Can I take a biotechnology minor with an Electrical Engineering major?

Can I go for biotechnology engineering even when I did not take biology as a subject in my junior college?

• Answer:

  Biotechnology, or biomedical engineering, is the merger between medicine and engineering. You do need a good understanding of biology, to be successful in this field. Specifically, you need a good understanding of stochastic (probability-based, statistical) systems -- since that's how one could characterize all biological life. In an engineering career, stochastics is an important but non-essential subject. Not every engineer needs to understand or use these concepts. But this is a central theme of biology. For this reason alone (to get a good foundation in this), you need to take some biology courses. If you are able, I would recommend you take the biology courses recommended for students who are medicine-majors. It will give you a very good start with understanding and being comfortable with the randomness of biology. Take genetics -- it's fully based on basic probability. If you know what area of bioengineering you will be in, and you choose areas that are mostly engineering (very little of biochemistry), then perhaps you can forego biology courses. But I would not recommend you skip biology, since that would make you a less capable biotechnologist and would also restrict the types of jobs/subspecialties you could work in. Also, since it's such a very vast field, and constantly growing, it will be difficult for you to know today what area you will be in. ALTERNATE ANSWER: Maybe your question instead had to do with the "admissions" process of being admitted into a university program for biomedical engineering/biotechnology. If this is what you were asking, there is no clear answer. The answer depends on your overall ability to demonstrate academic prowess (your grades/marks), the requirements of the university/program you wish to enroll in (many expect biology courses), and the selectiveness of that university/program. For this reason also, having gone through a basic education in biology will only help you. I get the feeling you are apprehensive about taking biology courses. I need to tell you that the biomedical/biotechnology field requires you to have a VERY strong foundation in the hard-sciences and mathematics (especially probability/statistics). If you're fearful of any of these areas, it might not be for you. Think about what interests you about this field, and do assess your strengths and weaknesses. A proper self-assessment will help you in choosing a future career. I would recommend letting your interests decide what field you enter, as long as you have character-traits required for that field. In biomed/biotech, you need creativity and perseverance. You can't be fearful of failure -- in this field, you will often find your experiments or creations don't work as you had planned. So you must overcome any fear of failing or not doing well (e.g., in a biology course). This is something that could be a problem later if you don't tackle it now. What's the worst that can happen? Just as we get back up after falling off of a bicycle (when learning how to ride), we need to do the same in the rest of our lives. If this didn't address something you wanted to understand, please edit your question. Good luck. I wish you well.