<p>Im currently a junior in hs and I was wondering about the future job market of bioengineering and chemical engineering, respectively. I have heard from a lot of of people that it is harder for ppl with just a b.s. in bioengineering as opposed to ppl with a bachelor's in chemical engineering to find a decent well paying job. They say that bioengineering is too specific or specialized for it to be useful for most companies, and they say its the opposite for chemical engineering. Is this true? And if so, I was wondering if you guys knew which UC's are the best for chemical engineering. Im kinda only interested in getting a B.S. in one of those subjects.
P.S. Does anybody know the average starting salary for both bioengineering and chemical engineering? Thanks.</p>
<p>Hey Plz Respond!</p>
<p>You might want to check with US BLS for salary information. <a href="http://www.bls.gov%5B/url%5D">www.bls.gov</a>
You can also check the websites of some schools that post starting salary surveys. I believe in a recent post here, there was a link to Texas A&M's site.</p>
<p>uc berkeley is the best uc for chemical engineering (second in the nation after MIT, check the US News rankings), for bioengineering it ranks lower, u can check out rankings and salaries on the berkeley website (berkeley.edu), also check out <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=222845%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=222845</a> for your ques about bioengineering. the thread validates that chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers get an easier time finding jobs than bioengineers do.</p>
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Im currently a junior in hs and I was wondering about the future job market of bioengineering and chemical engineering, respectively. I have heard from a lot of of people that it is harder for ppl with just a b.s. in bioengineering as opposed to ppl with a bachelor's in chemical engineering to find a decent well paying job. They say that bioengineering is too specific or specialized for it to be useful for most companies, and they say its the opposite for chemical engineering. Is
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<p>Well, I wouldn't say that BioE is necessarily too specific or too specialized and that's why it doesn't pay relatively well. After all, petroleum engineering is extremely specialized, yet that hasn't stopped that discipline from offering, by far, the highest average salaries of all engineering disciplines (mostly because of the high price of oil lately). </p>
<p>I think it has more to do with the fact that the culture of the biotechnology/biomedical and medical devices industry is such that it just doesn't pay its technical staff that well. That includes its engineers, as well as its scientists. For examale, the average starting salaries of bio grads are almost always among the lowest salaries of any science major - lower than even some humanities majors. For example, at Berkeley, even the history graduates are making more than the biology graduates. </p>
<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/MCB.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/MCB.stm</a>
<a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/IntBio.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/IntBio.stm</a>
<a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/MolEnvBio.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/MolEnvBio.stm</a>
<a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Hist.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Hist.stm</a></p>
<p>I personally suspect that the main problem (if you want to call it that) is that working in biotech and bio-industries "pays" you in the form of psychic benefits - in that you can feel good about doing your job because you can feel that you're helping people who are sick or injured. The problem with that is that the work then attracts a lot of people, which then drives the salaries down. In contrast, you usually don't derive many socio-psychic benefits from working in the oil patch, so the oil industry has to pay well to attract workers. For the same reason, child-care workers make much less money than do garbagemen.</p>
<p>According to the Department of Labor (<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm</a>) the average starting salary for a bioE is 48.5k, while people with a bachelor's degree in chemE receive almost 54k. </p>
<p>one interesting point in this report is that "Unlike the case for many other engineering specialties, a graduate degree is recommended or required for many entry-level jobs [in biomedical engineering]." basically, a bioengineering undergrad degree is insufficient for a career in biomedical engineering. i've heard that with only a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, you can expect to become a "glorified lab technician." </p>
<p>my personal belief is that if you want to pursue a technical career in biomedical engineering, major another engineering speciality such as electrical, mechanical, and maybe even chemical. this will also maximize your options: if you find that biomedical engineering does not interest you anymore at the end of four years (and believe me, your perspectives will def change over four years), you always have a field of study to "fall back" on. otherwise, you can head to grad school and get an advanced degree in biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>also read this thread about majoring in bioengineering as an undergraduate: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=222845&highlight=bioengineers%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=222845&highlight=bioengineers</a></p>
<p>From what I have heard, BioE and EE are very similar. If it interests you, an undergrad in EE -> grad in BioE would work out really well.</p>
<p>Please tell me how the heck Electrical and Biological engineering are "very similar"???</p>
<p>If you were referencing to EnvioE, then yes, they're similar. Those two degrees would definently lead you into the enviormental side of jobs, which could be anywhere from doing enviormental impact studies for engineering companies to working for forestry/enviormental agencies and companies</p>
<p>shoebox, electrical engineering and biomedical engineering have significant overlap. think of the whole range of medical devices, such as imaging devices (CT, MRI, EEG), LVADs, electronic prosthetic limbs, defibrillators/pacemakers, and computer aided surgery. some of the hottest fields in BME, such as neuroengineering (the brain is essentially a "ball of electricity"), are rooted in electrical engineering. in fact, many of the biomedical engineering departments at universities today evolved from offshoots of the electrical engineering department...</p>
<p>Biomed engr and mechanical engineering also have a lot of overlap if you look at the strucutral aspects of human beings. It all really depends on what area of biomed you're looking at. And it's only similar to EE if you're looking at the electrical circuits side of the major; it has no similarities with the computers and programming side of EE.</p>
<p>thanks abhim89, you said just what I would say before I had a chance to get on here.</p>
<p>I think shoebox thought you were referring to bioengineering, not biomedical engineering. There is a difference.</p>