i’m really interested in all three majors, EE, Comp. E. and biomedical, which one has a better future? one thing i don’t like about biomed is that it deals too much with the health system, coporations like IBM probably will not want someone with a biomed. still, i’m confused which one to choose, anybody has any good suggestion? perhaps better definitions of these majors. also, which one has a better job market? just wondering!
<p>about what you said about IBM and BME...</p>
<p>Who knows, IBM may be introducing bio-electronic products...</p>
<p>I personally think that biomedical engineering has a brighter future, but I may be biased as I am interested in BME as well.</p>
<p>well, u might be right about ibm, but do u know the detailed distinction between EE and biomed? or even comp. eng.</p>
<p>At most colleges, EE and CompE have similar curricula. EE has many areas, including circuits, semiconductors, signal processing, electromagnetics, communication, control theory, etc. while CompE includes areas like digital systems, assembly programming, computer architecture, and computer networks. In general, EE deals more with the physics side while CompE deals more with programming. I majored in Computer Engineering but switched to EE for grad school with a specialization in semiconductor devices.</p>
<p>cool, what school r u in? how likely is it for someone with, let's say EE undergra to go into biomed graduate school? u know, switching major after undergrad.</p>
<p>I went to UIUC for undergrad and now I'm at Stanford. If you're looking to do biomed, a masters degree is practically required for any good jobs in that field. Many places have a grad program in biomed but no undergrad program, so it's actually common for people to major in EE and go to grad school in biomed.</p>
<p>bump bump bump!!!</p>
<p>I just graduated as a BME, and i found it actually kind of hard to find a job. The field is huge, and you'd think most engineering companies would hire a BME, but a lot of places still don't know what it is. The other problem is that it's such a broad field... I took SO many different types of classes - a few EE, a few CS, a few ChemE, a few MechE, tons of bio... and barely any that actually combined all that together for something applicable... so I've found myself in BME grad school to learn that. Most BME majors it seems either end up 1. going to med school, 2. going to gradschool and eventually end up doing research for their career, or 3. work for a medical device company, but the third seems to be the fewest. </p>
<p>If you're really interested in BME itself - the jobs interest you, and not just bio, then maybe its a good major for you, but it seemed at washu a ton of people were in it just because they were good at math, physics, and bio, and didn't know what to do with that. </p>
<p>Tons of people switch to BME for grad school, it can actually be helpful, because you have a strong background in one particular area.</p>
<p>thanks for the post, i'm really into the electrical engineering stuff, always dreamed of inventing somethig when i was a little. i actually don't like biology that much, but i do love genetics. and i hate doing research, so i guess i'll choose EE and maybe a bmed for grad school, but thanks a lot for your opinion :)</p>
<p>btw, what are some good medical instruments company? i worked at a bio-lab instrument firm this summer, all the engineers there are either EE, CE and ME, nobody actually has a biomed degree. just surprised to knwo that :)</p>
<p>BME is pretty new...not many schools even have a BME program yet</p>
<p>yeah, most people in industry didn't do bme, mostly because it wasn't around for them... same with my professors, none of them actually studied bme. companies, hmm... well a lot of people from washu get hired at st. jude, and then there are all the ones up in minnesota - medtronic, etc, theres GE, Guidant, Phillips, 3M, Stereotaxis... hmm, I'm blanking on others at the moment, but those are some where my friends applied for jobs.</p>
<p>I actually am in the same situation. I'll be going most likely to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute next year as an undeclared engineering major. I'm not sure whether to go into Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering. I am really really really interested in Biomed Engineering, but I'm not too sure if it's right for me. As an engineering major you usually get the feel of the various types of engineering and you'll most likely discover which field you want to get involved in during your college life.</p>
<p>As for the Job market? I hear that biomedical engineering is a booming industry, but then again electric and computer engineers are also in high demand currently. I also believe electrical and computer engineers are capable of making a large amount of money... I'm not sure about biomedical, but I'm not going into it for the money (that is if I go into it).</p>
<p>EE is probably the most general of the three and encompasses a bit of both CmpE and BMED. Also all three likely have overlapping courses so if you decide you don't like one you could change to the other without missing much of a beat. I'd go with EE. DSP is a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I def agree about EE being most general... its used in CoE and BME a lot, and if you major in EE undergrad, you can probably work in a number of related fields afterwards. Statistics at my school show a high average BME salary, but it's pretty skewed, because most of the students get hired by one particular company... I think nationally its actually on the lower end of the engineering fields. The industry is huuuge, and it seems like anyone can get into it. </p>
<p>Honesty what I found most important is looking at the BME program at your particular school... most schools are either heavy on the bio or heavy on the engineering - its hard to do both... that usually translates into research into either molecular/cellular/genetics areas, or for the eng-heavy programs, medical devices. It seems kinda rare to get a school that has a lot of both, or that works on an organ-system scale.</p>