Everyone’s been telling me that BME is bad major. However, my parents and guidance counselor told me it was great and had a lot of job growth potential. I’m interested in building prosthetics, tissue engineering, and nano engineering which seems to go with the BME major. I could go to Stevens and get an MS in BME in 5 years or get a BS in chem and then later try to get into grad school. What should I do? Is getting into grad school hard? Is a BME major bad/limiting?
There are a lot of undergraduate majors that you could use on your way to BME graduate school. Chemical engineering is not a good choice; the undergrad chemE curriculum has very very little to do with your interests. Good choices would be BME, mechanical engineering, or any biological science-related major.
A bachelors in BME typically does not provide enough technical background to get you into a technical engineering career. If you have no qualms about going to graduate school, there is nothing wrong with BME. I would really set your sights on a PhD rather than an MS if you want to do things like build prosthetics and tissue engineering.
Nano engineering is a very broad field that is applicable to MechE, EE, ChemE, BME, etc.
So you think I should just major in BME and get a masters/phd or do mechanical engineering for 4 years? I really want to do tissue engineering and build prosthetics and just help advance the medical field.
Is graduate school difficult to get into? Because if I choose to do BME as undergrad I won’t have to worry about it because there is a track that just gets you to have a masters in 5 years no applications to grad school needed.
Getting into a good graduate program can be difficult, sure. Would you prefer a research-based MS or a coursework MS?
Nanoengineering is used by UCSD as a new name for chemical engineering, what do you mean precisely?
I would highly recommend you spend a few hours on each school you are considering to understand precisely what their degree program focuses on. The BME field has a lot of specialties. The best BME programs are now using tracks related to ME, EE, CompSci, and Material Science. I would also look at those to get some idea of what you may be interested in and what you will pursue.
The good news is that almost all schools offer ME, EE, CompSci, Matl Sci and ChE and very few really want a commitment to a specific major before sophomore year. The core courses are the same.
Similarly, most 5 year MS programs are not started until junior year and it seems unlikely it would be available to anyone who does not have a strong GPA and ability to do graduate work (graduate engineering courses are much more theory and analytically based, so not really appropriate for many people). This implies it is not realistic for all but the strongest students with significant HS preparation including AP and a sound understanding of calculus and preferably physics. Or a real drive to work very hard and learn a lot during your first 3 years.
Removed comments on Stevens for BME … seems like a pretty large program … go visit and read more and look at other options.
Check out Rutgers if you are a NJ resident, also have a BME program, probably much cheaper than Stevens and a major research university. Same employer contacts likely, lacking the skyline view of NYC but easy train ride too.
I guess research-based
Any one else have thoughts?
I can’t find any information about a 4+1 program at Stevens. 4+1 programs though are all pretty similar. You can double count some of your senior courses towards both your BS and MS and walk out with a coterminal BS/MS in 5 years. The thing is, admission is not guaranteed. You still have to meet minimum requirements, like having a 3.0 for instance. I’d be surprised is Stevens guaranteed the MS track just with undergrad admission.
Stevens does admit some into the 4+1 program at time of undergraduate admission:
http://www.stevens.edu/sit/admissions/academics/scholars.cfm
That’s a selective program that is by invitation only, one that comes only after acceptance and can only be continued by maintaining a 3.2.
I guess why I made the point was because the OP was worrying about getting into grad school. She won’t even know if she’s invited until she’s accepted. For all intents and purposes it will require diligent work to stay in, just like it would require diligent work to get into another grad program.