<p>Be warned, this is a really long post.</p>
<p>I have made a decision recently, and that is to transfer out of Marquette to an in-state engineering school that is equally regarded with better research opportunities.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Money.</p>
<p>The seed of transferring was planted by one of my TA's during my introduction to biomedical engineering class last year. He said, I will paraphrase, "you guys should really not be paying this much for an undergraduate degree". At that time, I did not have to take out any loans. This semester my parents made some sacrifices and were able to prevent me from taking out roughly 16K in loans. I can't depend on my parents to cover for my mistakes forever. At my in-state, tuition in $10k a year, and I will be getting an automatic $2500 annual scholarship just for transferring. My parents pledged to me $10k a year for undergraduate education, and I can cover living expenses with internships/co-ops.</p>
<p>I am aiming to get into a medical scientist training program (MSTP) which fully funds both an MD and PhD with a living stipend over that 7-9 year period. 60K+ of loans compounding over a range of 7-9 years essentially doubles that total, not including the peanuts pay of residency. And since MD/PhD's make less that their MD counterparts, I don't want to have to squander my PhD (your tax dollars via NIH) and be a clinical practitioner only in order to pay off that debt.</p>
<p>And here I come to the second point in my post: why NOT to major in BME, from a student's perspective. </p>
<p>I am currently majoring in biomedical engineering (BME) with a focus in computing. Marquette is fairly well known for their BME program, but I would warn anyone wanting to go into industry for a BME company with a BS in BME, not just from Marquette, but ANY university. </p>
<p>In order to be a competent engineer, you really need to know the basics in your field. Biomedical engineers need a base in not only the traditional engineering background courses, like physics, chemistry, calc 1/2/3, and differential equations, but also biology. The extra 9 credit hours that you need to take throw off your schedule compared to the other engineers, but you still need to be at essentially the same level as them by sophomore year to be hire-able to companies for co-ops. One could argue, validly, that either way you learn most of the skills on the job. At the end of your 4 year degree, the MechE has essentially the same opportunities as a BME with a mechanical emphasis... they do the exact same job the VAST majority of the time for a typical entry-level BS job.</p>
<p>I would say that the BME base is great for medical school/graduate school, because it exposes you to so many different topics. Even so, at Marquette in-depth research opportunities are quite limited for undergraduates (at least at the sophomore level). An in-depth research experience where undergraduates can contribute to the project is CRUCIAL for admission into great graduate programs nowadays, especially in biomedical engineering. I am blessed to be able to work at the Biotechnology and Bioengineering Center (BBC) at the Medical College of Wisconsin this summer, but I just asked the right questions after the BBC received $10 million+ of funding. Hopefully the ability to acquire a meaningful undergraduate research opportunity will be better for undergraduates after the new Discovery Learning Center is built, but I will be long gone before it is constructed.</p>
<p>In order to fit in the classes that make us look competent to employers, shortcuts have to be taken to graduate us in 4 years. I'll give 3 examples from my experience. </p>
<p>1)
In an introduction to computing class that all BME's took, there was ONE unofficial TA for the class of roughly 60-70 students. And there was no syllabus! Since my focus is in computing, I held tutor sessions for 5-10 of my friends who had no idea what was going on after being thrown into a computing class whose teacher said "you'll be fine if all you do is memorize the code I write". SERIOUSLY, W<em>T</em>F? </p>
<p>2)
Because ABET thought our graduates were lacking in statistics skills, the chair of BME teaches a 1 credit hour class in statistics, which should be at least 2 hours for a topic that affects our field so greatly through clinical trials. We learn the lingo of statistics, but just barely scratch the surface.</p>
<p>3)
Due to constraints of time, there is a special class for BME that is supposed to be Calc2/3 combined. We only covered Calc2. And let me tell you, being in a circuits class where you have to do matrix analyses with no background in linear algebra (CALC 3!) is not fun.</p>
<p>To Marquette's credit, we do specialize in a certain area of engineering; mechanics, computing, or electronics, which makes us less "jack-of-all-trades". And the course selection every semester does keep us essentially on-par with the other engineering majors. Also, our senior design program allows for truly hands on experience in what the design process is like.</p>
<p>This next item is the biggest advantage of Marquette for BME:
Dr. Kristina Ropella, the chair of the BME department, and the faculty of the program. Dr. Ropella is VERY well connected in the BME community, and is the reason that I have my internship at the BBC this summer. The faculty are incredibly devoted, and very accessible. Even the professor in example 1) above is an awesome person, just stretched very thin with research, teaching, advising, and administrative duties, and his/her other classes are apparently much more organized. If Marquette BME had more money, our program could be phenomenal with the addition of a few more teachers and more research funding.</p>
<p>These are just my thoughts and current viewpoint; I would be more than glad to answer any questions that you have.</p>