Electrical Engineering v. Bioengineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm going to be a Freshman at UC Berkeley next semester. I'm currently declared a bioengineering major, but I'm also considering switching to electrical engineering. I was hoping to get some input regarding the two fields.</p>

<p>I originally chose bioengineering because it's such an interdisciplinary subject and all of the research going on in the field is extremely intriguing to me. Also, I know the growth rate of the bioengineering job market is phenomenal. I'm somewhat considering going to medical school also, so bioengineering would leave that path open for me (though I don't think I would like the medical route as much). At the same time, I've noticed that the bioengineering job market is extremely small to begin with, so the relative growth rate isn't that significant. After a brief search, I couldn't find very many companies that are willing to hire bioengineers (whether it be in a biomedical devices firm or a medical research company). That's why I'm looking at electrical engineering; even though it doesn't interest me quite as much, it seems like a safer field as far as job availability.</p>

<p>If anyone with experience in either of these two fields has any feed back/knowledge to share, I really appreciate it.</p>

2

<p>I’d suggest EE. BioE is actually not very useful (you want BioMedE), and in any case EE has a lot of important applications to BME.
I’d suggest Grad School for BME with an undergrad in EE, or else take BME classes for all your electives.
Approaching BME from another of the big three is also an option if they sound more appealing than EE.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the feedback! I just thought of something else though… If I go directly into graduate school, will it really matter what major I studied as an undergraduate?</p>

4

<p>Also, just wondering, what is meant is the big three? Electrical, mechanical, and chemical?</p>

5

<p>Yes, EE, MechE, ChemE. They’re all different enough to be worth looking into separately, and there’s plenty of job openings in all of them.
It matters to some extent what you studied, but grad school is more important.</p>

6

<p>Berkeley has a career survey: <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>However, note that it is not entirely obvious how many of the EECS majors emphasized EE rather than CS.</p>