I am 21 years old. A junior at my current college and a phyiscal therapy Major at the moment just finishing up my first semester taking physical therapy courses that would count toward a degree (I have changed my major a few times) The reason I’m talking about majoring as a physical therapists on a page specific for engineering is because I have been thinking about changing my major to biomedical engineering for about a year now but am very afraid to as I know it will be hard. I’m in my current major now just to please my father. I feel as though my high school has done nothing to prepare me for the real world and college and have been doing nothing but spinning my wheels and wasting time and money for the last three years. My father doesn’t want me to become an engineer and whenever I bring it up to him will just make fun of the idea and shut it down. I have no support at all for him but I have just made an appointment this Tuesday without his awareness to take a tour of a school that offers biomedical as a major. Since my high school did a terrible job at preparing me for college I’m not the best at math but am willing to work hard on it and I love biology. Although I have been doing a lot of research on biomedical engineering over the past year could someone please give me direction and tell me specifically what they do? And from reading over what I had just said their opinion over what I should do about my situation? I have zero support from anyone in my life and feel as though that is part of the reason why I have hesitated on even setting up a tour with colleges that offer biomedical. Phyiscal therapy seems like it would be an alright job but I really want to have a career were I feel like I’m making a difference in the world and feel like biomedical for do that for me. Thank you for any feed back.
Frankly, I think the bigger problem here is that you need to pick one major and stick with it, through the good and the bad. You will absolutely, definitely find things that you REALLY don’t like about engineering because all engineering disciplines have some very ugly downsides along with their very widely known benefits.
What do BMEs do? At the BS level, a little of everything and nothing of consequence. You learn about many different disciplines of engineering, but nothing with which you can really start doing meaningful work. Many people recommend that you start with a traditional engineering discipline (EE, MechE, or ChemE) and get a MS in BME, specializing in that field.
Why BME? Frankly you do not sound like you have the commitment necessary to finish the degree. You will probably drop out and switch again in a semester or year, judging from the attitude I can gauge from this post.
" Since my high school did a terrible job at preparing me for college I’m not the best at math" - Honestly, I don’t think you will enjoy engineering. It requires a lot of math, and many engineering students skated through their hs math classes.
Adding to NeoDymium’s point, do you want to pursue a postgraduate degree?
A postgraduate professional degree is necessary for careers in physical therapy. Most physical therapists earn Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degrees or earn Master of Physical Therapy (MPT) degrees.
Biomedical is unique among engineering majors, as employment in the field usually requires a postgraduate degree. Either a MS in Biomedical, med school, law school, etc.
You really have to commit to both majors; to the point of getting your postgraduate degree. Something to consider.
Good Luck!
Many students majoring in engineering start out at community colleges to take the basic first 2 years of classes which is a lot of Math and physics. If you are serious about engineering, that would be the way to go to see if you could pass the math there without spending so much money at a 4 yr program.