<p>I’m considering applying to colleges next year with Biomedical Engineering as my degree. I’m curious what fellow College Confidential users think/know of the following schools for Biomedical Engineering:</p>
<li>Johns Hopkins University</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Northwestern University</li>
<li>Boston University</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for any input in advance.</p>
<ol>
<li>Johns Hopkins University - Terrific school and supposedly offers a top-notch biomedical engineering program</li>
<li>Duke University - I'd strongly recommend Duke for biomedical engineering as well</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania - Eh... not an engineering school</li>
<li>Northwestern University - Decent program probably, I'm not sure.</li>
<li>Boston University - No.</li>
</ol>
<p>Marines920: Thanks for your reply. I'm curious though why you would say "no" to Boston University - anything in specific that you dislike about BU's program?</p>
<p>I'm only a high school senior, so take what I say with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I've done a lot of research on colleges, and I just don't like Boston University (at least not as an engineering school). I'm sure their biomedical engineering program is good, but Boston doesn't offer the strength of other schools in the field. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, Boston University doesn't compare to Duke and Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification Marines920.</p>
<p>While Boston University may not have the best Biomedical Engineering program, Boston University's program still is no joke as you pointed out - it's ranked #10 according to most recent US News and World Report College Guide.</p>
<p>So, Marines920, are there any other university programs you would recommend, that I did not list?</p>
<p>see pilotg205's post.</p>
<p>wallflowers... whatever you do DON'T TRUST THE RANKINGS as they are a bunch of bs... The rankings are merely just a survey of how many people mention a specific school's program and has nothing to do with how good the actual program is. I forgot which college it is but they just established a program last year and it's not even accreditted and it got into the top 25</p>
<p>I agree with hopkinslax, you should choose the school YOU want to go to by researching it. Don't just pick a school at the top in a ranking.</p>
<p>Hopkinslax, the program you're thinking of is UIUC, which started their program this school year. It probably got high survey scores because of its reputation in Engineering.</p>
<p>For example I will be a BME major at the University of Rochester next year. The University of Rochester is like 40th something for engineering and is not even on the BME undergraduate rankings even though it has a much longer established program than that one university I mentioned in my first post.
The reasons why I chose UR?
-Campus... Beautiful campus and you can't even tell you are only 2 or so miles to downtown
-Cirriculum... Or the lack of it I should say. My first ever college visit was Bucknell. I honestly had never heard of a type of cirriculum in which you are free to choose because every single solitary other school you had to take X years of language, X years of a fine art, etc.
-University Hospital next to it.... As I went through my research I learned that I liked colleges with their hospital right next door. As I want to be a doctor, I want to be able to have access to what I am going into.
-Premed Program... Has a very strong premed program that is highly respected by its peers
-Size... I wanted a small college (as seen in the fact that the highest population college I applied to was Rutgers and that was for a safety (30+k). The next highest was RIT (10K) and as a safety as well. But after that my top choice schools had the largest population of 6K with some going down to 3K. I felt that I wanted a school where I am not a number but a name and could have access to professors and not have to go to lecture halls all the time where I am one of a few hundred people and the professor doesn't care who I am
-Research of the program... I learned that although UR's program is not ranked, it is a great program that is pretty well respected among the industry. Over half of the time in the major is spent out of the classroom and in Strong Memorial Hospital. Also I looked through the professor's credits and I saw that they did pretty good research.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your input so far. I agree with all of you that - and I won't be choosing a college solely on its placement in the ranking list. That being said, which universities (5-10) do you CCers feel offer the finest BME programs (academically speaking)?</p>
<p>JHU and Duke's are the best for BME. </p>
<p>For some reason, I thought I read that UPenn has bioengineering not really biomedical engineering (they are not neccessarily the same). You may wanna double-check.</p>
<p>I went to Northwestern and actually considered BME before. I know their program is one of the oldest, largest, and broadest in the country. Good thing about Northwestern is it's strong in other engineering disciplines (all in top 20) as well in case you switch/pursue something interdisciplinary. It's also one of the leading institutes (my friend told me yesterday it's in top-3 in fed funding) for nanotechnology.</p>
<p>Haven't heard much about BU.</p>
<p>top 5 for BME for me: Hopkins, Duke, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan.</p>
<p>How about UCSD? Even USNews considers it better than UCB for BME.</p>
<p>ya, it is ranked higher. but i would goto berkeley over ucsd if i had a choice. berkeley is one of the best in everything in the nation. ucsd is second to berk and maybe even LA in the cal system.</p>
<p>jeffl: It's undeniable that Berkeley offers some of the finest programs in the country. However, still, this does not mean that Berkeley is in the top 5 for every one of its programs. Considering this, why would you still argue that it's preferrable to go to UC Berkeley as opposed to UCSD? Your opinions and thoughts are appreciated because I've been considering whether to apply to UCSD or to UC Berkeley for Biomedical Engineering next year. Thanks.</p>
<p>wallflowers... whatever you do DON'T TRUST THE RANKINGS as they are a bunch of bs... The rankings are merely just a survey of how many people mention a specific school's program and has nothing to do with how good the actual program is. I forgot which college it is but they just established a program last year and it's not even accreditted and it got into the top 25
DO NOT LISTEN TO RANKINGS OF ANY UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS!!!
As I also said before, go to the actual program and see what it is like... You can definately tell if a program is bad by viewing it. The reason UCSD is ranked number 4 is because more colleges mentioned it than duke and less colleges mentioned it than JHU
Also jeffl, why do you put MIT as the top five? I don't care that MIT is toted as the best engineering school in the nation. The fact is that their program is just recently established and also when you think of anything biology related do you think MIT first???
Things you need to do to evaluate a program...
If it is just recently established it is not better than a school that has had the program for 10 years or even say 5 years
Do not look at the rankings
A big thing in BioMed is access to a hospital... Where is the hospital in relation to the college? I know for my BioMed program a majority of the time is spent outside of the classroom and in the university hospital
Just because they are in the top 10 of US News Universities doesn't mean that their program is better than something that is in the top 50
Are the professors knowledgeable? Look at their dissertations and other research
Are the professors accessible? A program in which you can find a professor at any time will surely be better than a program in which the professor is not available and you have to see another student for help
What are the facilities like? Is there state of the art equipment or are you looking at an electrocardiograph that is 20 years old?</p>
<p>hopkinslax: Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>What is your opinion about Boston University's BME program? I visited their website and most of the professors are MIT or Caltech graduates, so in terms of quality of the faculty, they are top notch. I've come to admire Boston University, although my college counselor has called it a safety for me. The city enviornment is great and BU's medical school is also well known.</p>
<p>penn bioengineering is great....top professors in the country, great pre-med program. bioengineering is a broader name for biomedical engineering. bioengineering is not as limiting because it does not constrict research/learning to merely medical areas.
any questions about penn bioengineering, email me at krtrumpet182.hotmail.com
i'd be happy to answer questions you might have.</p>
<p>i have a problem with people who argues with me when i offer an advice. its just my opinion. its not like i just looked at some rankings. i've been doing research on colleges since i was a sophomore in high school, particularly, i met a lot of friends through an internship i did in high school and the project i did and the professor were both BME. i learned a lot through the professor, the program, and the friends i have who i am still in contact with, all of them are engineers and mostly BMEs. most of them are older than me and are applying to grad school in the fall, and i get a lot of feedback from them about their schools. </p>
<p>also, how long the program has been established doesn't impact program quality all that much. harvard and yale had two of the earliest engineering schools, and look at them. they suck.</p>