<p>I am planning to pursue an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree that combines aspects of biology, medicine, and engineering. There are several options, such as biomedical engineering, bioengineering, and biomechanical engineering. Also, I am planning to pursue BME in graduate school</p>
<p>I am confused by all of these different designations. For example, I have been accepted to the following undergraduate programs, all with different designations:</p>
<p>Personally, I want to go to Stanford. However, I have several concerns. First of all, Stanford does not yet have a bioMEDICAL engineering major. They have said that one will be added in the next year, but i'm not sure if that'll happen. Also, their bioMECHANCIAL is not accredited by ABET. On the other hand, JHU has an accredited BME major, ranked number #1.</p>
<p>My questions are:
1. Does it really matter if ABET has accredited a program ? (assuming I'll go on to grad school)
2. Is there a significant difference between biomechancial, biomedical, and bioengineering?
3. Should I go to JHU for their top ranked BME even though I love Stanford and don't particulary enjoy Hopkin's atmosphere?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your responses. I really appreciate all of your comments.</p>
<p>I have the same question. I mean Yale has BME and it isnt ABET accredited and i'm sure it has no problem. UCOnn isnt accredited by ABET either, and yet UCONNs head of BME is the main guy for accreditation for ABET for BME. Kinda weird if you ask me</p>
<p>The JHU BME program is very close to a regular engineering program. I believe you choose a track (like chemE track or whatever; I know in this track, the students take mass transport and organic chem, among other subjects. For most sorts of bioengineering graduate work especially tissue engineering, this would give you the best foundation). I am familiar with the Berkeley program and would recommend that if you go there you at least minor in something like ChemE so that grad schools and employers know that you didn't just take a bunch of integrative biology classes (look at some other posts about BME on this board). The Berkeley bioE program is pretty open ended, which means you're going to be very tempted to just take easy classes (hence minoring is a good way to ensure you have a solid background). I'm guessing that Stanford's program is based primarily in mechanical engineering (I believe UCSD's is similar in that respect).</p>
<p>One striking thing about the top three bioengineering programs (JHU, Duke, UCSD) is that they are all strongly focused on engineering and not so focused (at the undergraduate level) on hardcore biology. This is because the best preparation for bioengineering graduate school is a solid quantitative foundation. Believe me, it's really tough to go in and take graduate level engineering and physics courses with an "interdisciplinary" undergraduate background. Many bioE grad programs offer the opportunity to take at least some courses at med schools (either MD courses or courses for biology PhD students) that will be more thorough and applicable to what you want to do than an undergraduate class would. Further, going into these classes with the engineering preparation (rather than "cold") will help you appreciate the importance of many of the critical issues in bioengineering. The other good thing about a solid foundation is that you can decide to do something other than bioengineering for grad school should you change your mind later on. </p>
<p>You don't have to come from JHU to get into a good grad program; the name would certainly help but it's not worth going to a place you really dislike. Should you decide to go to Berkeley or Stanford (I'm assuming Stanford's program is similar to Berkeley's as far as being open ended), do yourself a huge favor and take a third, additional year of theory/math classes after you finish the second year of calculus and some form of stat mech/high level physical chemistry. Whether in the form of applied math or fluid mechanics or E&M, the stuff you learn there (solving PDEs, series approximations, transforms, etc.) will be invaluable to your graduate work; statistical mechanics is, IMO, by far the most useful fundamental background class someone in bioengineering can have. </p>
<p>ABET is not so important. The most important part of being interdisciplinary as an engineering is that you have a strong engineering foundation. Should you choose bioengineering, ensuring that foundation will primarily be your job.</p>
<p>"ABET is not so important. The most important part of being interdisciplinary as an engineering is that you have a strong engineering foundation. Should you choose bioengineering, ensuring that foundation will primarily be your job."</p>
<p>Who are you kidding? I know this much that even if a course is not ABET accedited, you won't find yourself begging on the streets. Doing an ABET major is for playing safe, you know the just in case kinda thing...
Excellent advice calkidd. I'm going to do BME from BU (which is 10th in the ranking, so shouldn't be bad at all). I'll prolly minor in physics or chem or maths coz i want to go to JHU for grad school (got rejected undergrad :( )</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Does it really matter if ABET has accredited a program ? (assuming I'll go on to grad school)
A: If you are 100% sure that you will go on to a grad school, ABET is not really important. Since many BME grad programs will accept some life science major with strong math and physical science background, I really don't think grad school would weight the ABET factor heavily. In your case, you really don't have to worry about Stanford not having ABET. Their department is quite new and that's why its not yet ABET approved. I am sure with Stanford's reputation and academic excellence, it will get approved by the ABET board really soon. </p></li>
<li><p>Is there a significant difference between biomechancial, biomedical, and bioengineering?
A: Basically, biomechanical and biomedical engineering are included in bioengineering. Some of the top engineering schools want to go by bioengineering instead of biomedical engineering, because they want to do "bio" engineering for other things as well. Plus, if you check the ABET website, the program is called "Bioengineering", not biomedical engineering.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I go to JHU for their top ranked BME even though I love Stanford and don't particulary enjoy Hopkin's atmosphere?
A: I would say go to the school you like the most. With an undergraduate engineering degree from Stanford, I don't think you need to worry about not being able to get into a top grad school. Stanford has better weather and campus too.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>"Dude, ABET means everything. If you dont have ABET degree, you dont have job = poor = homeless = dead."
^ is this being serious....
i assure you if you go to duke or JHU for biomedical engineering you will do quite well...</p>