<p>I’m a Bioengineering major and I just got a paid co-op/internship at a company that does injection molding for Toyota and Lexus components. Go figure. Bioengineers can get ME jobs too.</p>
<p>@HANDxOFxGOD, what is your concentration? Biomechanical? </p>
<p>No. But my resume states I’ve worked with CAD, milling tools, and design projects that are mechanically inclined.</p>
<p>Where do you do your undergrad Biomedical Engineering @HANDxOFxGOD?</p>
<p>University of Louisville. The Engineering department requires 3 co-ops/internships for an undergrad degree. So they have a very good career development center that helps students/graduates/alumni get jobs.</p>
<p>You’re not doing a track/concentration? </p>
<p>You don’t have concentrations for your undergrad. There are like 3 Bioengineering electives, but everything else is determined. </p>
<p>When/If you go to your masters, then you can concentrate on basically any of the other disciplines but related to the medical field. biomechanics (tissues, organs, bones), bioelectiral(signals, imaging, closed loop drug delivery), or biochemical (molecular diagnostics, assays, pharmacuticals)</p>
<p>all of those topics are touched on in your undergrad, in addition to standard engineering courses like thermodynamics, statics, prob and stats, etc… but your masters will take you really in depth.</p>
<p>and everything can be applied to one form of medical device or another. or even non medical related stuff. </p>
<p>Sounds like HOG is either at a school with a good engineering based curriculum or he’s taking some great classes/electives on his own. When researching BME undergrad, we found many of the programs were really premeds, ie, not much engineering, or just cursory overview courses. With his undergrad mech eng degree, my son has a strong engineering foundation, but never took the classic premed courses, ie, organic, cell biology. He was concerned that this would prevent him from getting into a BME graduate program, but his undergrad research working with medical devices probably helped him in that regard. I think if one were to look for a BME undergrad program and really wants to be a BME as a career, not as a stepping stone to medical school, this kind of program would probably be a good one for entry into industry. </p>
<p>@Montegut Yeah, the program I’m in is Engineering through and through. To do pre-med only requires like 3 more classes. Only about 1 in 7 BE majors at my school is actually interested in Medical School. Which is still much higher than the other engineers though.</p>
<p>and your son can easily get into a Masters BE program with an ME undergrad. HE can also apply and work for tons of medical device companies. Having any sort of Engineering degree opens doors to many companies. (Other than Chamical and Civil. Those two are very specific to a type of work.) </p>
<p>I’m a BE and have had interviews for Biotech companies, Electrical companies, and am now working as an ME.</p>
<p>The trick in my opinion is not limiting yourself to what your degree says. You’re an engineer first and should try to learn s much as you can about everything. Including working with your hands as a mechanic/tinkerer, learning about programming logic, understand circuit boards, and learn about the human body!</p>
<p>You don’t go to school to learn everything in the world. You go to learn how to learn. Every job is different.</p>
<p>And I go to a state school. University of Louisville in KY. They only require a 26 ACT and it’s like 12k a year, but it’s working out pretty well for me.</p>
<p>A schoolmate of mine is just graduated with a BS in BioE and got a job working for Microsoft with no practically no CS skills beyond some matlab exposure. She is however, an outgoing person with evidence of solid organizational and people wrangling skills (makes Gantt charts for fun). She said she believes they basically just wanted someone who could communicate with people and had an engineering degree.</p>
<p>Nice story @da6onet. Can you tell me what her job tittle is?</p>
<p>I want to say it was something fluffy sounding like associate product manager, but I’ll have to ask her again next time we chat.</p>
<p>Sorry to bump, I’d like to give my two cents.</p>
<p>I’m an undergrad bioengineering student in a midwest engineering program with a mandatory co-op program. This means I have to complete three co-ops, or semester-long paid internships, to graduate. This has significantly strengthened our degree and our job placement is as high as majors of other engineering disciplines at our universities. </p>
<p>Some posters have questioned the value of a BS in BioE, saying that these graduates have “no special skills.” I think this was true 5+ years ago, but now that ABET has taken an active role in providing robust accreditation standards, the industry is more likely to accept the risks inherent in a BioE program. A graduate from an ABET-accredited program will have strong skills in electrical engineering, biomedical software applications, and signal processing.</p>
<p>My program allows us to choose a concentration of biochemical engineering, biomechanical engineering, or bioelectronics after the second year. Biochem focused students take organic chem, bioseparations, and drug development courses and intern at places like Merck, Pfizer, and Marathon Petroleum. They will take jobs in biomanufacturing and drug development firms. Biomechanical focused folks will take dynamics, mechanical design, orthopedic biomechanics and intern at surgical device and orthopedic companies. I am personally bioelectronic focused and will take electromagnetics, feedback control systems, biosignals, and solid state electronics. The ability to focus on one discipline of engineering significantly strengthens our employment potential. </p>
<p>The concern about salary is legitimate but attributed to the wrong factors by the previous poster. I wouldn’t peg that on lacking skills. A large portion of BioE graduates (many of whom continue for graduate studies) take jobs in hospitals conducting translational research in imaging or biosignals, or managing clinical technology. Because hospitals are not profit-driven, naturally the salaries of these engineers would be lower than a chemical engineer on an oil rig, for instance. If you are going into bioengineering for the money, you need to re-evaluate your intentions. </p>
<p>If you want to have a valuable undergrad degree in BME that will set you apart from the thousands of other people flooding the market, do the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>Only enroll in an ABET-accredited program</li>
<li>Get involved early in research and build relationships with your professors</li>
<li>Select a school with a mandatory co-op program, or a school with a strong support network for optional internships</li>
<li>Pick a concentration in a traditional engineering discipline (e.g. chemical, electrical, mechanical) and take electives in those disciplines to build a strong foundation</li>
<li>It is ESSENTIAL to get involved in student organizations. HR reps don’t look just for engineers. They look for leaders</li>
</ol>
<p>I wish anyone the best of luck reading this. It’s a tough field, but remember: a physician can heal one person at a time. A biomedical engineer can heal thousands of people at once. </p>
<p>My dad graduated from her Uni with friends in biomed. She told me that those students were told that the jobs for biomed are not there yet. I have to agree with JaDawson. It’s not easy to find a “biomed” job; you have to adapt that degree to fit the need for engineering.</p>
<p>“Daughter” sorry</p>