I am an international student from India and am strongly considering attending Tulane. I just wanted to know if anyone has any inputs about the biomedical engineering major? Ex. How popular the major is there, research opportunities, course rigor and placements into jobs/grad programs at places like GT/Rice/Duke.
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
bump? 
Sorry, meant to get back to this earlier. Busy time of year.
The major is both popular and very strong. Tulane was one of the first BME departments in the country some years ago, and it is very good. Research by undergrads is almost a given, it is VERY doable and meaningful. And that, along with strong grades, will get you into any grad school in the USA. Your chances at Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford, etc. and of course the ones you mention become excellent if, as I say, you keep a good GPA, do research and get good recs from a couple of profs, and do decently on the GRE. My D is in a totally different field, but she did the equivalent accomplishments in her field and was accepted to grad school at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Berkeley, and Stanford where she is now finishing her masters. Tulane in general has a very strong track record in sending students to top grad schools.
@fallenchemist That sounds great- I will almost definitely be attending Tulane. Thanks!
@fallenchemist I would love your opinion again…I am thinking about switching to Chemical Engineering at Tulane so how is that program? I’m currently under the impression that it isn’t as popular as biomedical at Tulane and not as much research is done in the field.
I am not sure if
means at Tulane or in general. But yes, I think BME is a bit more popular right now. Both are robust fields as far as employment prospects, but BME usually means getting a post-graduate degree from what I understand. BME is far newer of course, and there are so many areas to be explored, so I think saying there is more research, or at least “sexier” research is likely true as well. But make no mistake about it, the chemicals industry remains huge and has a real need for ChemE’s. And I suspect there is still interesting research in that field as well, for topics that interest individuals. These days “chemical engineering” and “materials engineering” overlap in some ways when it comes to particulars such as nanoparticles and semiconductors. So you can go “old school” and have a nice career in pharma, bulk processes, etc. with large scale reaction engineering, or go more new school with those areas I mentioned. Or I know a Tulane ChemE that now works for Google, I think having something to do with the environmental aspects of their facilities. Not sure what his role is exactly, but i know he is making a lot of money and enjoying himself a lot. These days one always has to be flexible, but I know you will be well prepared with a Tulane degree of either field you are considering.