Biotechnology vs Biomedical Engineering

1ZRed

Got offered biotechnology today and had biomed engineering as the choice above it so if I sit the entrance exam wednesday and pass, I'm in!

Not sure if I should do it though because

1. I sat it last year and didn't pass because I don't work nearly enough at it.

2. Said I'd sit honours Maths for the LC. Didn't happen.

3. I would do very very well at everything other than the Maths. I'm good at them but I'm not sure if I'm college level good at Maths. I don't want to struggle along and be filled with stress and not enjoy my days there!

So my key strengths are biology and engineering (both practical and theory) so I'm a bit confused as to which one to take. Points aren't an issue but it's more about course suitability mainly.


*Plus I should note how unhelpful NUIG has been to me throughout the year with my emails. Biotechnology side of things, the help and feed back has been great but the likes of the Law department and Engineering department have been useless! Very annoyed at that considering I could have just chosen another college from the lack of advice and feed back.

joeKel73

There is a lot of maths in Engineering. Especially in 1st and 2nd year, where it's mostly theoretical. After that it's used in different subjects but has a practical application. I didn't do biomed myself but had the same subjects for 1st-2nd year.

Most maths topic start at a basic level and move up from there, so if you put in the work and study/learn as you go you should manage alright.

1ZRed wrote: »

*Plus I should note how unhelpful NUIG has been to me throughout the year with my emails. Biotechnology side of things, the help and feed back has been great but the likes of the Law department and Engineering department have been useless! Very annoyed at that considering I could have just chosen another college from the lack of advice and feed back.

You know they've been running a 5 day preparation course for the entrance exam? It's on the front page of the faculty website.
http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/engineering/specialmathspreparatorycourse.html

Ficheall

1ZRed wrote: »

*Plus I should note how unhelpful NUIG has been to me throughout the year with my emails. Biotechnology side of things, the help and feed back has been great but the likes of the Law department and Engineering department have been useless! Very annoyed at that considering I could have just chosen another college from the lack of advice and feed back.

Could you elaborate?

1ZRed

J o e wrote: »

There is a lot of maths in Engineering. Especially in 1st and 2nd year, where it's mostly theoretical. After that it's used in different subjects but has a practical application. I didn't do biomed myself but had the same subjects for 1st-2nd year.

Most maths topic start at a basic level and move up from there, so if you put in the work and study/learn as you go you should manage alright.


You know they've been running a 5 day preparation course for the entrance exam? It's on the front page of the faculty website.
http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/engineering/specialmathspreparatorycourse.html

Yeah you see I'm pretty conflicted about what to do. I love the idea of the course and I am good at Maths but I'd need to really work at them in order to keep up with something of this level. Considering the course would be so time consuming, I'm wondering if it's worth me having a lot of stress over myself and possibly struggling through college just because of Maths. I don't think it would be very viable for me to be failing or barely passing some parts of the course, especially when it's not the easiest for my parents to put me through college.
That's why I put Biotechnology down as an option because it has some similarities and it cuts out a lot of the heavy Maths emphasis. Although I know it's a great course, it is different to engineering in the overall outcome and what I think I want.
My main thing though is the fact that an engineering degree would give me more job opportunities and more flexibility than a science degree so I'm a bit stuck.

I know about the entrance exam but I don't want to gamble my offers waiting around to see if I get accepted in round two.
I sat the exam last year but I had to deal with something personal that happened around that time so I was unable to do my best and focus inorder to pass but that meant I also lost my offers waiting. I didn't even hear from the college. I got no notification on whether or not I passed or even a mark. I had to email them a few times to find out what happened.

Ficheall wrote: »

Could you elaborate?

When I went enquiring further information about some of the courses on offer in NUIG, I emailed the engineering department and Law department just to ask if they could answer some of my questions.
Both were quite unhelpful. In particular, the law department only gave me a link to their web page on the NUIG website and a link to the first year time table. Just completely ignoring the contents of my email.

The engineering department basically gave me a summary of what biomedical engineering is, a link to their web page and a link to the first year time table, while my follow up email was ignored.

I will commend the the response I got from someone in regards to biotechnology though. He was very helpful in answering my questions and went very much in depth which I really appreciated. That's what I needed because the biotechnology web page is desperately lacking information compared to biomedical engineering or law. But that didn't excuse the latter two of just sending me links to their respected pages.

In all honestly, I was annoyed and frustrated, and if Galway wasn't the only financially feasible option I had, I would seriously consider seeking those courses in other colleges.

RolandIRL

It can depend on who you email in the departments. Some are more willing to go into detail that others. I just sent out a bulk email to all the lecturers in the various departments when I was filling out the CAO and got a few helpful responses back.

For Biomedical Engineering, be prepared to put in the work. It's a very time-consuming course and it's not for everyone. My brother did it years ago and being honest, he really couldn't stand it. Yet he persevered and is now in a well paid job that he likes much better than the course. I can't remember much of what he said about the content, but I think there was a fair bit of maths in it.

BTW, if you have any trouble with maths, SUMS is a handy drop-in centre for any problems you have. I think it caters to anyone doing maths, but I'm not sure.

kevohmsford

If you like Maths and are prepared to work at it go for the Biomedical Engineering. I studied Biotechnology in NUIG for two years before completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Some of my friends have completed Masters in Biomedical Engineering in UL and have gotten great jobs in the medical devices sector.
Do not let the Maths put you off. It is a large part of any engineering degree but if you are into Engineering you will be fine.

1ZRed

kevohmsford wrote: »

If you like Maths and are prepared to work at it go for the Biomedical Engineering. I studied Biotechnology in NUIG for two years before completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Some of my friends have completed Masters in Biomedical Engineering in UL and have gotten great jobs in the medical devices sector.
Do not let the Maths put you off. It is a large part of any engineering degree but if you are into Engineering you will be fine.

I'm prepared to work at the course because I think it's really really suited to my interests and out of everything in Galway, gives me most out of it.
I have a few problems though. Although I am good at Maths, I wouldn't go so far as to say I like it hugely (more tolerate it but like it when I get it it! )
So if I'm all for everything else offered in the course bar the Maths, I'm not sure if I should go for it. I know right now that it would take a lot for me to get passed that hurdle but I think I'm well able for the rest, as biology and engineering were my biggest interests at school and we're the subjects I did best in.

If you did two years in biotech and transferred, could I get that option too? I think if I had all my options open and saw that I could go right into Biomed in the future and not be trapped, I would be happier accepting biotech.

Can I ask you one last thing though, Would biotech have any sort of leaning on the medical side of things? I don't want to go into this and for it to just be a science degree that isn't very hands on with medicine as biomed would be. The whole medical aspect is my biggest interest and that's what's keeping a hold of me.

I appreciate the feed back and advice hugely!:)

kevohmsford

1ZRed wrote: »

If you did two years in biotech and transferred, could I get that option too? I think if I had all my options open and saw that I could go right into Biomed in the future and not be trapped, I would be happier accepting biotech.

Can I ask you one last thing though, Would biotech have any sort of leaning on the medical side of things? I don't want to go into this and for it to just be a science degree that isn't very hands on with medicine as biomed would be. The whole medical aspect is my biggest interest and that's what's keeping a hold of me.

I appreciate the feed back and advice hugely!:)

Well I know some people that finished Biotech went into graduate medicine. My brother finished Biotech and went down the Pharmacy route after finishing. I would say Biomedical Science would be more relevant to Medicine but Biotech is a good degree aswell. There is not that much maths in Biotech, only first year I think.

I studied Mechanical Engineering in a different University so I am not sure about transferring internally. The main thing that put me off the Biotech course was the foreign language for the three years.

1ZRed

kevohmsford wrote: »

Well I know some people that finished Biotech went into graduate medicine. My brother finished Biotech and went down the Pharmacy route after finishing. I would say Biomedical Science would be more relevant to Medicine but Biotech is a good degree aswell. There is not that much maths in Biotech, only first year I think.

I studied Mechanical Engineering in a different University so I am not sure about transferring internally. The main thing that put me off the Biotech course was the foreign language for the three years.

I like the sounds of that. I know someone who is doing biomedical science at NUIG and she wants to get medicine out of it by doing it that way. I never thought it was very viable to do it through biotech but it's great news that I could have that option.
It's funny you should mention the foreign language because that was actually a nice perk of the course I thought. I know it's mandatory in biomed too but only for the final year IIRC.

I got an email from the college wanting to talk to me about the situation so that's great. I'm still considering Biomed but most likely I won't sit the entrance exam until I sort out the situation with them.

Thanks for the reply, it helped a lot.

Ficheall

1ZRed wrote: »

When I went enquiring further information about some of the courses on offer in NUIG, I emailed the engineering department and Law department just to ask if they could answer some of my questions.
Both were quite unhelpful. In particular, the law department only gave me a link to their web page on the NUIG website and a link to the first year time table. Just completely ignoring the contents of my email.

The engineering department basically gave me a summary of what biomedical engineering is, a link to their web page and a link to the first year time table, while my follow up email was ignored.

I will commend the the response I got from someone in regards to biotechnology though. He was very helpful in answering my questions and went very much in depth which I really appreciated. That's what I needed because the biotechnology web page is desperately lacking information compared to biomedical engineering or law. But that didn't excuse the latter two of just sending me links to their respected pages.

So the engineering and law departments had good websites and directed you to them, whereas the biotech folk have a crap webpage and answered your email in depth?
That doesn't sound that unfair, to be honest, though I don't know what type of questions you were asking - one must assume they were not answered on the websites, oui?
There's also the likelihood that there might be far fewer queries sent to biotech, given its size, compared to Engineering and Law.

ZRelation

What sort of questions did you have that weren't covered on the engineering site as a matter of interest?

Squeeonline

As a graduate of Biotech from NUIG if I were to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I'd do bio-eng. It'll be far more difficult and will take you in a different career direction.

Biotech prepares you well for doing a PhD or other postgrad, but doesnt prepare you for industry at all. A lot of the bioscience positions in industry in Ireland are really engineering positions.

I might be mistaken as I can only look at this from one way.

Dwellingdweller

kevohmsford wrote: »

If you like Maths and are prepared to work at it go for the Biomedical Engineering. I studied Biotechnology in NUIG for two years before completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Some of my friends have completed Masters in Biomedical Engineering in UL and have gotten great jobs in the medical devices sector.
Do not let the Maths put you off. It is a large part of any engineering degree but if you are into Engineering you will be fine.

How did you go about changing from Biotech to Mech Eng, out of curiousity? Was it a transfer or something more... Elaborate? :P

yer man!

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

How did you go about changing from Biotech to Mech Eng, out of curiousity? Was it a transfer or something more... Elaborate? :P

I'm pretty sure that it's impossible to change schools (science to engineering) without going directly into 1st year again, unless maybe you have been studying quite a lot of maths in your science degree and with biotech you wouldn't be. I'm going into final year of my science degree in NUIG and to be honest you really need to do a PHD to get anywhere, I'm on placement now and they don't hire scientists who do not have one. Engineering is great in the sense that you do your 4 years and then try gain experience through work, that's far more valuable than postgrad. If you're resnably comfortable with maths and have a lot of interest in engineering, do that course.

Dwellingdweller

yer man! wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that it's impossible to change schools (science to engineering) without going directly into 1st year again, unless maybe you have been studying quite a lot of maths in your science degree and with biotech you wouldn't be. I'm going into final year of my science degree in NUIG and to be honest you really need to do a PHD to get anywhere, I'm on placement now and they don't hire scientists who do not have one. Engineering is great in the sense that you do your 4 years and then try gain experience through work, that's far more valuable than postgrad. If you're resnably comfortable with maths and have a lot of interest in engineering, do that course.

Too late for that now, sadly! If I could go back and fill out the CAO again, Engineering would be No. 1. I'm thinking of going down the Applied Maths and Physics route in undenominated Science (most prestigious schools require a grounding in maths and physics which is basically engineering maths, which I won't really get through any other stream in science), and seeing where that takes me. Maybe I'll try and get a transfer into Engineering or graduate with that degree and move on to a PhD/job. What you think? What's the AP maths/physics program like in undem?

yer man!

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

Too late for that now, sadly! If I could go back and fill out the CAO again, Engineering would be No. 1. I'm thinking of going down the Applied Maths and Physics route in undenominated Science (most prestigious schools require a grounding in maths and physics which is basically engineering maths, which I won't really get through any other stream in science), and seeing where that takes me. Maybe I'll try and get a transfer into Engineering or graduate with that degree and move on to a PhD/job. What you think? What's the AP maths/physics program like in undem?

Hmmm there is always the option to go into first year engineering after first year science, if you don't take to science that well. I did physics in first year and it's challenging but not that bad, I didn't really work that hard at it. From what I hear in 2nd/3rd year it gets really tough. It would be very good to have a degree in it however, I know a lot of physicists worked with the biomed engineers in a company I worked for before. They work side by side in a lot of cases. I know nothing about the applied maths but from what I saw at open day a few years ago it looked very interesting. For what it's worth after my science degree I'm seriously considering switching to engineering, I've an engineers mind.

kevohmsford

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

How did you go about changing from Biotech to Mech Eng, out of curiousity? Was it a transfer or something more... Elaborate? :P

I reapplied through the CAO. No other option really.

1ZRed

I got in contact with the engineering department today and they were very helpful and filled me in on the situation and gave me a lot of insight.

He plain out said that engineering is a professional degree whereas science is not. He said that engineering also sets you up for a career and the course and degree is regulated by Engineers Ireland so you'll be alright after you finish your 4 years or more. Science, realistically, only sets you up to do more afterwards and on it's own, it's really not great.
This is exactly why I didn't want a science degree. They're useless on their own but I've been offered Biotech because it has a lot of my interest and lacks the intense maths. No clue what to do! Try Biomed and struggle with maths or do Biotech, enjoy it, but it not give me what I want in the long run?

So I've really fucked myself over wasting time not knowing what to do, and now with the test tomorrow and with not nearly enough work put in, I'm 100% confident I'll fail it.
I've no clue what to do

Ficheall

Why don't you just sit the exam, and then if you fail it you can do Biotech. If you pass, you can worry about what to do.

yer man!

You're lucky you know this now at least, I didn't and i'm 3 years in.... don't get me wrong the science course are very interesting but do require a post grad. As Ficheall said above sit the exam and see what happens. Have you ever considered an IT course? prob too late now but just wondering.

1ZRed

Ficheall wrote: »

So the engineering and law departments had good websites and directed you to them, whereas the biotech folk have a crap webpage and answered your email in depth?
That doesn't sound that unfair, to be honest, though I don't know what type of questions you were asking - one must assume they were not answered on the websites, oui?
There's also the likelihood that there might be far fewer queries sent to biotech, given its size, compared to Engineering and Law.

Both the engineering and law websites were pretty vague and gave the outlines of the course and it was pretty generic stuff. I emailed asking and how much would a biology interest or engineering interest play into the course and asked some other questions like it's suitability for me, a guy that did very well in Biology and Engineering but is not keen on maths. I asked other stuff that were more personal to my situation and I got a bog standard reply off them.

I found Law to be the worst all together. Because I was really just seeking some advice about how wise it would be to enter the course these days with little work in that area (fair question I thought) and basically wondering what I could do with an NUI Law degree here or abroad because I had no clue about how it worked. Just a link to the first year time table there.

Well size or not, I emailed them months ago and there should have been an email queue, that's not really an excuse on their part because I could have chosen a different college if I felt I was getting nowhere with them and not getting enough information. It was frustrating though when I was trying to pick a course that best fit me if you understand.

1ZRed

Ficheall wrote: »

Why don't you just sit the exam, and then if you fail it you can do Biotech. If you pass, you can worry about what to do.

Normally I would definitely do that and follow through but I know for a fact that I will fail based on the work I've done and from the understanding of it. I'm really pissed off at myself for not keeping it in my mind to work for it but I was very stressed and I ended up ****ing everything up. That's not like me.

I have Biotech and I know I'll like it but it's a science degree and I'm not sure I'll like the job opportunities or anything compared to engineering. then I'm stuck having to decline the offer if I go for Biomed again through the CAO, and then if I can't do it or the maths are too much, Biotech will most likely rise out of my points range.
It's a damn head wrecking situation.

Ficheall

You emailed the Law department asking them if they thought studying Law was a good idea because there weren't many jobs in the area? What did you expect them to say? "No, you're right - there aren't many jobs. You should probably do something else..."?

There's only so much career guidance the college can give - you are supposed to be a young adult now.

Fair enough, if you have specific questions, but the person best placed to judge whether you are suitable for any given college course is you.
And, at the end of the day, you are the only person it's likely to have any real bearing on, which course you choose.

Ficheall

1ZRed wrote: »

Normally I would definitely do that and follow through but I know for a fact that I will fail based on the work I've done and from the understanding of it. I'm really pissed off at myself for not keeping it in my mind to work for it but I was very stressed and I ended up ****ing everything up. That's not like me.

I have Biotech and I know I'll like it but it's a science degree and I'm not sure I'll like the job opportunities or anything compared to engineering. then I'm stuck having to decline the offer if I go for Biomed again through the CAO, and then if I can't do it or the maths are too much, Biotech will most likely rise out of my points range.
It's a damn head wrecking situation.

So we can take the exam tomorrow out of the equation. Good. But go in and sit it and fail it and remove the "what if" that will inevitably crop up later otherwise.

You still have to choose, of course, but you needn't be worrying about the exam tomorrow.

I would advise against choosing a course based on the likelihood of getting a job out of it, but that's just me - having done the whole "doing a course I didn't enjoy because I thought I'd get a job out of it" thing...

Dwellingdweller

If I finish 1st year general science then reapply through the CAO next year for engineering (which I'm in a comfortable position to get), what will happen with regard to the grant? My family is on welfare so I can't really afford to lose my financial assistance.

Sorry for OT

RolandIRL

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

If I finish 1st year general science then reapply through the CAO next year for engineering (which I'm in a comfortable position to get), what will happen with regard to the grant? My family is on welfare so I can't really afford to lose my financial assistance.

Sorry for OT

You won't get the grant until 2nd year, and you'll have to pay fees for your 1st year in engineering.

1ZRed

Ficheall wrote: »

You emailed the Law department asking them if they thought studying Law was a good idea because there weren't many jobs in the area? What did you expect them to say? "No, you're right - there aren't many jobs. You should probably do something else..."?

There's only so much career guidance the college can give - you are supposed to be a young adult now.

Fair enough, if you have specific questions, but the person best placed to judge whether you are suitable for any given college course is you.
And, at the end of the day, you are the only person it's likely to have any real bearing on, which course you choose.

I asked them about the future of law and which branch would be more suitable for the inevitable pick up. That's what I meant. I get they couldn't tell me that but usually they emphasise the value of the degree and what you can do to stand out when things pick up.

Ficheall wrote: »

So we can take the exam tomorrow out of the equation. Good. But go in and sit it and fail it and remove the "what if" that will inevitably crop up later otherwise.

You still have to choose, of course, but you needn't be worrying about the exam tomorrow.

I would advise against choosing a course based on the likelihood of getting a job out of it, but that's just me - having done the whole "doing a course I didn't enjoy because I thought I'd get a job out of it" thing...

There's no "what ifs" about it, from what I'm doing at home and how I'm working through the paper, there's no hope of passing and that's fine. What I'm thinking about is what to do in order to to secure my place if that's the route I choose. I'm not going to be putting myself under more stress thinking about sitting an exam tomorrow when I know myself I won't pass guaranteed. That's the the one fucking thing I'm actually sure of! :pac:

Yeah I need to realise that and go for my interests but I've found them in two courses so it's inevitable I'm going to really compare them and see which one could give me a better future with more flexibility and job opportunities. I think I've found two things that suit me instead of the one which normally happens with people :rolleyes:

Galwayguy20

I have to agree with Ficheall and suggest not doing a course because you think there may be better job possibilities after it. I know two people who did biomed eng. One of them loved it and got an immediate job after finishing her degree with the people she did her placement with, the other hated but stuck it out anyway. He's now doing an "internship" for something like a tenner a day (has been for about a year now, hates that too).

Any course/degree will be what you make of it, and with these courses there's always the possibility to go on and do something else. My sister got her degree in biochem and now she's studying pharmacy in Aberdeen.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought that biomed eng was very engineering based with a bit of biology, whereas biotech would be a lot more biology based. Good luck anyway with whatever you decide to do!

RolandIRL

Pick what you really want to do and what interests you. College is much easier if you pick something you enjoy doing as opposed to doing it solely because there's jobs in it (which mightn't be the case when you graduate). You'll eventually find a job as long as you're not taking the piss with what course you pick a la this meme :pac:

1ZRed

RolandIRL wrote: »

Pick what you really want to do and what interests you. College is much easier if you pick something you enjoy doing as opposed to doing it solely because there's jobs in it (which mightn't be the case when you graduate). You'll eventually find a job as long as you're not taking the piss with what course you pick a la this meme :pac:

Yeah I get that and I have interests in both but I'm going to take the plunge and do biotech. Not 100% on it but if I have Maths worries at this stage I'm better off doing something that won't drain the life out of me!

Going to email a deferral anyway so I'm hoping to secure that at least. (that's why I kept biomed on the cards as an option because I'm not going to college this year, if was, I would have gone with biotech no bother because I didn't get BE)
But it's time to pick something with time running out and I'll like it I'm sure