<p>Who knows more about BME at Wash U?
How is the program?
How is the workload, the professors, etc.?</p>
<p>I can tell you that I have no clue about it, but I do have this to say. Wash U has something like the second best med school in the country. Now if you don't believe in rankings, which I don't really, even so, it has a great med program from what everyone says. I know of someone who took a premed tract at Wash U, and it sounds like the work is really hard, but then again, its Wash U and most programs will probably be like that. I dont know anything about the professors, so you might want someone who actually is currently going to the school. (I'm going next year, so I dont know about profs)</p>
<p>I just graduated last May from Washu in BME, so hopefully I can answer some questions...</p>
<p>I really liked the program, and I'm appreciating it more acutally since I've graduated (when you're there sometimes you feel like nothing will be useful, but it definitely has been). The program is definitely more bio-based than some others I've seen, but you get a pretty good background in the different aspects of engineering that go into bme... take courses at the 300 level from most other engineering departments. Sometimes it was frustrating because the BME dept itself was still growing, and didn't offer as many of its own classes, but I noticed a huge change in the 4 years I was there, and I'm sure that by the time you're a senior and taking upper level bme classes, there will be a ton to choose from. </p>
<p>The professors... well, they're like most schools I guess. There were some I really loved, and some I couldn't stand. Just make sure you like your advisor and can get actual advice from them. </p>
<p>And the workload - so the rumor is that washu has the 2nd hardest workload in the country, after University of Chicago. I'm sure that's not actually true, but it sure feels like it. (Now that I'm in grad school, work seems easy, ha). It's a lot of work but it's doable, and helpful. Being an engineer I'm of course under the impression that the engineers do more work than the other colleges in the university, but I think everyone works pretty hard (... and I'll leave off my b-school comments...). </p>
<p>The med school is a big help, theres tons of top research and top doctors/professors, and a lot of the bme students end up working at the med school at some point in their 4 years - its a great resource.</p>
<p>hope that helped!</p>
<p>Hi, What are you doing now? What was your cum? Are you doing BME in grad school? Can I ask where?</p>
<p>Hey,
I'm currently a grad student at Boston University, working on my masters in BME. Cum... gpa? I graduated WashU with about a 3.5 (hehe, yeah... grades went down every semester... I started to slack off... oops!) I also applied to Columbia, Northwestern, WashU (the full 2 yr masters program), and Case Western Reserve Univ (got into all but CWRU-waitlisted).</p>
<p>What do you think about the undergrad/grad program in BME at Boston University? I'm thinking about transferring to their undergrad program. I started out in EE but its been pretty easy and boring so far and I've always wanted to do BME. I went with Northeastern cuz of their co-op program but I think I want more of a challenge. Would it be worth it?</p>
<p>laurezer,You did great! I heard Wash U is very hard. A 3.5 in BME- is that what it takes to get into grad school? I did not know it was that difficult.</p>
<p>I looked up somewhere in some journal that ppl who come out of WashU's BME program (I will be doing that at WashU) make an average of 10 grand more than the national average starting salary. :P</p>
<p>Ignore the improper comparison.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how hard it is to get into a MS program really, all the average test scores, gpas, etc, that are listed are for PhD programs. Supposedly the programs I applied to are in the top 10 for grad bme, so maybe the others won't require the same gpa? </p>
<p>Heh, yeah, WashU is pretty proud of our high BME starting salary (they have it posted all throughout the BME building). The only discouraging thing about it is that most of the graduates who get jobs end up working for the same company, in Cali. (St. Jude Medical - they have a co-op program with washu). It makes the starting salary a little skewed. It seems like a lot of the graduates go on to more school (but this could be true for other universities too). </p>
<p>As far as Boston University - my personal experience with EE is that it's really difficult :) So maybe you're in for a change soon? Or you're really smart! I think if you're up for a challenge, go for it. You'll learn so much more and have so many more opportunities. The undergrad program at BU seems pretty good, it seems like the students really like the professors, and there are lots of opportunities to take graduate level courses as an undergrad. Plus I'd guess it would be more helpful if you wanted to go to grad school (but I really don't know much about northeastern).</p>
<p>As far as switching to BME, there's the whole debate about whether or not it's hard to get a job as a BME, rather than a traditional engineer (EE). Sometimes companies don't understand the major or recruit from it. The co-op programs I've heard of have been really helpful in getting students jobs (at that company) after college... but if you want to get an EE degree and then go work in BME, it'll still give you experience.</p>
<p>Did you do research while at Wash U? If so, where? Thanks</p>
<p>I did - for two summers I worked at the Genome Sequencing Center, at the med school, working on the Human Genome Project, and also one summer I was part of the NIH Undergraduate Fellowship Program in BME. That was actually a really really good experience - it was a BME lab, and at the end of the summer I had the opportunity to publish my research in a journal (not everyone did that, but my mentor encouraged us to work toward that as our final goal). You can apply for the program through the BME dept for the summer after your Soph or Junior years.</p>