<p>I'm a new junior at Cushing Academy and I've always wanted to do something in the sciences.
In all biology classes my mind drifts to how I can use the information given to me to fix a medical problem, so it was pretty easy to see that I'd enjoy Biomedical engineering. I'm not passionate about it but I think I could do well in it. </p>
<p>However, I've always loved Astronomy and Physics. It's something I have an intense passion about and I'd love to conduct research in that area. I know it's extremely difficult to get a job in it, especially with a simple Bachelor Degree. So I thought, why not Double Major with BME and Physics. From what I've heard however, it's best to double major BME and ME to better the changes of getting a job; but I want a head-start on a physics degree while still getting some amount of Mechanical Engineering in. I don't want to do ME and Physics alone because ME doesn't intrigue me as much as BME does.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>At my school, the BME has two Physics classes: Introductory Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism. That’s about all you can do, really, unless “Technical electives” would qualify with Physics classes, but I’m not too sure about that. Since it’s ABET accredited, I’ll post the link, but some schools will vary slightly. </p>
<p>[Biomedical</a> Engineering: Biomaterials - Degree Search: Explore the UA’s Degree Plans](<a href=“http://degreesearch.arizona.edu/major/biomedical-engineering-biomaterials]Biomedical”>http://degreesearch.arizona.edu/major/biomedical-engineering-biomaterials)</p>
<p>It’s difficult to do Engineering and double major, especially with another Science since labs are about four hours long or so. If you do, you probably won’t graduate in four years, but it’s not impossible. From my understanding, Engineering majors take a lot of free time and work (at my school, it is the major with the most major course work. Just some food for thought).</p>
<p>I’m curious, what is your opinion about Aerospace engineering? You could specialize in spacecraft later on if you really wanted. I believe Aerospace engineering takes a bit more physics than BME, so if you got a job here you can apply Physics to your job while doing something related to Astronomy. I knew someone who was an Aerospace Engineer for NASA and got to develop one of the Mars probes and worked on it. He got to make sure the probe was running fine and was able to see Mars directly from screens in his workplace. He was just a basic Aerospace engineer, however, and wasn’t higher up. If you were higher up, you might be more involved in R&D, if that appeals to you.</p>
<p>Why not just get a physics minor and take all the classes that interest you?</p>
<p>I was interested in physics but decided to major in bioengineering because I thought it would be easier to get a job with just a bachelors and I thought bio was kind of cool. After getting into the engineering/bio classes I realized it was just not interesting to me at all… Physics on the other hand was everything I thought it would be. After taking physics II and the calc sequence, I was hooked. Engineering is not science. That really bothered me so I finally said screw it and switched my major to physics. The double major would have taken me AT LEAST 5.5 years.</p>
<p>You should think VERY hard about whether or not doing a double major is really a good option. If you’re planning on going to grad school, then doing the double major will essentially be useless and a waste of time. You could be working towards your masters/PhD during that extra year or two. Also, by doing a double major, you’re really forfeiting a deeper knowledge in one or the other field. While your classmates are taking advanced physics and math classes and preparing for grad school, you’re finishing up those dreaded engineering electives…</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school then I think you should do physics if that is what you’re passionate about. If you don’t, then you may regret it.</p>
<p>By the way there is a field called Biophysics and it is actually a very nice combination. If you start with a B.S. in physics a graduate degree in biophysics is quite possible. Medical physics is also a possibility which leads to a good profession. If you decide not to go into graduate school, there is also Health Physics, where there is very little unemployment.</p>
<p>I want to stress what xray has said about biophysics and medical physics. They are very good fields to get into with a physics degree, though obviously require graduate training. Biophysics is more academically research focused so keep that in mind. Medical physics can be academic and/or clinically focused. There is also a VERY high salary associated with medical physics (relative to other physics disciplines). I’ve heard people throw around stats like 200k+ salaries but I don’t know how typical this is.</p>
<p>This is what I was planning on doing before I took my first geology class and got hooked on geophysics :)</p>