE, or Biomed. I wouldn’t recommend ChemE since its really not in the same scope of content as what you probably want.</p>
<p>I have been thinking about a biomedical engineering major primarily because I love biology. Will I get to take a lot of interesting biology classes with either of these majors? I really want to minor in a foreign language, so I don’t think using my minor for my biological focus will work for me. Agreed?</p>
<p>Biological & Chemical Engineering is basically a ChemE degree program with a slight focus on biochemistry and biochemical industrial processes. Unlike a standard ChemE curricula, you’ll have bio requirements along with many typical ChemE courses now incorporating biological considerations into their syllabi. This is a response to the growth of the biotechnology industry and the similarity of its unit operations to those of industries utilizing traditional chemical engineering methods. </p>
<p>Technically, the main difference between biotech and chemicals/pharma/foodstuff is that biotech exploits biochemical properties (e.g. genetic engineering, cell replication, immunoprecipitation, etc.) within their manufacturing process. However, most biotech unit operations are developed from principles honed in chemical production (reactor design, process design, separations).</p>
<p>I would not really recommend Biochem & Chem Engineering to someone who wants to advance to med school as it tends to be time consuming and I’m going to guess that you won’t have the opportunity to take advanced bio courses you might find interesting. It’s more for people who want a ChemE degree for whatever reason, usually not med school.</p>
<p>There’s a debate as to whether BME is helpful for people who want to go to med school. By the nature of engineering programs, you might find it much tougher than a bio or biochem curriculum to maintain a high GPA. From what I’ve read, GPA and your MCAT score are the biggest factors in admission to grad school. If I were you I would just major in something like Bio, Biochem, or MCB where you could acquire a higher GPA with similar effort. Also, you’ll likely have more room to tailor your curriculum to take classes you’d like to take. </p>
<p>Just make sure you do your own research and shop around. Look up curricula for different majors at schools you want to attend and see what you find the most interesting. Good luck.</p>
<p>maybe23, take a look at this ChE. departmental handbook for a major research university:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/cbe/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/cbe/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf</a></p>
<p>As you can see, you can major in ChE and receive an “Engineering Biology” Certificate.</p>
<p>This gives you an idea of the type of courses you would be taking under this concentration:</p>
<p>Courses in Areas of Concentration</p>
<p>Course/Course Description/Additional Requirements</p>
<p>Bioengineering and Biotechnology</p>
<p>CBE 423
Biologically Inspired Materials
Not open to Freshmen
CBE 432
Dynamics of Cellular Processes
CBE 441, MAT 303 or MAE 305, MOL 214
CBE 438/MOL 438
Biomolecular Engineering
CBE 439
Quantitative Physiology and Tissue Design
CBE 440
The Physical Basis of Human Disease
CBE 443
Separations in Chemical and Biochemical Processes
CHM 202 and MAT 101/3 and MAT 102
CBE 447
Biochemical Engineering
CBE 573/ELE 573
Cellular and Biochemical Computing Systems
CHM 412
Applied Quantitative Analysis: Molecular Recognition
CHM 201/207 and 202; or CHM 215 or equivalent
CHM 542
Principles of Macromolecular Structure: Protein Folding, Structure and Design
CHM 543
Adv Topics in Structural Biology- Neuro-developmental Disorders from a Molecular Point of View
Juniors, seniors, grad students only.
EEB 320/MOL 330
Molecular Evolutionary Genetics
MOL 214, MOL 215, or any upper level MOL course
MAE 344
Introduction to Bioengineering and Medical Devices
MAT 103/4, PHY103/4
MOL 340
Molecular and Cellular Immunology
MOL 214
MOL 342
Genetics
MOL 214 or 215
MOL 345/CHM 345
Biochemistry
MOL 214/215 and CHM 304/304B
MOL 348
Cell and Developmental Biology
MOL 342 or MOL 345
MOL 408
Cellular and Systems Neuroscience
MOL 214, PHY 103/4, MAT 103/4, PSY 258
MOL 410
Introduction to Biological Dynamics
MAT 103 or equivalent
MOL 434
Macromolecular Structure and Mechanisms in Disease
MOL 345 or permission from instructor
9
MOL 435
Pathogenesis and Bacterial Diversity
MOL 342 or permission from instructor
MOL 437
Computational Neurobiology
PHY 103/4, MAT 201/2
MOL 455/COS 455
Introduction to Genomics and Computational Molecular Biology
MOL 457
Computational Aspect of Molecular Biology
One 300-level MOL, CHM course
MOL 523
Molecular Basis of Cancer
PSY 258/NEU 258
Fundamentals of Neuroscience*
PSY 259B/NEU 259B
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience*
PSY 258
PSY 407
Developmental Neuroscience
PSY 208, 256 or 258
QCB 510/CBE 535
Modeling Tools for Cell and Developmental Biology
*PSY 258 and 259B if satisfying the certificate in neuroscience</p>
<p>^^^Wow, great examples of how different the curricula are at different schools for the same or similar major.</p>
<p>Definitely look at course offerings in the respective departments in the different schools to help narrow your choice.</p>
<p>Remember, though, also, many of these specialized engineering fields require a grad degree for employment, so if you find a school that gives a good general engineering degree and is a good fit for you, and doesn’t leave you with a lot of debt, that would be a good choice. But since you will have an option for fulfilling engineering credits with electives of your choice, you want to make sure there’s something of interest for you in the elective choices.</p>