BioEng/BioMed Eng Programs, not a lot ABET accredited...

<p>My S is interested in pursuing BioEng/BioMed Eng. As we were researching we were very surprise that only a few programs are actually ABET credited. In fact only 2 out of the 5 of the programs that he is looking at are listed as ABET credited ( Vanderbilt/UT Knoxville). We did not see Clemson, UF, and South Carolina as accredited programs, his other options.</p>

<p>List of ABET accredited programs:
The University of Akron ,OH,<br>
University of Alabama at Birmingham ,AL
Arizona State University ,AZ,<br>
University of Arkansas ,AR,
Boston University ,MA,
Brown University ,RI,
Bucknell University ,PA,
University of California, Irvine ,CA,
University of California, San Diego ,CA,
Case Western Reserve University ,OH,
The Catholic University of America ,DC,
University of Central Oklahoma ,OK,
University of Cincinnati ,OH,
Columbia University ,NY,<br>
University of Connecticut ,CT,
Drexel University ,PA,
Duke University ,NC,
Florida International University (Modesto Maidique Campus) ,FL,
The George Washington University ,DC,
Georgia Institute of Technology ,GA,
University of Hartford ,CT,<br>
University of Illinois at Chicago ,IL,
Illinois Institute of Technology ,IL,
University of Iowa ,IA,
The Johns Hopkins University ,MD,
Lehigh University ,PA,<br>
Louisiana Tech University ,LA,
Marquette University ,WI,
University of Maryland College Park ,MD,
University of Miami ,FL
Michigan Technological University ,MI,
University of Michigan ,MI,
Milwaukee School of Engineering ,WI,<br>
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities ,MN,
New Jersey Institute of Technology ,NJ,
State University of New York at Binghamton ,NY,
North Carolina State University at Raleigh ,NC,
Northwestern University ,IL,
Oregon State University ,OR,
Pennsylvania State University ,PA,
University of Pennsylvania ,PA,
University of Pittsburgh ,PA,
Purdue University at West Lafayette ,IN,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ,NY,
University of Rochester ,NY,
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology ,IN,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey ,NJ,
Saint Louis University ,MO,
Stony Brook University ,NY,
Syracuse University ,NY,
University of Tennessee at Knoxville ,TN,<br>
Texas A & M University ,TX,
University of Texas at Austin ,TX,<br>
The University of Toledo ,OH,
Tulane University ,LA,
Vanderbilt University ,TN,
Virginia Commonwealth University ,VA,
University of Virginia ,VA,<br>
Washington State University
Washington University ,MO,
University of Washington ,WA,
Western New England College ,MA,
University of Wisconsin-Madison ,WI,<br>
Worcester Polytechnic Institute ,MA,
Wright State University ,OH, </p>

<p>I remember that back in the day, people would only recommend to go to ABET accredited programs because a lot of companies won't recruit if the programs are not ABET certified. Is that still holds true? I know that the company that I work for won't recruit in no ABET accredited engineering programs. I don't know is that the case ffor BioEng/BioMEd Eng.</p>

<p>My guess is that if your palnning to go the graduate route you might not care, but if you want to get your BS and move to the workforce them ABET accredited is good thing. The only thing is that I see that there are many well respected schools and programs that are not accredited </p>

<p>Any comments? Should we care that much?</p>

<p>It always seemed to me that with Biomedical, you always had to plan to go to graduate school. I think for that reason some of the top schools may not care about being ABET accredited… there was some discussion about this earlier, I believe someone mentioned that the top schools also are pretty well accredited in other engineering disciplines and their reputation holds well across the board, so this may be another reason as well.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t get a degree in a non-ABET accredited field. </p>

<p>If you can’t find a school that you want to go to with an ABET accredited degree, I’d do mechanical engineering and take biomedical classes as emphasis. You can probably do biomedical engineering with a ME degree.</p>

<p>ABET accreditation is important for employment and for licensure as an engineer.</p>

<p>bigtrees/hadsed, you too make very good points… thanks
I’m wrestling on how to advice my son on what to pursue. Even we he says that he want to go to graduate school, a lot can happen in 4 yrs. I’m afraid that if he goes to a non ABET program, then he will be stuck with an non accredited degree.</p>

<p>Right now I’m leading him to go Mech Eng or EE, and minor in Biomedical (if offered), but the thing is BME is in his heart.</p>

<p>Anybody knows how strong is the BME program at UTenn?</p>

<p>It still amazed me how few BME programs are actually ABET approved. i.e Clemson has been doing Bioeng for decades…</p>

<p>If your son thinks he will go to graduate school, then the best thing for undergrad I think would be mechanical engineering. That way, if he changes his mind, he can easily opt to not go to grad school, or to study something slightly different in grad school. Mech. is easily applicable to most engineering disciplines, so I think that would be your best choice. So in this case, bigtrees’ advice would be the best way to go, since most mech. eng. programs should be ABET accredited–if they aren’t, then you might want to look at another program.</p>

<p>I would say that if being licensed as an engineer is important to him, then most definitely goto an ABET engineering program.</p>

<p>Now…in the tradition of most of my postings on this board…</p>

<p>The whole “I need a ABET program”, “I need to goto Cornell/Ga Tech/MIT”, “I need a 3.9999 GPA” or else my engineering desires are over needs to be addressed. If he does not get an ABET program, IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Plenty of engineering graduate programs not only accept students from non-ABET engineering programs, they even accept non-engineering students who majored in either mathematical or physical sciences (like myself).</p>

<p>Admission to a good graduate engineering program may even involved factors like the relationship between the school and the students current employer. You would be amazed at where a pretty drawn up employer purchase-order and provisional admission agreements would get some students without 3.9999 GPA’s and non-ABET degrees.</p>

<p>Globaltraveler, while I do respect your opinion because of your experience in the field and undergrad and grad school, I do believe it isn’t the best advice to give people so they feel that they don’t have to strive for the best programs with the best grades. I think for someone’s who’s just getting into the program, better advice would be to tell them to do the best they can at the best place they can, because in the end, that gives them a much better chance of success. It’s a bit like the software engineering field; you may not even have to go to college to succeed, and I’ve made money off that sort of thing without even a high school diploma, but I would never advocate for people to not go to college or graduate school because it’s unnecessary. It’s certainly possible, however I think it should be the number one priority to get into the best college (or transfer if they’re eligible) and get the best grades they can. It just seems like you’re kind of discrediting hard work and proven tracks to success a bit.</p>

<p>That’s what it seems like to me, atleast. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it seems to give off the wrong idea.</p>

<p>Mechanical Engineering is a degree that leads directly to biomedical engineering. There’s nothing wrong with your son wanting to be a biomedical engineer and doing a college program in mechanical engineering to get there.</p>

<p>However…since you’re wondering how best to approach it, I’d suggest to your son that he talk with the university about ABET accrediation. Ask the dean or other knowledgable representative about whether or not that’s beneficial for biomedical engineering. I’d also suggest he should talk with the mechanical engineering department about getting a ME degree and going into biomedical engineering for a career.</p>

<p>Since it’s your son, he has to listen to the arguments, read the information, and decide which is best for him. Having his parent tell them one way or another is sure fire recipe for him to dislike his major, his college, or both.</p>

<p>Hadsed,</p>

<p>I do not tell people not to strive for the best, but there seems to be way too many posts that gives this feeling of “if you do not do exactly this…then you will not make it”. I think we get blinded way too much about the academic process when there are so many other things going on behind the scenes once you actually work in the industry.</p>

<p>I have also had several posts that tell folks to go the popular route if it is available to them but I have to also tell them not to give up if there are bumps along the road.</p>

<p>I think Globaltraveler is spot on when he says going to the best school is unnecessary. The best school to go to is the one that you will be happy at and enjoy. The school you enjoy is the one you’ll be most likely graduate from, and considering only about 1 in 3 students actually graduate, that is really important.</p>

<p>I think a good GPA is important if you can achieve a good GPA. Any GPA is better than no GPA, though, and I don’t think students should get discouraged if they have a poor GPA. There will be employers that are willing to hire them, but they may have to work harder. </p>

<p>After a few years, nobody cares about GPA or what school you went to. Except Mom & Dad. They remember forever.</p>

<p>Everyone I’ve asked recommended ME or EE for undergrad then either work in industry as BME or go to grad school BME.</p>

<p>Hadsed thanks a lot for the comments. Like you mentioned this is my son decision. I plan to respect that fully. I just want to help him with enough info so he can make his decision possible based on the best info available. This is my oldest S so I we are getting up to speed with all this going to college experience etc.</p>

<p>He is very willing to go the ME/EE even ChemE route and them jump into BME. As a matter of fact, we are seeing that there are vast more scholarships for those fields than for BME. So he is keepign that into consideration. We are also seeing how much BME curriculums vary from school to school. The other classic engineering fields have much more standarized curriculums, seems like many BME schools are still trying to figure out the right way to do it.</p>