What are alternatives to pursuing a career as a biomedical engineer in the case that the college a student prefers does not offer that exact major?

Hi Jordan,

Biomedical engineering is a cross-discipline that deals with mechanical engineering and biological science. Given the broad nature of this discipline, you can choose to move towards more of mechanical side dealing with simulations of human body parts (example: bones and their nature of failure) or biological side that deals more with cell culture and so forth. In my opinion, the field is going to be great in future. As the automation is everywhere and we (humans) are not far away from creating a complex artificial tissue such as the brain. To achieve this, definitely, STEM requires bio-medical engineers as well.

If you want to consider alternative majors, you can go for the mechanical engineering major and if possible, a minor in biology. Nevertheless, there are quite a good number of great companies that provide unique opportunities for biomedical or mechanical engineers. Some of them are Stryker, Johnson & Johnson, Zimmer, GE, Philips, Novo Nordisk and so on. Either way, if you choose to pursue this path (biomedical or mechanical) I strongly encourage you to try to get an internship in the above-mentioned companies. Please check the following link for a list of companies

http://sbhse.engineering.asu.edu/academics/careers-and-employment/companies-that-hire-biomedical-engineers/

Hope this helps.!