Mechanical Engineering vs BME Job Market

<p>Just wondering what the job market is like for the two for Duke students? This is assuming just a BS degree.</p>

<p>Both very strong. Check out these sites for some statistics:
<a href=“Career Outcomes for Duke BME Undergraduates | Duke Biomedical Engineering”>http://bme.duke.edu/undergrad/prospective/where-students-go&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Where Duke MEMS Students Go | Duke Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science”>http://www.mems.duke.edu/undergrad/where-students-go&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It looks like a higher percentage of MEs go into full-time careers than BMEs (78% vs 54%), but that is largely explained by the difference in rates in enrolling in grad/professional schools (31% to 13%) since a decent percentage of BMEs go onto med school. They have similar “internship, traveling, other, undecided” rates 18% to 16% (which some could view as unemployed, although some people do indeed take gap years to travel).</p>

<p>If you look at the areas of employment, you’ll see MEs are 35% engineering, architecture, design and 18% business and management consulting for the top two fields. BME, on the other hand, has biotech/pharma at 36%, business and management consulting at 10%, and engineering, architecture, design at 7%. I did tend to notice the MEs went into consulting at bit higher rates than BMEs, and the statistics back that up. Biotech/pharma is currently going through a period of tremendous growth and high profits, so it’s not surprising they are scooping up Duke BME grads.</p>

<p>Honestly, Duke’s curriculum is flexible enough and the research is very interdisciplinary – I don’t think there’s much of a difference with regards to career prospects. I’d go into what you think you would enjoy more and what is more of a passion.</p>