Transition from B.S. CS to MSc. Biomedical Engineering in Europe?
I have a Bachelor's in Computer Science and am planning to apply to Biomedical Engineering (or similar) Master's programs in Nordic and central Europe for fall 2027.
I am NOT looking to apply software skills in a health setting. I want to pivot into the more physical / biology side of biomedical engineering (instrumentation, biomaterials, etc) - I am unsure / open-minded on subfields, I just know I don't want a programming job. I struggled in my programming classes while the math/science classes came naturally to me, and I'm dissatisfied with my current software engineering job.
Background
- 3.48 GPA from the University of Maryland
- 1 year neuromorphic computing internship at a government lab researching living neural network dynamics (cell bio wet lab + optics + microscopy + computational modeling)
- Taken many BME-related courses, including: physics, molecular + cell bio, gen chem, calc 1-3, linear algebra, probability/stats, ML, data science
- 2 years full-time software engineering job (by the time I matriculate)
- Teaching assistant for chemistry and CS, and 1 semester computational science research
I also plan on taking the GRE, as well as Anatomy & Physiology and Electric Circuits courses, before applying.
Top programs I'm considering (in order of preference)
- DTU / University of Copenhagen (Biomedical Engineering)
- University of Aalto (Life Science Technologies)
- KTH (Medical Engineering or Medical Biotechnology)
- EPFL (Life Sciences Engineering)
- Tampere (Biomedical Engineering, Medical Physics/Bioinstrumentation)
- VUB (Biomedical Engineering)
Questions:
- Is this transition realistic for someone with a CS Bachelor's, who has BME-related research and classwork experience, but is not trying to stay in software-related roles?
- Is my current profile aligned with a Msc BME applicant interested in biology / engineering, or am I still missing key foundations? Is there anything I could do to strengthen my application?
- Any thoughts on my current school list? Anything I should add or remove?
- Are there other European BME-adjacent Master's programs that are open to non-traditional applicants like myself but will allow me to explore a range of topics while I'm there.
- Any advice from people who transitioned into BME from non-traditional backgrounds?
Posted Jun 3, 2026, 11:43 AM UTC