Undergraduate Careers

After-Graduation Planning

After-graduation planning begins early in the 2nd year. That’s when you start setting in motion the events and opportunities that will make it possible to achieve your goals after graduation.

BME graduates are highly sought after by employers primarily for their ability to seamlessly bridge engineering, biology, and medicine. They are also valued for their strong communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills. The B.S. in BME curriculum well prepares students in all of these attributes. 

For students who wish to go deeper into a particular BME field, check out the BME Academic Pathways page, which helps determine what BME, Engineering, Technical, and Unrestricted electives can be used to build that depth. 

BME Realz Alumni Videos: You can also hear straight from our alumni what kinds of work they are doing.

You can explore more areas and career pathways here: https://navigate.aimbe.org/find-your-dream-job/career-pathways-in-bioengineering/ and https://navigate.aimbe.org

The Center for Engineering Career Development

This team provides advising and programming to prepare students for success both at UVA and in life beyond the Lawn. From exploring careers to accepting a job or graduate school offer, they are there to support you as you envision and create a life you love

The Three Common Paths

A decade of BME Exit Data (LINK) shows that Industry Jobs, Graduate School and Professional School are our students' most frequent first destinations. That said, students follow many paths, including entrepreneurship, service, finance, data science, etc.

Industry Jobs 

• Below is a possible path if you are interested in working in industry after graduation. You can adapt this path as desired based on your specific interests and in consultation with your advisors and the Center for Engineering Career Development.
  • 2nd Year: Establish a relationship with the Center for Engineering Career Development. Explore getting involved with Undergraduate Research and other experiential learning opportunities.
  • 2nd Year Summer After: Internship, Research (UVA or elsewhere), NSF REU, or a job that uses STEM skills
  • 3rd Year: Research or design for credit
  • 3rd Year Summer After: Internship
  • 4th Year: Send resumes and cover letters. Interview.
  • Considering a masters degree? There's a wide range of specialized masters degree programs available that are designed to prepare you for a private sector career. For example, UVA's BME-ME degree is focused on biomedical product and process design.
     

Graduate School

• Below is a possible path if you interested in pursuing a PhD or Masters degree (or other graduate degrees, such as a Masters of Public Health). You can adapt this path as desired based on your specific interests and in consultation with your advisors.
  • 2nd Year: Undergraduate research. Attend an OpenBME event and identify labs of interest to reach out either directly or through the BME Lab Ambassador program.
  • 2nd Year Summer After: Research (UVA or elsewhere) or NSF or NIH Summer Research Program (REU or similar)
  • 3rd Year: Research or design for credit.
  • 3rd Year Summer After: Research (if you're thinking PhD, you will most likely stay the summer in your UVA lab). Talk to your mentor and other advisors about schools and programs and individual faculty to target for graduate admissions.
  • 4th Year: Take GREs (if needed), apply to graduate school, and interview with graduate programs.
  • Gap Year: If you are planning on a gap year, and you are following this path, then for your gap year, you will be competitive for a post-bac research position at UVA or another institution or for a job as a professional research technician in a lab (UVA or elsewhere). BUT if you are anticipating getting a job in industry during your gap year, then you must combine your strategy with our advice in the "Job (and Undecided)" path.
     

Medical School

• Below is a possible path if you are a pre-health student. You can adapt this path as desired based on your specific interests and in consultation with your BME and Pre-Health advisors.
  • 2nd Year: Get familiar with the BME Pre-Med curriculum map and taking the indicated courses. Visit the UVA Prehealth Advisor. Shadow clinicians and gain other clinical exposures.
  • 2nd Year Summer After: Clinical exposures, NSF REU, Research (UVA or elsewhere), or a public health experience.
  • 3rd Year: Consider BME 3030 as a BME elective. Consider Research for Credit.
  • 3rd Year Summer After: Take MCAT. Finish AMCAS by June.
  • 4th Year: Consider taking Biochemistry (optional). Interview with medical schools.
  • Bridge Year: If like more than half of prehealth students, you are planning on a bridge or gap year, and you are following this path, then you will be competitive for a position that is intended to increase your clinical or public health exposures. The prehealth advising group lists a number of opportunities.

If you have also combined this path with the advice in the "Graduate School" path, then you will also be prepared for a post-bac research or professional researcher position.

But if you are planning an industry job in your bridge year, then review the "Job (or Undecided)" section sooner rather than later. A strict Medical School Path as described above is not what we'd ideally recommend for a position in industry after graduation. It's one reason we suggest that you take your MCATs as soon as feasible (and that you are realistic about your GPA early on), so you can get a handle on you overall chance of medical school admissions straight out of college. There are multiple paths to medical school, and a strategic bridge year is a great way to build your premed resume.

What kinds of companies hire BME Majors?

• Industries surrounding medical imaging, medical devices, bioinstrumentation, software, orthopedics, tissue & cell engineering, diagnostics, drug discovery, pharmaceuticals, genomics, bioinformatics and more
• Universities, hospitals, and academic and medical research institutions, teaching, government, defense, consulting, services, and sales
• FDA/Regulatory Affairs, US Patent Office, financial services, business development, and marketing and consulting firms working with healthcare and investment group
• Entry level job titles include Manufacturing Engineer, Quality Engineer, Clinical or Field Engineer, Project or Product Engineer, Staff Engineer, Researcher (in a hospital, university, military or government laboratory), Software Engineer, Sales Engineer, Management or Marketing Associate