Biomedical Engineering...what makes it a difficult major?

[tijames]

Forgive my ignorance😀

any input would be appreciated

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[nutmeg1445]

Sorry, I just dont understand the question. For some people it isnt hard at all. And for those that it is, every person has a different reason to why they are struggling. Maybe it is because it has so many different facets of it. You take a wide range of math, science, and engineering cources. And depending on your undergrad, you take many humanities classes also. You have to be slightly more well rounded then most engineers. And I many people think that engineering is ONE of the hardest majors. Maybe that is why you are asking the question.

 

[bigdan]

I'd suppose having to master essentials of two disciplines, which aren't always related to one another - and then having to make them related.

CHEMICAL engineering, on the other hand, is other-worldly. Some schools even have a different qualification system for CE students for Dean's List and other honors because it's so tough to keep a high GPA.

Anyways...

dc

 

[sacrament]

I was a chemical engineering major who did a masters in chemical engineering with a biomed focus, and for me personally the most difficult aspect was the hardcore math involved. Especially if you get into courses in design and modeling, you'll be wrestling with some crazy interlocked sets of equations. There is absolutely no comparing med school to my graduate school experience; I'll never do anything that mentally rigorous again in my life.

 

[DrBowtie]

Engineering in general is difficult so it isn't just biomedical.
It is the math, applied physics, workload that drags the morale down.

 

[nebrfan]

Biomedical ENGINEERING - have you seen/talked to any engineering students? They're crazy! They eat, breathe, and **** high level math.

 

[Bluntman]

The biggest difficultly of "engineering" comes from what jobs you are being trained to do. (don't get me wrong, the required math/physics courses are difficult, but they are usually not what kills people in an engineering major) This is easiest for me to explain in terms of comparing it to biology, since I did both:

An undergrad Biology education (in general) prepares you to be a technician...someone who is going to perform a set of tasks (gels/pcr/cultures/isolations/etc.) at the request of a PI.

Undergrad engineering programs (bio/chem/ee/whatever), on the other hand, prepare you to be a problem-solver...someone who can use their foundation of technical knowledge to generate a novel solution to a problem in their given field. Because of this distinction, many jobs equate a BS in engineering to a MS in other fields when it comes to their pay scale.

Engineering requires critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving ability...traits that are much more innate and difficult to "learn" than what is required of many other majors. Therefore it *does not* reward (and acually has a tendency to weed out) the super-hard-working traditional premed mentality/work-ethic that can be applied succesfully to other non-engineering tasks like memorizing the kreb's cycle. Becuase of this, people who fail to have/obtain these necessary skills generally will be frustrated as they try in vain to fix the problem by spending their lives in the library.

On the other hand, people who are just naturally good at critical-thinking/reasoning/problem-solving often find engineering classes much easier than traditional bio type classes because they often don't require the brute-force studying/memorizing like many bio classes do.

This all being said, the particular difficulty of BIOengineering comes from the interdisciplinary nature of the subject...knowledge of bio, chem, physics, medicine, physiology, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science all must be integrated in order to address problems that span all of these fields.

Hope this helps! 🙂

 

[Medikit]

The biggest difficultly of "engineering" comes from what jobs you are being trained to do. (don't get me wrong, the required math/physics courses are difficult, but they are usually not what kills people in an engineering major) This is easiest for me to explain in terms of comparing it to biology, since I did both:

An undergrad Biology education (in general) prepares you to be a technician...someone who is going to perform a set of tasks (gels/pcr/cultures/isolations/etc.) at the request of a PI.

I have no idea where you are getting that from but I don't think that's true at all. Biology labs do prepare you for being a technician, but lecture usually prepares you for grad school/teaching.

 

[Shredder]

Forgive my ignorance😀

any input would be appreciated

i think bme is the closest thing to a premed major if there were one. closer than bio even--there are a lot of things bio covers that are irrelevant in med school, whereas bme has a lot of focus on healthcare and patients. thats why i majored in it. but i regret it. kinda.

 

[Shredder]

Biomedical ENGINEERING - have you seen/talked to any engineering students? They're crazy! They eat, breathe, and **** high level math.

i agree, i would say that what largely distinguishes bme from bio is the incorporation of quite a bit of math, technology, computing, programming. im even going to have to build a prototype in the coming year

 

[dsh]

On the other hand, people who are just naturally good at critical-thinking/reasoning/problem-solving often find engineering classes much easier than traditional bio type classes because they often don't require the brute-force studying/memorizing like many bio classes do.

I'm one of these types and I completely agree with Mr. Blunt's post. I'm a good theoretical, problem solver kind of guy, and I have trouble motivating myself to memorize. I switched majors because engineering takes less time (for me) to get a good grade, and the tests are usually kind of fun (in the way logic puzzles and bridge games and stuff are, they're as fun as a test can get).

Another thing cool about engineering is the difference between the mindsets of the students. Prehealth kids generally shoot for As, and so in curved classes the means tend to be higher. Engineers just need to pass, and their tests are usually ridiculously hard. In my last physics class (the e/m one), the mean was something like 18% on our final. That was a huge difference from the 85% mean in the physics for non-engineers class.

I looked over both of the tests since I'm a nerd, and decided that it was easier to get an A in my class because you didn't have to memorize any of the equations and just had to setup some math that most of the class didn't get since they didn't care to study until the last night. Cramming usually doesn't work that well with stuff like magnetism. This probably only applies in the first couple of quarters of classes for engineering, as the guys that don't get it drop out quickly.

I later realized although I'm good at it, I hate math, so I switched over to philosophy and couldn't be happier. The problem solving is more abstract, and there's no math! Of course, everyone knows that we don't actually solve anything...

 

[unk_fxn]

I did Biomedical Engineering a few years back at Vanderbilt. Why was it hard?

Short Answer:
You have to take most of the hardest classes for both biology and electrical engineering. If you want to graduate in 4 years, you will carry 18 hours and 3 labs nearly every semester.

Elaboration:
This will include the "hard track" for Physics, Chemisty, Advanced Calculus. Calculus becomes as intrinsic to your daily life as speaking. Think about integrating the velocity of blood at any given distance from the vessel wall. Don't forget that the viscosity of blood changes as a non-linear function of shear rate. I won't even get into the mascocisms we endured medical thermodynamics.

Commentary:

For all my bitching, I regret nothing, and would EMPHATICALLY AGREE that it was amazing preparation for everything that I have done since. To train your mind for that level of problem solving is incredible. The physiology class I took in medical school was an easy review after what I did as a BME undergrad.

As some have pointed out, sucess in such a major requires at times dichotomous skill sets.

These are not classes that one can just study a few days before the test, memorize some facts, write a paper or two, and then party on the rest of the semester. They require focused, significant effort on a weekly, often daily basis or you will fall hopelessly behind.

I would be remiss if I didn't say that BME is awesome and if you think you have what it takes, there is no better academic preparation for a career in medicine. Few of your physician peers will have any idea how all this technology we rely on works, much less do cool stuff like be able to demonstrate the math that makes a CT scanner work or build an EKG monitor from scratch.

 

[runnincrazy]

I'd suppose having to master essentials of two disciplines, which aren't always related to one another - and then having to make them related.

CHEMICAL engineering, on the other hand, is other-worldly. Some schools even have a different qualification system for CE students for Dean's List and other honors because it's so tough to keep a high GPA.

Anyways...

dc

I actually graduated a couple years ago with a EBME degree. My question is...Do Admission officers take in to consideration the difficulty of your major? I graduated in 98 with a 2.9....thankfully I've got a 4.0 in my Masters work. Just curious on everyone's opinion.

 

[Shredder]

I actually graduated a couple years ago with a EBME degree. My question is...Do Admission officers take in to consideration the difficulty of your major? I graduated in 98 with a 2.9....thankfully I've got a 4.0 in my Masters work. Just curious on everyone's opinion.

i think the general consensus is that they might factor it in some, like .1 leeway, but mostly they only care about numbers. its similar to considering where one goes to school.

 

[Hoberto]

I agree with those who pointed out that for some engineering comes naturally. For those that don't have the aptitude engineering, any engineering major is going to be hard. Personally, I enjoyed my BME undergrad far more than I am enjoying my ChemE graduate courses. It's the same math applied to processes I don't find interesting. At least BME was cool and I could really see the point of all the math, design and programming. Now I just don't care.

Probably the difficulty with BME is just as BigDan said,

I'd suppose having to master essentials of two disciplines, which aren't always related to one another - and then having to make them related.

 

[DrBuro]

To the OP: the answer that I hear from other students is the electrical engineering classes. You have to be talented at that kind of material. If you're not, you will not do very well no matter how much you study. The other reason people say it is difficult is the amount of credits per semester. Large number of credits are a good thing to prepare you well for med school though.

 

[Bluntman]

The other reason people say it is difficult is the amount of credits per semester. Large number of credits are a good thing to prepare you well for med school though.

Yea for sure the credit thing is tough...seems like as engineers, we were consistantly taking at least one more class per semester than my other bio/econ/etc. friends.