u/Ninjaxte

I did my master’s at that rate. It took 10 semesters for my remote master’s at a job that I love and I’m in a major metropolitan area; so my degree took 3.5 years with fall, summer, and spring. Just be aware that if you’re pursuing a more specialized master’s then you’ll lose out on the hands on work that would be involved if you were to relocate. I did have one class that involved a lab component and we had the option of either traveling in for 2 weekends to do the hands on portions OR receive a home lab kit to do some basic projects.

If you have the flexibility to do so, don’t be afraid to stretch out your program and take longer with less load per semester. I did 3.5 years of 1 class per semester for my masters while working full time and I genuinely enjoyed my experience. I still had time to enjoy hobbies, see friends, spend time with my partner, pick up a part time job, etc.

Sure thing

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Looking for a place to play Warhammer or table tops? Dragon's Lair, Asgard Games, Games Workshop, The Forge

Looking to play magic, pokemon, gundam, or any other card game? Galaxy Gaming, Rooted Games, REV Collectibles, Aegis, Dragon's Lair

I agree with your plan. Even with your internships, more experience would make you more competitive for roles. With the current job market (at least in the US, I don’t know what it’s like in Europe), it’s tough to land a role so the more experience that you have, the more competitive you can be for when you graduate.

Start with looking at jobs that you want to do once you graduate and identify the skills you need for the jobs.

Identify internships that provide exposure to the skills you need for the job you want or allow you to practice and further develop your desired skill set. Then look at what those internships are lookin for.

Look at your class projects and start elaborating on those on your resume to show that you have what the internships are looking for. Also look at clubs at your uni that might be doing cool projects that you’re interested and that provide you ways to develop your technical skills, the same ones that the internships and jobs are looking for.

I'd advise you to take a look at what kind of courses, particularly upper level courses is involved in this degree plan and then cross reference that with job postings for positions that you're interested. If the job requirements align with what the degree offers and you're interested in it, then I would go for it. Otherwise, I'd advise you to spend more time reading up on job postings for positions you're interested in and continuing looking into the how to utilize your degree to get the experience (even if it's just course projects/capstones/thesis) to develop your skillsets in a focused manner.

I worked full time and did 3 credits per semester for my masters. It took 3.5 years to finish, but I can genuinely say that I had a good time. The slower pace of only one course per semester allowed me to still live my life and do fun things. I could’ve loaded up on 6 per semester, but I just didn’t want to risk burnout - which I’ve experienced before and do my absolute best to avoid ever again.

Hello me from 3.5 years ago. I also have a bachelor's in biomedical sciences and completed that same JHU program; my work history was in clinical research at the time I started the program. The beauty of the JHU ABME program is that it's very flexible in allowing you to curate the program to what you need. As someone with a biomedical sciences degree, you can request to waive the anatomy 1 and 2 courses and replace them with electives if you've taken upper level anatomy and physiology during undergrad. This is really important and I suggest you do so.

I wholly agree with Gwen and Moose, you need to read the job postings that you want to do. Only in doing so, you'll understand what kind of skills you need to develop and that can influence the electives you choose throughout your program. Most of the courses are project based so you can use those projects to highlight your skills on your resume. This then makes it easier to apply for the jobs because you'll have spent your time in the program developing the experience that is relevant to the job position. For example, if you want to work in prosthetics, then there's a 2 semester sequence course focused on physical rehab design that requires getting involved in your local rehab center, designing, and making a device to solve a problem identified. At the same time, if you want to work in prosthetics, then the biochemical and cellular engineering course probably won't be as much use to you.

For me, I knew that I wanted to work in early stage product development so I curated my program around courses that involved engineering technical skills (which, as biomedical sciences grads, we don't have) such as the engineering design courses, practical applications of engineering, biosensors, projects in BME, etc. I ignored the more microscale courses that focused on the cellular level because that wasn't important to be and I didn't want to waste an elective slot on a course that I didn't need. That allowed me to develop a wide berth of skills that allowed me to pivot out of clinical research and into my current role where I manage early medical device development projects at an academic institution. I was able to articulate the work I did in the program and how I learned those skills and applied them in course projects which allowed me to sell myself of how I would be capable of design and prototyping work.

Networking in the program is difficult because of the online nature. You might take some classes together with people whose names you recognize and can connect on LinkedIn, but otherwise, it's hard. This program is designed for working engineers who are seeking a graduate degree to further their career progression, but also appeals to people like us who are looking to do a career pivot from something else to engineering. So you might find yourself connecting with an engineer in one of your courses who might know someone who's hiring. I didn't network much in the program. Rather, I used this time to continue networking at my current job and engaging in other extracurricular activities such as biodesign boot camps and engaging in projects with PIs at my job (beyond the scope of my job) that aligned with what I wanted to do. These activities and networking were super helpful to my career pivot because I was able to go into detail about my transition and how all my previous work experience, master's projects, and extracurriculars all tied together during my interviews.

The odds are kind of stacked against us, but you need to have a very focused approach to the program and to constantly seek out opportunities to grow and engage in either the JHU network or in your local network.

Take the job and work a while to build up your experience - it's much easier to job hop when you have existing job experience vs just an advanced degree. Use this time to build up on your fundamental engineering skills. You could also see if they're willing to partially support your master's degree; some employers will pay for school (or part of it) while you work full time.

If you are in the US, there exists a program called Texas A&M EnMed which has their medical students complete a masters in engineering concurrently so your program is designed to have you graduate with an MD and a MEng - it’s designed to train new physicians in medical device innovation in addition to normal medical training.

I think that the only way for you to get into an engineering role is to do an engineering degree that will teach you the knowledge. That being said, if you were interested in project management, you could get away with an engineering master's - in which case, the program would require you to take some pre-reqs for some STEM classes. You wouldn't be doing the day to day engineering work, but could do well in PMing with your business background.

So if you want to do engineering, the next question is what kind of engineering do you want to do? BME can widely vary as I said. If you want to work in prosthetics and implants, you'll need a more mechanical engineering focused program or might as well do a mechanical engineering degree. If you want to work on drug delivery or therapeutics, then you're essentially a biochemical engineer and will want a program that reflects that. If you want to do surgical robotics, then you'd want to focus on electrical or mechanical engineering in the context of BME.

What kind of work do you want to do? These are two widely different paths in terms of your day to day work. There's much more nuance that goes into this, but I would start with this question.

You can work for medtech or biotech companies on the business side and utilize your degree in business and if you go into accounting. You could also get a second bachelors in BME and work as an engineer. If you read through the sub though, you'll see the general themes of how hard it is right now to get a job in this industry, especially with how varied BME programs are. Some can be more wet lab based which starts funneling you into research lab based roles while other programs can focus on mechanical and electrical skills so you're more adept to work on devices. It all goes back to what kind of work do you want to do?

An arduino kit and making an EKG would be a fun project - it'd be a fun intro to electronics and BME.

UH (or any other Houston nursing school) allows you to be close to the Texas Medical Center, which is the largest medical center in the world with 60 something hospitals. Having so many hospitals means increased opportunities for Professional Student Nurse positions, which are important for nurses to start building experience outside of your classwork and clinical rotations. Some of these PSN positions ALSO include fast tracks to nursing residency for after graduation and you're basically guaranteed a job.

Most often, a conflict of interest document is signed or acknowledged at the start of this process to clear you or tell you if there are issues with working with external groups. If you have one, then I’d refer to it. If you don’t then your next best solution would be to talk to your immediate supervisor to notify them and see if there are any internal policies that dictate this type of work and external collaboration.

I would say that it’s going to be extremely difficult to pivot into engineering work like med devices, robotics, imaging, etc. that are very engineering heavy. These positions expect you to have prior internship experience which counters the time you would be spending working on pre-health requirements. So I would say to temper your expectations and realize that your career may start out doing bench lab work (if not accepted into med school or similar health graduate programs) until you can take additional classes, do individual projects, have the luck to connect and network for engineering positions, or engage in other extracurriculars to be a more competitive engineering applicant. Overall, it’ll probably be difficult unless you have a very clear plan sprinkled in with some luck.

Are you wanting to leave medicine entirely? Or do you want a hybrid style career between both medicine and engineering?

I have a friend who wants to do both. She took a gap year between MS3 and MS4 to pursue a masters in bioengineering and is now getting ready to apply for residency as a current MS4.

I feel like at your current stage, you should finish out your MD. Even MDs who don’t go into medicine to practice can still work in industry - but having that doctorate is still important. It’s also important to know what kind of BME work that you want to do because it’ll direct a potential masters significantly. This is then how you can plan a career shift.

Age doesn’t matter - experience and projects to showcase skills do.

I think the difference here is that OP wants to do PA school which has different requirements than medical school so trying to do research and stack their resume to be a successful BME detracts from the time they should be spending to maximize their clinical hours for PA school. PA schools rarely, if at all, care for research as opposed to as much clinical hours as possible. So if OP wants to do PA school then they’re going to have to deal with competing priorities in order to be a successful BME if PA school doesn’t work out.

My undergrad was biomedical SCIENCES which was basically a glorified biology degree. BME wasn’t a back up for me because I hadn’t considered it as a fall back. My pivot into BME was a full send, completely dropping medical school experiences and focus. Sure, I’m anecdotal evidence. But when looking at the broad field of BME with its different domains that involve the other engineering disciplines, looking at the competition with the other engineering disciplines, looking at how niche or limited roles can be, it makes little sense to tell OP to consider BME a good back up when an average successful BME requires a different priority than what OP wants to do.

Feel free to DM, happy to chat

It is contradictory because my experience was only possible due to very fortunate circumstances - I wouldn't say what I did is the norm.

That's great for your daughter - that's the dream of any BME student wanting to work in industry. Did she have co-ops/internships/engineering projects during her undergrad? For her friends, do you know if their portfolio has the typical pre-med clinical experience/volunteering/research? Or if they spent time working in co-ops/internships/engineering projects?

Because if her friends spent all their time doing the clinical work without any of the engineering experiences, then if they don't get into medical school and want to work in industry then they'll be competing with the BMEs like your daughter (who I assume had the engineering experiences). If they don't have the clinical experience and did all the engineering work, then they'll be at a disadvantage when compared to all the pre-med students who have clinical experiences which is highly valued by medical schools. If they have both clinical and engineering experiences, then they're absolutely stellar and out of the norm - so I expect for them to get into whatever they want.

Competitive PA applicants will have minimum 500clinical hrs with direct patient contact through hospital volunteering, clinic work, etc. Time spent doing this would detract from time working on engineering projects or applying to internships that are looking for the engineering experiences. Post-grad, medtronic or Stryker is going to choose the BME with more technical experience gained from co-ops and internships, but PA school doesn't care about the co-ops and will want the applicants with all the clinical hours.

Assuming the biology major doesn't get into medical school or PA school, then the biology major's next step would be to work in research such as wet labs or something adjacent. Their higher level life sciences courses and project work can make them more competitive than the BME who doesn't have that same understanding. But if a BME focuses on getting wet lab experience to be competitive against a biology major, then they'll be non-competitive against their own engineering focused BMEs. This is also not factoring in the competition that BMEs face with mechEs and elecEs for various roles that require even more of technical skillset. All of this is to say that BME is not a good back up choice for pre-health (not much is because pre-health severely limits most students for non pre-health roles) because you have competing priorities.

I manage an engineering student internship where I get plenty of BME applications. The pre-health focused BMEs are not competitive against their BME peers who have focused on being competitive engineers. Seeing shadowing or EMT work vs detailed solidworks and design projects makes a stark difference.

No because you’re trying to do two different things. Engineering will want internships and co ops with devices or labs to be successful out of school. These experiences contradict the necessary requirements and experiences for pre health that includes volunteering work, shadowing, and clinical experiences. You wouldn’t be able to do both well because you’d have split time between all these experiences. So if PA doesn’t work out but you’re full of clinical and patient experiences then you’d be a poorly equipped BME grad because you won’t have the engineering co ops or internships - same vice versa.

I did a premed undergrad with a biomedical sciences degree and full sent with research, volunteering, clinical etc. It was only after being rejected 3 med school cycles that I decided to pivot to BME. I work in early stage med device development now after getting a masters in BME but that’s 90% due to luck of being where I am. If I had known I wanted to do BME earlier, then I would’ve done my undergrad in engineering and avoided the pre health track altogether.

Turning off from the problem you face allows improved perspective and for you to be able to step back which can improve creativity and productivity so I tell myself that I’m going to disconnect and enjoy my hobbies or housework because I might learn something or have inspiration once I’m removed from the problem.

I’ve experienced burnout before because I was hyperfixated on wanting to do EVERYTHING and had high expectations for myself. This was unrealistic and made me nihilistic and absolutely hate everything which isn’t ideal for the work I do. So I told myself that 1) I need to not want to do everything otherwise I’ll set that expectation for myself and feel terrible when there’s obviously too much to do for one person and it’s unrealistic.

I also let my non work responsibilities take over outside of work where I remind myself that I have other things that I need to do. I want to save lives but I also need to do the dishes and keep my space tidy which improves my mental state/mental clutter. Or I should spend time with my family and dog because that quality time is limited and I need to show my relationships that I value them by spending time and being present.

Lastly, I enjoy my hobbies and do things that require full concentration to remove myself - I do Brazilian jiu jitsu, so when there’s someone actively trying to choke me or break my arm ( and then we laugh about it after), it’s real easy to disconnect from literally everything else.

I think your first question should be which part of BME do you want to get into? BME is broad with anything ranging from medical device to SaMD to imaging to quality to regulatory etc. Do you want to leverage your programming experience? Do you want to pivot out of programming?

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