BU with $$$ vs JHU or UPenn for BME?

<p>My daughter has been accepted at BU, JHU and UPenn for Biomedical Engineering. Bu has offered half tuition. She wants to eventually work in research. Any input about the choice?</p>

<p>No one can answer this for you. It depends on your finances. </p>

<p>Personally, I have not been very impressed with BU. You can't beat the JHU BME program. I know little about the UPenn program. Congratulations to you and your D. Very impressive acceptances. I would guess it is worth some sacrifice to send her to the best program.</p>

<p>UPenn's new bioengineering building, Skirkanich Hall, is opening next month.</p>

<p>If your daughter has been offered 1/2 tuition at BU they often provide research opportunities during their freshman year. However, don't make the decision just based upon the money. </p>

<p>Where does she want to go an why? That will help your family get to the right answer.</p>

<p>I'm a BME freshman at BU, so I would know! :)</p>

<p>BME is definitely one of the stronger programs at BU, and the administration acts like they have even bigger ambitions in store for it. They recently erected three new buildings (Life Sciences, College of ENG, and the Photonics Center), so the facilities are excellent. And BU has Boston, which is: </p>

<p>1) a great city, period
2) a great city for research. There are TONS of medical centers and biotech firms in Boston.</p>

<p>As for as the program goes, there are a lot of science and math prerequisites that I have to get out the way as a freshman, so I can't give too much personal information on the more specialized BME courses that you typically take sophomore year and beyond. I have however taken two freshman seminars for BME - Tissue Engineering and Brain Mapping - and both of those were great experiences. One took the class to tour the Genzyme Corp facility, and the other toured the Brigham and Women's MRI center with a MD/PhD professor. There are definitely good research opportunities at BU, and it looks like your daughter might be an Engineering Scholar too, which has its own guaranteed research stipend.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I've heard very good things about UPenn and JHU. FYI, BU BME ranks around 7-8, UPenn is somewhere high, and JHU usually fights with Duke for first place. I think your daughter has a bunch of great choices, and it really depends on what she feels most comfortable with. But give BU a chance!</p>

<p>I'm a BME freshman at JHU, so of course I think our BME program is the best! :)</p>

<p>The BME program at Hopkins is closely tied with the the Hopkins Medical School, which opens up tons of research opportunities starting from your freshman year. The program, while challenging, has a long history of successful graduates. </p>

<p>In reality, all three universities are excellent schools with top-notch BME programs. I think that the decision should come down to where your daughter wants to go - try to visit the campuses (and maybe even have her stay overnight in the dorms) so that she can get a flavor of life on campus. After that, she should be able to decide where she want to go based on both how she likes the campuses and the financial situtation.</p>

<p>Congratulations and best of luck to her whereever she decides to go!</p>

<p>JHU if you can afford it is the clear choice.</p>