<p>@peter: you should compare between the percentage of BME BS student getting job with other engineers. Your friend could be a case, but not many people are lucky like her</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>People can fight all day on the issue of getting a M.S. or not. Bottom line, a higher-level degree (and experience) will always make you more eligible. Biomedical engineering is still new and, depending on what part of the country you’re in, a lot of companies in related fields are still not on board with hiring BMEs.
Now, I’m an undergrad (junior) in a midwestern university in the heart of what is considered a hotbed for BMEs. It’s incredibly competitive and my university only graduates about 60 or so BMEs every year. That being said, a lot of the seniors that graduated this spring that I spoke with either had a position lined up after graduation or were accepted to graduate school. </p>
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently published info. about engineering growth and BME is the fastest-growing engineering discipline by far- 72% growth in the next decade compared to a 2% ChemE, 2% EE, and 6% growth in ME. BME (or any discipline in the medical field) is not a bad place to be.
([Engineers](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#outlook]Engineers[/url]”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#outlook)</a>)</p>
<p>As with any engineering discipline it’s important to get as much research experience and industry experience as an undergrad as possible. </p>
<p>As a side note, this is the first I’ve heard of BME being ~softer~ than EE, ChemE, or even ME. BME is considered one of the most rigorous majors at my university. </p>
<p>and to the OP: it depends on your concentration. If you’re looking at tissue engineering * biomaterials, you’ll pretty much be taking ChemE or the equivalent BME classes.</p>
<p>I hold a BS in Computer Science.</p>
<p>I have been in the workforce for about 6 years, and have worked on several different positions, project management, softtware development, etc. </p>
<p>Never plan on going back to school to seek higher education until recently.
From research, I really want to get involved with many of the Biomed researches that are going on now, musculoskeletal mechanics, tissue regeneration, nanotech, etc.</p>
<p>Seriously consider to go for MS in Biomedical engineering, but since I came from a non-engineering field, I pretty much do not fulfill any of the the “make sure you have them” prerequisites. </p>
<p>On a part-time 2 courses per semester pace, it will take 6 semesters to take the courses to become “eligible” to apply to MS Biomed, provided I pass all classes along the way.</p>
<p>Research topics are interesting, I am always ready to do whatever it takes to get there, but I am really concern about job opportunities (from reading all previous posts)…
Just like “I am really interested in building rockets, but heck will I ever have a chance to get involved in building one?”</p>
<p>It’s so frustrating, my salary now is at the OK level doing software coding, changing career usually lead to building up the income level from the low again; for that, I am struggling, I love all that researches involved with BME; but shall I go for something like bioinformatics, just in case if I do not do health-care/research data related software development, I can always fall back to work as a software guy for non-health-care-related companies.</p>
<p>I have communicated with a few professors from a couple of grad school, while different people have different opinions, but they all asked one common question, “Are you sure?” and advised to rethink something that I can leverage my undergrad degree such as Bioinformatics, systems/computational biology, etc.</p>
<p>Frustrated. Confused.
What do you guys think?</p>
<p>^Hey, I got my BS in BME/ECE and my MS in BME. What are these “pre-reqs” that you need that you don’t have?</p>
<p>In my opinion, all you need is: Diff Eqns, Calc III, Lin Alg, Prob/Stat. A semester in Cell Biology, and Physiology. And perhaps some Chemistry and Physics. </p>
<p>I imagine you did most of the math as a CS major. And also the Physics. I think if you take Cell Biology, Organic Chemistry, and maybe a Phsiology class, you should be good to go for a MS.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have specific questions, I’ll try my best to help! </p>
<p>Most of my friends in BME masters were CS-type people and they got admitted.</p>
<p>Son still wants to do BME grad school, but has had a tough time getting his honors requirements in, much less any bio courses. What would be the most important non mech eng major courses he should take to have a better chance at BME grad school?</p>
<p>I’m also wondering if he should get a MS in ME and try to find a job in BME industry. There’s a lot less schools that offer BME even in Master’s level, and he wants to find a school that’s a good fit for him and that is doing research he’s interested in. He’s also preferring a nonthesis/research oriented grad degree at this point, as his focus is entering the industry, not academia.</p>
<p>BME’s have by far the lowest salaries among engineers. There are good reasons for that: they typically have no special skills. Unlike other engineering specialities, BME is not built on a core discipline: mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are built-on physics, chemical engineering on chemistry, computer engineering on math. The new field of biological engineering is built on biological principles. BME is just the application of any engineering discipline to the field of medicine. MIT does not even consider it a major and the schools with large BME departments such as Duke and Johns Hopkins are not engineering powerhouses. In most case, BME programs are typically interdepartmental programs with no generally established curriculum. They are cafeteria-style programs where no two students study the same program. More graduates of these programs go to medical school than into engineering as they have a hard time finding jobs. The supposedly high growth rate of the BME field is a fallacy: the actual number of BMEs is tiny so even a small number of additional engineers in real terms translates into large percentile increases. </p>
<p>Also do not confuse growth in the field of biomedicine with demand for BMEs. I have worked in the field of medical devices for over three decades. The companies I worked with hired hundreds of engineers over the years but never any BMEs that I can recall. If they needed mechanical engineering skills they hired MEs, if they needed circuit designers they hire EEs, if they need programmers they hired CS majors. If you want to work in the biomedical industry, pick an actual engineering speciality and get really good at it: biological engineering (very different from BME) and materials science are especially hot right now because of the growth of nanotechnology in drug delivery.</p>
<p>^^^Great point. My son wants to design medical equipment, and is not interested in drug delivery, which does seem to be the big thing with BME right now. I feel he’d be better served broadening his grad school search on Mech Eng programs rather than BME programs, as his BS will be in Mech Eng. I think he feels that he will not be able to get a job at a BME company like GE or Medtronic with just a masters in Mech Eng, rather than BME. Curious as to what these companies are hiring: BMEs or MEs?</p>
<p>I know GE Medical very well. They hire many engineers some just with BS degrees. The overwhelming majority are MEs and EEs. They want engineers with strong foundational skills. GE provides the biomedical training which is highly specific to each type of device. A master’s degree may help in the sense that graduate students typically have more research and project experience and therefore require less basic training.An undergraduate or graduate ME degree will always be higher paid and valued than a corresponding BME degree.</p>
<p>^^^If someone goes for a MS in Mech Eng, should they try to hook up with a professor doing biomedical type research? Also, is it better to get a MS or MEng to work in Biomedical Engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response. I had a feeling this was the way it was, but I know son is going to try to get into those BME programs that he had to pass up in undergrad.</p>
<p>Yes, they should hook up with a lab involved in biomedical resaerch. That should be one of the main selection criteria for the school. </p>
<p>MS or MEng are largely interchangeable degrees. MEng is generally a terminal degree for students seeking to work in industry while an MS is often a stepping stone to a PhD and may be more research oriented.</p>
<p>If your son is set on a BME degree he should really look into the employment outcomes and starting salaries for recent graduates in the various programs versus MEs at the same schools. In most cases, the disparity in opportunities and salaries are very large. In the US the average starting salary of an ME with just a BS is $60K as compared to $49K for a BME. With a Masters starting salaries for MEs are around $75K and can often exceed $100K with a degree from a top school. With a BME, you are a lucky to hit $55K.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with BME departments is that they have nowhere near the resources in personnel and labs of ME departments. BME is not a tenure track discipline for top professors. BME departments typically borrow their faculty from other engineering departments who also run the labs. </p>
<p>IMO, your son’s best choice would be to get a graduate degree in ME and do research in a BME lab. At MIT for instance, over half of ALL engineers are involved in some type of life science related project but none of them are BMEs. They are all MEs, EEs, ChemE, materials science or CS majors. Most large engineering schools will offer plenty of opportunities to work on biomedical projects even if they don’t offer BME degrees.</p>
<p>Yes. Computational biology is in high demand and taking some classes as an undergrad in addition to EE and CS classes can help you get a position in a lab.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am actually an international student who is just about to graduate with a BS in biomedical engineering. And this post has been pretty much been about what I was thinking…sadly. </p>
<p>I did my BS from a small school in OK and took most classes in bio-instrumentation. We didn’t really have much career guidance here. Now i really don’t know what to look for. Most of my friends are turning into the IT field. Can someone please guide me as to what jobs I can apply for or what kind of IT course or experience I need to get for a job?</p>
<p>Its harder for international students to get jobs here and it looks like my obvious options now are to go into research or IT.</p>
<p>I do not want to MS or go to medical school or do MBA…I just need to find a job somehow.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks</p>
<p>How would a dual degree in biomedical engineering and a business related major fair in job placement?</p>
<p>hi…i am a high school student who is going to start college in like 6 months…but i still have no idea what degree should i do? i am really interested in genetics…n i thought of doing genetic engineering…but then my school’s career counsellor advised me to take up something like biomed engineering or biomed sci as bachelors to keep all my options open for a masters degree…but i am still confused about what the degree is and how is it actually going to help me?
and also time is running out…
so i would be grateful if anyone could help me out…</p>
<p>@bmegeek
My son is exactly in this position. He is a senior graduating with BME degree, great gpa, research experience, and great professor recommendations. Had no luck finding internships during undergraduate so got paid to research at the university in the summers. He is reading all the discouraging info on no jobs for BME majors. He had planned to get MS in BME, but now wondering if he should get ME MS instead. At his university all engineers do same foundation engineering coursework the first two years, but that still leaves him almost 2 full years short of picking up ME this late in the game. He is in serious despair that he has wasted his 4 years and has no hope of finding a job even with an MS in BME which would continue to focus on the research realm versus getting him something to get into industry. Any advice? He has had numerous interests from good BME grad schools offering high prospect of PhD entrance but at this point he’s scared to death to give up another 5 years when he doesn’t know if that’s what he would want.</p>
<p>If I’m planning on ultimately getting an MS in biomedical engineering and specializing in tissue engineering, what pros/cons exist as far as majoring in BME as an undergrad before grad school? Any input appreciated a ton!</p>
<p>I find it funny that people entering this emerging field are so worried that there aren’t jobs right now for it. It’s an emerging field! Of course there aren’t going to be gobs of jobs. Are you just dying for a chance to be a cog in someone else’s gears? I don’t get it. Is everyone’s dream to compete against each other for a position at Company X, Y, Z. Screw that.</p>
<p>I just wonder where the heck the pioneering spirit has gone. So, you wanted to do something you wanted to do in college. Great. Follow it through and apply what you know now. Organize a startup with like-minded smart people and solve a problem. Innovate something. Create your own way. And if it fails, so the crap what? You can fail intelligently with the dignity that you are being original. And you can always try again, assuming you didn’t put all your eggs in one basket. </p>
<p>Why does everyone want a cookie-cut job laid out for them after graduation? But I guess that’s the easy, secure route people want because that’s what they were promised by all the liars at schools. </p>
<p>Hang in there and try to think outside the box.</p>
<p>^^^laughingatyou, I totally agree and couldn’t have said it better myself. The goal should be to make a difference, not just loads of cash. That said… any advice on whether to pursue BME as pre-genetics/biotech PhD at Stanford vs. Johns Hopkins? See my post at <a href=“Hopkins vs. Stanford for BME(?) - URGENT ONE DAY LEFT - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1646769-hopkins-vs-stanford-for-bme-urgent-one-day-left.html</a></p>
<p>Would a degree in Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences / MBA do any good to getting a job? I feel like I need to have some experience first to help me in any way after I graduate to get a job. I was also looking into master of quantitative finance and MS in financial analysis. Do you think I would be able to get a job in either field ?</p>