Boston University offers degrees in biochemistry, personal care and software engineering, which all rank among the nation’s top 30 fastest growing career fields, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Although the Bureau predicts that the total U.S. population will have increased by 10.1 percent between 2008 and 2018, many jobs will grow at an even faster rate.
Biomedical engineers earned the No. 1 spot on Bureau’s list with a projected 72 percent increase by 2018. Network systems and data communications analysts, home health aides, personal and home care aides and financial analysts also topped the list.
Biochemists ranked No. 9 on the list, with a projected 37.4 increase in 2018, which did not surprise John Celenza, BU program director in biochemistry and molecular biology.
“The BU biochemistry program has had approximately 50 to 70 students annually in the last decade,” Celenza said. “Most likely because biochemistry has been a good career path for a number of years.”
Celenza said biochemistry is particularly relevant now because “chemists have developed novel ways for synthesizing many potential new drugs,” which need to be tested by biochemists.
“Students use this major not only as prep for careers in biochemistry, but also as a stepping stone to all aspects of the biomedical sciences.”
Various careers in the health sciences appeared several times throughout the Globe’s list, including physical therapists, physical therapy assistants and aides, athletic trainers, occupational therapy aides and fitness trainers.
Dana Hindman, a junior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said she thinks that various careers in health therapy are becoming more popular as people become more reluctant to spend money on increasingly expensive doctors.
“I speculate that the reason that the physical therapy profession is growing so fast is because of the baby boomers growing older and needing specialized care both for the prevention of surgical procedures and post surgery to return to their previous lifestyles,” Hindman said.
Instead of heading straight to a medical specialist, Hindman said she thinks that by trying therapy first, patients are attempting to avoid the “high copayments and deductibles that usually accompany a doctor’s visit.”
“Physical therapists, as well as other health care professionals, are becoming more popular among the injured,” she said. “They are not as expensive as seeing specialists for both the patients and the insurance companies.”
Some SAR students were not surprised to hear that there future career paths are thriving.
“Health care has always been a popular field, but I think we’re experiencing an increased interest in staying healthy and being active,” said SAR freshman Stephanie Capon. “So it’s only natural that more people need the help of health related specialists.”
Capon said she is not too concerned about her career after graduating from BU.
“I have the same basic worries that any job seeker might have,” she said. “Especially since many industries are becoming more competitive. However, here at BU we do have a great advantage. Career Services is extremely helpful and have shown promising statistics.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
