Which college for Biomedical Engineering?

Ciano1012

I am currently studying for my Leaving Cert and I have decided I wanted to do Biomedical Engineering. The points are not the problem I am just debating on which college to go to. Basically it is between DCU, Trinity and DIT. I am more inclined to DCU and trinity would probably be second on the list. My question is which college should I chose for that specific course and why? Any advice and the course or engineering in general would be greatly appreciated

Darren1o1

Ciano1012 wrote: »

I am currently studying for my Leaving Cert and I have decided I wanted to do Biomedical Engineering. The points are not the problem I am just debating on which college to go to. Basically it is between DCU, Trinity and DIT. I am more inclined to DCU and trinity would probably be second on the list. My question is which college should I chose for that specific course and why? Any advice and the course or engineering in general would be greatly appreciated

Most people will be biased based on their course. I went to DCU doing the Medical Mechanical Engineering course (Now Biomedical). I liked the fact that you specialized earlier (than Trinity) and went into more depth (at least when I did it). DIT I know very little about. I believe trinity only does a masters in bioengineering, but you can take some courses while doing the Mechanical stream. This may have changed. One big pro for DCU is the Intra internship placement. I can say with no uncertain terms that this helped me get jobs after. DCU gets the internships setup for all students incl Boston Sci, Stryker, Depuy etc I am now working in development of med devices in the US.
One question, what do you want out of the course. This will go a long way in determining which you choose.

bradyle

Just to point out when I did my Degree in Trinity (graduated 2011) you don't go near bio till final year and then mostly in mechanical. If you're really interested in bio and your definite that's the area you want to go for it might be better to pick a different university.
That being said if you're not definitely sold on Bio Trinity could be a good option but in reality all the other colleges offer Mechanical with their bio degrees so Trinity would only be the best option if you were completely undecided about what type of engineering was for you e.g. civil/mechanical/electronic/computers.

I assume by your choice of Trin, DCU and DIT you want to stick to Dublin? If you don't mind going somewhere else I've heard great things about NUIG's biomed. But really I don't know much about any other than Trinity and I'd advise against there if you are sure about Bio.

And Darren1o1 you said we'd be biased towards ourselves :P

Darren1o1

bradyle wrote: »

And Darren1o1 you said we'd be biased towards ourselves :P

Maybe I was just talking about me :P

Ciano1012

What I would want out of the course is to do as much about biology and anatomy as possible as they are my interests but also maths and general engineering. I will probably pick DCU. I know it is far down the line but is it possible to maybe do a masters in trinners? I've been in that new biomedical building and it seems state of the art. Tbh I'd love to do medicine but I'm not going to get the points and I don't really want to drop maths cause it's the only thing I'm good at really. I'd love to go to NUIG/UL as well but there really isn't a point we can't afford the accommodation and DCU and Trinity are just down the road

Ciano1012

I hope you don't mind me asking but what year did you graduate and where'd you end up employment-wise? Thanks

mar-z

bradyle wrote: »

Just to point out when I did my Degree in Trinity (graduated 2011) you don't go near bio till final year and then mostly in mechanical. If you're really interested in bio and your definite that's the area you want to go for it might be better to pick a different university.
That being said if you're not definitely sold on Bio Trinity could be a good option but in reality all the other colleges offer Mechanical with their bio degrees so Trinity would only be the best option if you were completely undecided about what type of engineering was for you e.g. civil/mechanical/electronic/computers.

I assume by your choice of Trin, DCU and DIT you want to stick to Dublin? If you don't mind going somewhere else I've heard great things about NUIG's biomed. But really I don't know much about any other than Trinity and I'd advise against there if you are sure about Bio.

And Darren1o1 you said we'd be biased towards ourselves :P

I am a researcher in the trinity centre for bioengineering (but have nothing to do with the teaching side of things) but this info is actually now out of date despite you only graduating a couple of years ago.

There is a dedicated biomedical engineering programme that has been introduced to trinity. This years third years are the first year to enter it. It should also be noted that trinity has moved to being a 5 year MAI course (not sure is other colleges are making the same changes) so you will get 3 full years of biomedical engineering.

Of course the worry is that this stream is in it's infancy in trinity and might have kinks to work out. But there is a strong biomedical research background there and from talking to this years 3rd year students the response has been largely positive so far.

I have heard very good things about the courses in Limerick and Galway as well but not much (good or bad) about the courses in DCU or DIT.

mar-z

Ciano1012 wrote: »

What I would want out of the course is to do as much about biology and anatomy as possible as they are my interests but also maths and general engineering. I will probably pick DCU. I know it is far down the line but is it possible to maybe do a masters in trinners? I've been in that new biomedical building and it seems state of the art. Tbh I'd love to do medicine but I'm not going to get the points and I don't really want to drop maths cause it's the only thing I'm good at really. I'd love to go to NUIG/UL as well but there really isn't a point we can't afford the accommodation and DCU and Trinity are just down the road

There is the all-ireland MSc in Bioengineering. You don't have to have done a biomedical engineering course to do it but it would help. Details are linked below. You would be largely based in trinity but would have to do stints in other universities during the year as well.

http://www.tcd.ie/bioengineering/education/postgraduate/msc/overview.php

As I just said in my last post Trinity is now moving to a 5yr MSc course with a dedicated biomedical stream from year 3 on.

Ciano1012

mar-z wrote: »

There is the all-ireland MSc in Bioengineering. You don't have to have done a biomedical engineering course to do it but it would help. Details are linked below. You would be largely based in trinity but would have to do stints in other universities during the year as well.

http://www.tcd.ie/bioengineering/education/postgraduate/msc/overview.php

As I just said in my last post Trinity is now moving to a 5yr MSc course with a dedicated biomedical stream from year 3 on.

So could I do my bachelor in DCU and then continue to trinity for the masters? How exactly does the application process for masters work?

bren2001

Ciano1012 wrote: »

So could I do my bachelor in DCU and then continue to trinity for the masters? How exactly does the application process for masters work?

You can theoretically do your masters anywhere. Each University have different ways of applying for Masters, DCU use PAC, Trinity don't use anyone (I think).

However, most courses are changing to 5 years. In DCU it is an option to do the fifth year. It costs the same as any other year, 2500ish. This is a year on year agreement with Research Ireland (I think), Trinity would be a lot more expensive, for the Masters (I could be wrong).

Trinity don't have a strong name in the Engineering field, so I wouldn't let that sway any decision. I do Mechatronics in DCU, so obviously think DCU is good. The link shows what modules are on in Biomedical, if you have any question about the DCU course, I should be able to answer it.

http://www.dcu.ie/registry/module_contents.php?function=4&programme=BMED

bradyle

mar-z wrote: »

There is a dedicated biomedical engineering programme that has been introduced to trinity. This years third years are the first year to enter it..

That's really good! To be honest I mainly picked Mech Eng because i thought I'd love BioEng but when they try and teach another very broad stream of engineering in just 2 subjects in final year you end up just getting to know very little about a lot rather than going in to any depth and this just pissed me off...So I am now a process engineer which I actually really like but I do wonder if I would have been better at bio if I would have had a chance to learn more!