<p>Background:
I just turned 19, started my second semester of college. Because I did a ton of college work in high school, I have 59 transfer credits that will probably knock out all gen-ed requirements. I'm at the university of montana as a creative writing major. I hate missoula and my original plan was to graduate in two and a half years and get the hell out of here for law school.
Here's what I'm thinking:
English is a useless degree, and the only thing I could do with it if law school turned out not to work is find some sort of job in missoula and work here for a few years until my resume became impressive enough that employers in non-sucky places would forgive my useless degree. I'm curious about engineering, especially of the biological/biomedical variety.
English is undoubtedly what I'm good at - I'm best with rhetoric and writing and things like that. Math really isn't my strong suit, but I love biology. I'm willing to start over in a four-year program in a place that isn't missoula (meaning transfer).
2 questions:
1. What sort of job prospects would I have with a degree in biomedical engineering? Hours? Salary? (Law offers huge starting salaries for an obscene number of hours. Hoping this will be a better bet.)
2. Given that I like biology but not math, is engineering something I should even be thinking about?</p>
<p>I’m from Whitefish, a couple hours north of you. Haven’t lived in Montana for six years but hope to come back someday.</p>
<p>As far as engineering, if you’re not a huge math person then any kind of engineering will be tough. Not saying you can’t do it, but engineering revolves around Calculus.</p>
<p>Do you like Bozeman? I can say we Bobcats fully agree with your sentiments on Missoula. haha</p>
<p>As many have said on this forum before, if you do not enjoy math engineering probably isn’t for you. As an engineering major you will have to take three or four semesters of calc, a course in ordinary differential equations, and possibly linear algebra. All of your engineering courses will be calculus based and most will involve differential equations. I wouldn’t rule anything out but just be aware that engineering is very math intensive.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses, guys! bigtrees, I haven’t been to Bozeman, although when I was back home in Alaska I ran into a guy from Bozeman who about hit me across the face when he found out I was at UM. I was not impressed.
Anyway - so engineering isn’t a good idea if I don’t like or at least tolerate math. Basically what I’m looking for is something useful, something that gives me real marketable skills that I can put to use immediately in a work environment. And I’d like to involve biology somehow, although that’s not an absolute must-have. Thoughts?</p>
<p>med school?</p>
<p>Why are you in a state school that you don’t like which isn’t in the state you are from?</p>
<p>Other than Business or something mathy, I don’t think much is going to get you very far in regards to jobs out of undergrad. If you’re not going to do one of those, just do what you want and plan on grad school. But since you’re now asking for things that aren’t engineering, you’ll probably get better information in another forum (maybe Parent’s Forum).</p>
<p>UM is cheap and at first I liked Missoula. It wasn’t until I started living here that I realized the people weren’t my scene and the town sucks without a car. All the Alaska colleges are either **** or in Fairbanks, which is ****, so there’s definitely no going to them. I didn’t think I was good enough to get into any really good colleges, but I think my transfer prospects are decent.
So, the consensus is pretty much engineering=math, and I don’t think I like that so much. Even though biomedical engineering sounds awesome. Thanks for helping me, everyone.</p>
<p>well if you like studying biology but not math, then why not med school? Or environmental biology, marine biology, theres all kinds of biology related jobs out there that pay better than an english degree. So even if biomedical engineering isn’t right for you, biology could be a good path.</p>
<p>Yup-- you can study biology if you want…there’s a lot you can do with a biology major (more than you can with an English major), and you can still go on to law school even if you did study bio in your undergraduate years. </p>
<p>Here are 2 good websites: [Biology</a> Major | What Can You Do With a College Degree in Biology?](<a href=“http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/science/biology-major.htm]Biology”>Biology Major | What Can You Do with a Biology Degree)</p>
<p>[50</a> Things To Do With A Biology Degree](<a href=“http://condor.depaul.edu/~biology/ugrad/50things.html]50”>http://condor.depaul.edu/~biology/ugrad/50things.html)</p>
<p>Hmm well I’ve heard that many engineers dont do nearly as much math at work as they did in university.</p>
<p>This is just a guess but I think that a biomedical engineer wouldn’t have to do much math compared to the other engineering fields. </p>
<p>If you really dont like the math but really like biology and want something practical, a biochemistry degree might also be a possibility. I think you can get work in pharmaceutical sales and pharma companies to work in labs or other projects. (Although outside of sales, you might need at least a masters).</p>
<p>I highly recommend doing some research on what lawyer’s jobs are like and what biochem/engineers jobs are like and try to figure out which you would prefer doing.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like engineering is for you. Biology is worlds apart from engineering in terms of necessary skills.</p>
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<p>This how you know a post will be high quality.</p>
<p>Do you have data on that?</p>
<p>“This is just a guess but I think that a biomedical engineer wouldn’t have to do much math compared to the other engineering fields.”</p>
<p>If by that you mean biomedical isn’t the single most math-intensive engineering major, then yes, you’re probably right. If you mean that there’s not much math, then you’re wrong.</p>