<p>How does bioengineering compare with other engineering programs at Berkeley? It's a relatively new program I believe and it only started in 1998 I think? Is this something to avoid?</p>
<p>I'm a high school student, so I don't know much, but I checked out BioE during Open House and talked to some of the admissions people, teachers and students. It seems like it is a pretty new program, but already has a pretty high rank in US News and seems to be doing some very interesting research. The students and staff I talked to seemed very intelligent and the new building for BioE is amazing. Also, there is a lot of competition to get into BioE (right up there with EECS) so it demands some of the best students.</p>
<p>So pretty much, I wouldn't try and avoid it for its "newness".</p>
<p>BioE at Cal, like just about all BioE programs, still has that new major smell. It's technically not ABET certified yet, but it certainly will once the program's been around long enough to be certified. BioE is such a new field, ranking and most programs in general really haven't had enough time to define themselves - BioE10, the freshman intro to BioE course, doesn't use a textbook because there isn't one available yet for the material they cover.</p>
<p>One of my E98 guys is BioE and premed, which isn't too surprising considering you only need to take 2 additional classes IIRC. About 1/3 BioE undergrads go to med school, 1/3 to other grad school, and 1/3 to industry after getting their degrees here. Stanley Hall is amazing, and on obvious sign about how much we're investing in BioE. FWIW, I'm ME, but BioE here is fine, just hard even for engineering.</p>