BME College Choice: UPenn v. JHU v. Duke v. Rawlings Scholar Cornell

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>Hey guys, I was very fortunate to be accepted to the 4 top schools listed above. My original selection was Fisher M&T at Penn, but I did not get in ED-M&T or RD (think my "why M&T" essay was weak smh). I would love to hear some opinions from the gurus, especially those at said schools, on CC about what and where I should weight more heavily in my decision to major in BME at one of these four universities.</p>

<p>At Penn, I know I have a shot of transferring in to M&T, but there are only 5 seats and it is definitely not a good single reason to attend Penn. One question I have is in regards to the value of the regular dual degree program. Is it anywhere near in prestige to M&T? Does Penn have a strong engineering culture, or a strong research focus? I am lukewarm on the latter, as Penn does not have many honors programs, at least the freshman level. It is, however, where I am leaning, since I really love the campus and feel of the place. It would also be great to join the one of the top ranked quiz bowl groups in the country,</p>

<p>At Cornell, I am a Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar, which has superb benefits and sounds phenomenal to me. The only thing holding me back from immediately accepting Cornell's offer is that I am not sure of the flexibility in future the degree will give me and I am not sure of the campus culture. I plan to visit April 17th.</p>

<p>At JHU, I would be entering probably the toughest undergraduate BME program in the world. Every person I've talked to, even professors at top 25 universities, remark "Wow, JHU BME is intense." This challenge motivates me, but I live 45 minutes from JHU. Not great to go to Baltimore when I've been around for 17 years of my life.</p>

<p>Duke is great along the same lines of JHU. Great BME program, and I love the sports (Blue Devil football is rising!). Plan to visit between the 11th and 17th.</p>

<p>CC, what do you think of my choices? I hope you can see that I am torn between a strong desire for a very good technical education, but that I am also looking to get a good business degree if possible (hence my desire to participate in M&T).</p>

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<p>Congratulations on having such a tough choice to make! I’m a BME alum from Hopkins and now a MD/PhD student in BME at Duke, so I’ve seen two of these programs first hand. </p>

<p>First and foremost, after you’re visits you need to make sure you’ll be happy on each of the campuses. If Cornell is too rural for you, nix it. If Baltimore is too close for you, nix it. Ultimately, you need to be somewhere that you’ll be happy being for the next 4 years.</p>

<p>As for the programs themselves: I think Hopkins is the strongest undergraduate BME program, with Duke a close second. All of the BME/BE programs are going to be very intense and rigorous, so that’s not really a differentiating factor. Duke, Hopkins and Penn all have their medical centers on the same campus or in close proximity, which opens up a lot more research opportunities. Cornell has BME minor and has a Biological Engineering major and aa Chem/Biomolecular Engineering Major. Together, these different programs encompass a large part of what BME is at other schools </p>

<p>In terms of the business opportunities – the chances of transferring into M&T are very slim, so I wouldn’t go in counting on that. Penn doesn’t offer a business minor, but you would still have the opportunity to take Wharton classes, I believe. Cornell has several business-type minor options, including a university-wide business minor (partially affiliated with their management school), a business for engineers minor, and an operations research minor. Hopkins has a Entrepreneurship and Management minor program which is very popular and broad enough that you can tailor it to your specific interests. Duke has two new certificate programs: there’s the “Markets and Management” program, a more liberal-arts approach to business, and a brand new “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” program. Duke’s been working hard to build a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship on campus recently, and my understanding is that Penn has a similar feel.</p>

<p>A couple things to think about as you make your decision:

  1. Where to you feel the best fit? What type of campus environment do you want?
  2. What do you see yourself doing after college? How will the resources of each school help you get there?</p>

<p>Ultimately, you really can’t go wrong with those choices, so good luck and all the best!</p>