Transition from B.S. CS to MSc. Biomedical Engineering in Europe?

Education

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)

  1. DTU / University of Copenhagen (Biomedical Engineering)
  2. University of Aalto (Life Science Technologies)
  3. KTH (Medical Engineering or Medical Biotechnology)
  4. EPFL (Life Sciences Engineering)
  5. Tampere (Biomedical Engineering, Medical Physics/Bioinstrumentation)
  6. VUB (Biomedical Engineering)

Questions:

  1. 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?
  2. 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?
  3. Any thoughts on my current school list? Anything I should add or remove?
  4. 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.
  5. Any advice from people who transitioned into BME from non-traditional backgrounds?

Posted Jun 3, 2026, 11:43 AM UTC

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