I want to become a Bioengineer (1 Viewer)

My name is Peter. I am graduating with a double major in Neuroscience (BS) and Psychology (BA). I am going to turn 22 in May. I really don't want to admit it because I am not fond of math, but I have sparked a very very very keen interest in bioengineering especially that related to Neuroscience. I want to understand engineering stuff like programming and anything else that may encompass engineering. I was wondering if I had to go back to college to get a degree in bioengineering? If so how? If not how do I go about learning the engineering stuff? My GRE is the new GRE score, but if you were to correspond it to the old scores, I received 760 on math and 660 on english and 4 on writing. I am planning on taking a GRE subject exam in Biology and Psychology. My cum GPA is 3.3. Neuro 3.0 Psychology: 3.7.

Peter:


Welcome to the HTF!


Granted, you can get some awfully good advice on a wide array of subjects from the smart folks who hang out here...


Best of luck!

My opinion as a software engineer is that college is sooo much different than the real world. Do you have any experience in a co-op or intern at a place where they would employ bioengineers? I would assume the medical/pharmaceutical areas would be high on your radar. Sounds like you are close to graduating (congrats). If I were you I would try to get a toe in some field that interestes you and do not simply focus yourself on knowing exactly what you want to be. You may find out after a few years in the field that you may not like bioengineering or programming or engineering for that matter. I can tell you from experience that I went to undergrad college with a lot of compsci majors and chemical engineering majors that are nowhere close to what degree they got. I would highly recommend that you find employment in a general area, be that programming or in the medical profession and hopefully both, Then you can probably work on your masters or perhaps decide to quit the job and go to grad school full time. So at least you will have some idea of what the field employs and truly know you want to go into bioengineering. Worst case is to spend a gazillion dollars in grad school, graduate and find out you hate it and go into law., (oohhh just kidding, you lawyers out there ) You could surely use your bioengineering knowledge in other careers so it's not a total waste but hey, it's nice to have direction in grad school.. Jay

Originally Posted by shinobisingh

My name is Peter. I am graduating with a double major in Neuroscience (BS) and Psychology (BA). I am going to turn 22 in May. I really don't want to admit it because I am not fond of math, but I have sparked a very very very keen interest in bioengineering especially that related to Neuroscience. I want to understand engineering stuff like programming and anything else that may encompass engineering. I was wondering if I had to go back to college to get a degree in bioengineering? If so how? If not how do I go about learning the engineering stuff? My GRE is the new GRE score, but if you were to correspond it to the old scores, I received 760 on math and 660 on english and 4 on writing. I am planning on taking a GRE subject exam in Biology and Psychology. My cum GPA is 3.3. Neuro 3.0 Psychology: 3.7.

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I don't know Neuroscience, but I'd guess it's big into those protein folding computations; or statistical surveys of vast data sets. And psych research is big into statistics. If you don't like fancy-pants math or stats, scientific programming might not be as much fun as you imagine.



But a person can learn scientific / engineering programming on the fly as a secondary skill to solve problems in your domain. Go to grad school, take some side courses on computer science. Read papers on the topic in your field. Get a job that uses programming tools to do the work.

Keep in mind other tools too, like Matlab or Mathematica or LabView. I don't know your field. but a lot of practical solutions are done in commercial math and measurement tools that provide programming abilities focused on the mathematics.

It's always a bummer when someone appears for life-altering advice and then never returns.

Maybe he'll win a nobel prize one day and we'll read about it! Jay

"We are pleased to announce that the 2035 Nobel Prize in Biology is presented to Peter Singh for his exemplary work in the field of bioengineering--specifically the impact of advances in the neurosciences on the understanding of psychological trends of discussion forum users.


Mr. Singh would like to especially thank all his colleagues at the Home Theater Forum for their support early in his career..."