i am an incomming highschool junior looking at college and career options. recently I was very involved in biomedical engineering and went to a symposium over April vacation and loved it at first, I thought that that was my dream field. but then I realized that most biomedical engineers are stuck in labs analyzing or performing research activities and i most likely would not be able to choose only working with prosthetics. I rather be out making a difference one person at a time and I realize that becoming a prosthetist that is is the perfect career for me because I like engineering, Science biology and anatomy, math and technology. Would I have to major in O&P or what majors would be the best to take in regular college(bachellors program). i also read that practioners need to take a Masters program and I read that the average salary is only $45-$60,000 a year do you think it’s worth it taking that much education for that little money, would I be drowning in student loans? I also really like the idea of being a prosthetist. Does anyone know of any programs in Boston for high school students looking at this career. Also what similar majors and careers would be just as interactive?
Prosthetics is a very broad field, and one that is evolving rapidly.
To get into prosthetics design you’ll need an engineering degree. Biomedical, electrical/computer, or mechanical engineering can all lead to working in robotic prosthetics. Also computer science and neural engineering.
You don’t need to attend an expensive private college and take out a huge amount of debt to get an engineering degree. You just need to graduate from a ABET accredited engineering program.
UMass has an ABET accredited engineering program. (At UMass you’d need to major in either mechanical or electrical/computer engineering since they don’t offer BME as undergrad degree.)
If you are a strong student with good GPA and good test scores, you can apply to colleges with ABET engineering programs that offer merit scholarships to get help with college costs.
You could also consider engineering programs that are co-ops. Students in engineering co-op programs attend college 1 semester and work 1 semester in their engineering field. Students are paid a salary during their co-op months. It take 5 years to graduate from a co-op program, but you graduate with practical work experience, and your earnings can help defray the cost of college. Northeastern in Boston offers an engineering co-op program.
There’s several threads in the financial aid forum for merit scholarships and low cost colleges. You may want to go read those, but first and importantly, you need to have a frank discussion with your parents about how much money they can and will put toward your college. Once you have rough idea of what you as a family can afford, then you can start forming a list of colleges to apply to.
You should try to limit your undergrad debt as much as possible, especially if you plan to attend grad school. Fortunately, many Master’s engineering programs are funded. This means the engineering program pays the student’s grad tuition & fees and will pay the student a modest ($25-30K year) living expenses stipend for working as a teaching or research assistant during grad school. Also many engineering employers will reimburse employees’ tuition expenses so long as the student earns a B or better. So you have 2 options for getting that grad degree without significant cost to you.
The salary range you list is for newly graduated BMEs. The national median salary is for experienced BMEs is $82K.
P.S. Are you sure you didn’t look up salaries for the wrong profession? A prosthetist usually refers to someone who molds and fits artificial limbs made from acrylic resins. Being this type of prosthetist requires specialized training, but doesn’t require a bachelor’s or master’s degree.