Biomedical engineering

I have an offer to study Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College starting this October (although I'm still not sure if I'll go there in the end) - I might not be very helpful, but I can try! What do you want to know exactly?

The degree I might end up doing is an MEng (integrated masters), which is quite common for engineering degrees. It's accredited by quite a few institutions, which is important if you want to get Chartered Engineer status later on.

It's an engineering degree like the rest (so Biology isn't required - they'll teach you what you need), except it's in the context of the human body and designing medical devices etc. You still need to have physics/maths etc at the same level as the other engineering degrees. (My offer is A*A*A, with A*s in Maths and Physics for instance.)

- What do Bioengineers do: it can vary a lot! You can go into industry, so work at a company designing stuff for them. You can continue doing research at university (PhD then post doc) - in which case, you'll be working in some sort of lab, writing papers, getting grant funding... Or you can do something completely different and unrelated to the degree. Sorry - that's all I really know, as I haven't really started thinking about after I graduate yet (I know I'd like to do a PhD and that's about it).

Why I chose it - I find it fascinating, I like the way it combines disciplines (mechanical, electrical...), I'm interested in the context of the human body (but I love maths too much tp just do medicine and I'm not really that interested in actually talking to patients). Lots of the most interesting topics I had been reading about counted as biomedical engineering, and research possibilities in that field seem amazing.

Pay scale - I honestly don't really know. It's an engineering degree and STEM. Pay won't be an issue for you. If you go to a good university then it will probably be a lot easier to get a good job after.

If you really want to get rich, you should consider a career in investment banking. All you need is a degree from a top university, a disregard for work life balance, and ambition.

Degree types -
MEng (4 years in the UK): this is the most common degree available and is useful for if you want to get chartered engineer status.
BEng (3 years): like the MEng, but without the integrated masters. If a university offers both, the first two years will usually be the same, and you can switch between them up to a point.
PhD: you do this afterwards if you want to, and you get to do your own research in depth and be called Dr at the end.

To get Chartered Engineer status (CEng) you need to have a masters level degree and then some professional training whilst at work.

I hope this helps!

Does anyone mind replying everything/anything they might know about biomedical engineering pls?

I have done some of my own research but I get confused over the higher educational qualifications and some of the terms used...
It’s one of the careers I’m considering but I’m not 100% sure due to lack of knowledge and experience overall

fyi I’m in year 12

I graduated Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, First Class Honours. I cannot stress this more: NO TO DO THIS DEGREE.

The department is great, the atmosphere is fantastic and professors are more than helpful, but all that doesn't change the reality that it's a useless degree. (I'll talk a lot about electrical and software engineering, cause that is my speciality, but it applies to other areas.)

The question you need to ask yourself is: why would anyone hire you over a graduate of mechanical, electrical or chemical? Why would they take you over even a physics graduate? See, people know more less what those degrees entail. They are happy to take a 2nd year EEE, for an internship, cause while clueless, they have a good estimation for what kind of clueless they are, what tasks to give them and how to guide them. With biomedical its all over the place. They don't know and you won't know either, because you operate outside of this established engineering ecosystem.

Engineering isn't about "being clever" its about standards and specific skills. Calculus and all sorts of fancy maths is cool, but you're not going to solve an integral again in your life as an engineer outside of very few situations. This is just a basis, so you have a clue where things are derived from, but in the end you'll be using CAD software to design stuff or do repetitive experiments to confirm your product is safe and effective. The problem with biomedical engineering is that you never really get to the action part, its always theoretical, high-level waffle, cause you never specialise enough to actually be able to do stuff.

Search for junior/entry level job postings in a field you're interested in and read the requirement sections. They list specific technologies, tools and standards they expect you to be familiar with. Especially the tools part is important e.g. if you wanna be building CT scanners they will teach you the technology behind them, but they expect you'll be verse in high-voltage circuits/digital circuits, PCB design, embedded programming, mechanical design and so on. NOT all of those, one is enough, but you gotta be confident enough to complete a tasks they give you, deliver sth for the company. And you don't do that with pen and paper, you open OrCAD or Altium/Solidworks or Inventor/your favourite programming IDE and get to it.

If you're clever and lucky you'll make the right decisions at uni and be able to form a coherent set of skills DESPITE the odds, but even then you'll be fighting an uphill battle against the dreaded "biomedical" instead of "electrical/mechinical/software/chemical" on your CV for the first couple of years of your career. Spare yourself the stress and uncertainty and just settle for normal degree. I don't know a single person working in the industry from my course, that's pretty abysmal for an allegedly "best biomedical engineering course in the UK".

I would much rather recommend you complete a bachelor in sth normal and then go on for a masters. That's also a good way of getting a foothold in the department if you fancy an academic career, which if more forgiving to bioeng alumni. But for crying out loud don't choose biomedical engineering for undergrad.

If you have more questions please ask, I'm more than happy to answer.

Omg thank you so much for this red flag I was actually thinking about it too much, but then along with your response, i found out more about the unnecessary struggles of this degree

What do you think of chemical engineering instead cuz tbh if I was to become an engineer, I’d choose chemical eng

Also what do you really mean by “normal” degrees?

Also what do you really mean by “normal” degrees?

My waffle didn't answer this question. Here's a list if things I'd recommend.

If you're decided for engineering:

Aeronautical engineering is usually solid, it narrows you down from MechEng, but aerospace is such a huge field that is hardly matters.

If you're undecided and simply into STEM just do:

You can complete a bachelor in one of them and pick a masters in engineering if needed. Again, you'll be at least 1.5 years wiser when decision time comes.

The interesting ones "materials engineering" - not exactly traditional, but there is a ton of research in that, also biomedical, and I've heard that materials people doing materials research do a better job than the chemist or chemical engineer that got given the task. Worth considering if that's your inclination, but try to reach out to sb that does sth related. I base this of a conversation I had with 2 materials scientists that worked in the same company as I did.

Avoid all things "bio-", it usually means they narrowed it down, so worse students apply, so you get a worse education.

I'm not sure about biotechnology, but my synthetic biology professor did straight biology and he seemed ok. Speaking of which, "synthetic biology" is potentially the only thing I would consider a biomedical engineering undergraduate course for. That is actually a field that you'd be well-suited for, given you pick your courses right. Then again, you can do ChemEng, Chemistry or Biology and still turn your career towards it just fine, imo.

Ugh, so much waffle again, sorry!

I graduated Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, First Class Honours. I cannot stress this more: NO TO DO THIS DEGREE.

The department is great, the atmosphere is fantastic and professors are more than helpful, but all that doesn't change the reality that it's a useless degree. (I'll talk a lot about electrical and software engineering, cause that is my speciality, but it applies to other areas.)

The question you need to ask yourself is: why would anyone hire you over a graduate of mechanical, electrical or chemical? Why would they take you over even a physics graduate? See, people know more less what those degrees entail. They are happy to take a 2nd year EEE, for an internship, cause while clueless, they have a good estimation for what kind of clueless they are, what tasks to give them and how to guide them. With biomedical its all over the place. They don't know and you won't know either, because you operate outside of this established engineering ecosystem.

Engineering isn't about "being clever" its about standards and specific skills. Calculus and all sorts of fancy maths is cool, but you're not going to solve an integral again in your life as an engineer outside of very few situations. This is just a basis, so you have a clue where things are derived from, but in the end you'll be using CAD software to design stuff or do repetitive experiments to confirm your product is safe and effective. The problem with biomedical engineering is that you never really get to the action part, its always theoretical, high-level waffle, cause you never specialise enough to actually be able to do stuff.

Search for junior/entry level job postings in a field you're interested in and read the requirement sections. They list specific technologies, tools and standards they expect you to be familiar with. Especially the tools part is important e.g. if you wanna be building CT scanners they will teach you the technology behind them, but they expect you'll be verse in high-voltage circuits/digital circuits, PCB design, embedded programming, mechanical design and so on. NOT all of those, one is enough, but you gotta be confident enough to complete a tasks they give you, deliver sth for the company. And you don't do that with pen and paper, you open OrCAD or Altium/Solidworks or Inventor/your favourite programming IDE and get to it.

If you're clever and lucky you'll make the right decisions at uni and be able to form a coherent set of skills DESPITE the odds, but even then you'll be fighting an uphill battle against the dreaded "biomedical" instead of "electrical/mechinical/software/chemical" on your CV for the first couple of years of your career. Spare yourself the stress and uncertainty and just settle for normal degree. I don't know a single person working in the industry from my course, that's pretty abysmal for an allegedly "best biomedical engineering course in the UK".

I would much rather recommend you complete a bachelor in sth normal and then go on for a masters. That's also a good way of getting a foothold in the department if you fancy an academic career, which if more forgiving to bioeng alumni. But for crying out loud don't choose biomedical engineering for undergrad.

If you have more questions please ask, I'm more than happy to answer.

Does anyone mind replying everything/anything they might know about biomedical engineering pls?

I have done some of my own research but I get confused over the higher educational qualifications and some of the terms used...
It’s one of the careers I’m considering but I’m not 100% sure due to lack of knowledge and experience overall

fyi I’m in year 12

Hello ! Sorry to interrupt your conversation but I am starting to agree with you, i graduated last year and had some entry level working experience and to be honest I was regarded mostly as a technician ( of course there is the lab field that you could join) and I was often regarded as a mechanical engineer, but to be honest I could not see any huge job prospective in terms of progression. Of course every case is different and if you are 100% sure that is the field you will love, than go for it !but I have to agree that if i could go back I would take a less specific course. Now I am stuck in the middle of a pandemic trying to do a career switch to explore new options . Would love to have a chat with you Blank_Planet as I'm interested to now how you proceeded with a career switch . Cheers - pri

Does anyone mind replying everything/anything they might know about biomedical engineering pls?

I have done some of my own research but I get confused over the higher educational qualifications and some of the terms used...
It’s one of the careers I’m considering but I’m not 100% sure due to lack of knowledge and experience overall

fyi I’m in year 12

I think that with the Imperial course, I would find myself only being able to find research positions, while with the UCL course, there are many pharma companies looking for people with the skills I would get from it. Could you please give me some advice?

I graduated Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, First Class Honours. I cannot stress this more: NO TO DO THIS DEGREE.

The department is great, the atmosphere is fantastic and professors are more than helpful, but all that doesn't change the reality that it's a useless degree. (I'll talk a lot about electrical and software engineering, cause that is my speciality, but it applies to other areas.)

The question you need to ask yourself is: why would anyone hire you over a graduate of mechanical, electrical or chemical? Why would they take you over even a physics graduate? See, people know more less what those degrees entail. They are happy to take a 2nd year EEE, for an internship, cause while clueless, they have a good estimation for what kind of clueless they are, what tasks to give them and how to guide them. With biomedical its all over the place. They don't know and you won't know either, because you operate outside of this established engineering ecosystem.

Engineering isn't about "being clever" its about standards and specific skills. Calculus and all sorts of fancy maths is cool, but you're not going to solve an integral again in your life as an engineer outside of very few situations. This is just a basis, so you have a clue where things are derived from, but in the end you'll be using CAD software to design stuff or do repetitive experiments to confirm your product is safe and effective. The problem with biomedical engineering is that you never really get to the action part, its always theoretical, high-level waffle, cause you never specialise enough to actually be able to do stuff.

Search for junior/entry level job postings in a field you're interested in and read the requirement sections. They list specific technologies, tools and standards they expect you to be familiar with. Especially the tools part is important e.g. if you wanna be building CT scanners they will teach you the technology behind them, but they expect you'll be verse in high-voltage circuits/digital circuits, PCB design, embedded programming, mechanical design and so on. NOT all of those, one is enough, but you gotta be confident enough to complete a tasks they give you, deliver sth for the company. And you don't do that with pen and paper, you open OrCAD or Altium/Solidworks or Inventor/your favourite programming IDE and get to it.

If you're clever and lucky you'll make the right decisions at uni and be able to form a coherent set of skills DESPITE the odds, but even then you'll be fighting an uphill battle against the dreaded "biomedical" instead of "electrical/mechinical/software/chemical" on your CV for the first couple of years of your career. Spare yourself the stress and uncertainty and just settle for normal degree. I don't know a single person working in the industry from my course, that's pretty abysmal for an allegedly "best biomedical engineering course in the UK".

I would much rather recommend you complete a bachelor in sth normal and then go on for a masters. That's also a good way of getting a foothold in the department if you fancy an academic career, which if more forgiving to bioeng alumni. But for crying out loud don't choose biomedical engineering for undergrad.

If you have more questions please ask, I'm more than happy to answer.