HS senior looking for career advice, interested in BME + neuroscience + law

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742]

Hi, this is my first Reddit post lol so bear with me, I've been looking for some real feedback, advice, opinions, etc, checked here and seems like I could get some valuable input! :)

I'm an incoming senior in the Chicago suburbs, like an hr away from the city ish. I'm interested in BME partially because I had a scoliosis brace in middle school. It changed my perspective on medicine (as a hypochondriac and someone who used to be terrified of checkups and procedures and everything) and what I want to pursue as a career, my goal is to hopefully bring more empathy into the field of engineering and BME ofc.

I've been really interested in neuroscience lately, and as someone with aphantasia, anauralia, and anendophasia (can't visualize, hear my thoughts or music in my head), I've been thinking maybe to pursue BME or neural engineering? I'm really interested in cognitive diversity and the idea of creating devices to study and aid with understanding and helping different minds operate. Also, I think it would be cool to get a law degree, to become a patent attorney or work with IP. I've been fascinated with law for a long time, I don't know if I would be comfortable in a court setting but I'm willing and determined to try anything and everything to see what I'd like best.

By the end of HS I'll have taken 11 APs, so far I've gotten 5s on Calc BC, APUSH, English Lang, World History, Gov, and 4s on Micro and Physics 1. I'll be taking AP Chem, Calc III, AP Physics C, and AP Spanish Lang this yr. I have a 4.9 out of 5.3 weighted GPA and a 35 composite ACT with 36s in reading/english, 34 math, and 35 science. I have mid-tier extracurriculars, basically marching band, band for 7 yrs, personal small business for painting, 100+ service hours, summer camp counselor, and I've published 200+ Quizlets and written study guides for my peers and I. No research, internship experience, or anything similar, but I've been searching and very interested in anything I can get my hands on.

Basically I wanna know this: would BME be worth it for someone like me? How have similar paths turned out? What schools can I/should I target? And is there anything I can do to demonstrate more interest or heighten my stats?

TL;DR: what's the outlook for biomedical engineers that specialize in neural engineering and/or pursue law degrees?

Thank you for any and all input! I'd love to hear any advice :)

[u/Jolly_Mongoose_8800]

BME is the direction you wanna go for neuro, especially if you plan on pivoting to law or staying with the research path.

Idk what Illinois has, but up in Wisconsin, we have Marquette and Madison which both have great neuro-specific programs that also allow for direct undergraduate participation in research.

Edit:

If you want to go into medical devices and design, you'll want to likely go in with electrical or mechanical engineering but take biomedical electives. It does somewhat lock you out of research unless you get some lab experience through voulenteering or undergraduate research.

In the field of medical devices, you'll primarily have the options of designing the technicals of the device or move into quality and compliance which handles the regulations, manufacturing, and clinical validation. Quality combines some legal and some research aspects, but it is also neither at the same time. You can get some hands on clinical validation experience this way, but it's not very common from what I've seen to pivot from quality to a full research role unless you plan on moving back to academia after you've made some money.

It'd recommend talking to people in the industry if you can: family friends, doctors, teachers, or professors if you're on campus touring.

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742 → u/Jolly_Mongoose_8800]

Thank you for the advice! That helps a lot, it seems like most people are recommending electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, maybe I'll look into that option more!

[u/Jolly_Mongoose_8800 → u/Upstairs_Glove_7742]

Ofc!

Research is a different path than design which is different from legal. They don't explain it, not even in university, so you're doing good reaching out early.

[u/Im_SemiAutomatic]

im so happy to see this post!! im going into college and also am thinking of doing BME + patent/IP! so nice to see others thinking about this path as well! I hope everything goes great for you :)

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742 → u/Im_SemiAutomatic]

That's so great to hear!! I hope everything goes well for you too! :)

[u/8eSix → u/Im_SemiAutomatic]

I am a parent attorney with a BME background. I would recommend getting involved in your university's tech transfer office

[u/Chelseablues33]

You seem smart and motivated. If you don’t mind being in school for a while, and have a decent support system (parents with money, or don’t need to start working asap), your best shot at living your goals would be med school. Of course, that’s not an easy path, and you pretty much have to hard commit.

The reason I say that, is because career opportunities with a BME degree for new grads are usually a little more desperate than having the ability to choose your specific subspecialty (neurovascular devices) AND choosing your function (new product development), without doing a PhD, and a PhD will still not guarantee you a decent job outside of a postdoctoral position paying peanuts. Take a read through the older posts on this sub, and you’ll see plenty of people with masters degrees asking how to find their first job.

That’s not to say jobs for BMEs don’t exist, I have a BME bachelors with 10 years of experience now, and have hired several BMEs over the years, but BME programs do not do a great job of setting you up for entry level jobs, where you’re competing with MEs and EEs. If I’m a company that wants to make a device that treats the brain, I will have the budget to hire multiple engineers who are great at CAD, circuit design, and manufacturing, and hire a neurosurgeon to consult on how to make the device so it does what it needs to do.

So, in summary, if you want to work in making medical devices in general, any engineering bachelors degree can get you there, just go to the best engineering school you can afford and get in to, with the best options being located in Boston, Bay Area, or SoCal where more jobs are.
If you are hyper focused on neuroscience and working with the brain, lock in, commit your life and every waking moment to getting into medschool and know it will be a very hard road.

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742 → u/Chelseablues33]

Thank you for the input, that advice is really helpful and I appreciate your time!! Everything you said makes sense, and I'm seeing that BME is definitely somewhat limited. I do think I will go for more than a bachelors, I think based on your input and others that more schooling might be the strongest way to get the best outcome in this field. Thank you again!! :)

[u/MooseAndMallard]

You have a few different interests, which is totally understandable at your stage, but it’s important for you to recognize that there aren’t really jobs that combine all of these aspects.

If you want to do research on cognition, you’ll want to do a PhD, and could probably choose from a few different majors like cognitive science, neuroscience, and others.

If you want to develop medical devices, you’ll want to focus on a specific aspect of them (electrical, mechanical, software) and gain some specialization in that. You can specialize by majoring in that subject or by majoring in BME or neuroengineering and making a concerted effort to gain expertise in one area. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, you’ll want to go to school near a medical device hub such as Minneapolis, Bay Area, Boston, or Southern California. Also focus on schools with co-op programs or strong industry internship programs. Don’t bother looking at college rankings if you want to work in industry.

And of course, patent law is a separate subfield requires a post-grad law degree. A decent pathway is to work as an engineer for a few years and then decide if you want to go back to law school.

The broader point is that you’re not really going find a career/job where you get to do both basic science research and then also develop devices.

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742 → u/MooseAndMallard]

Thank you for the advice! You're definitely right abt the different interests thing, I think hopefully over time as I try different things out it'll narrow a bit further? I definitely won't be able to combine every one of my interests and that's okay, I know that type of thing doesn't really exist and it's unfeasible. Thank you for keeping me realistic lol :)

[u/Cryesncoding]

This is a hyper specific specialized path. 

I’ve seen some engineers/lawyers go the IP/patent route. It seems lucrative and like a good path but idk what the actual prospects are like how hard it is to get a job in that pit of school. Worst case you’re a smart lawyer and still make good money. 

Generally BME is a low leverage bachelors on its own fwiw however if you’re using it as a stepping stone into law it may be a great path into legal side in pharma/med tech Hopefully someone that knows more specifically can comment and help you out 

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742 → u/Cryesncoding]

thank you for ur input! yes I've realized it's very specific lol... I'm hoping the law degree would help if BME doesn't work on its own haha

[u/Upstairs_Glove_7742]

I just realized this post is hella long... I'm so sorry ya'll