I want to work on the business end of a BioTech company after college. I wouldn’t mind spending a few years working on the science side of the company first, but I would eventually like to work my way up the executive ladder.
I got into some pretty good schools, and have narrowed it down to Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins. I am having trouble choosing between them. At Johns Hopkins, I would study Chemical-Biomolecular Engineering. At Dartmouth, I would study Biomedical Engineering. Both schools are great. Hopkins is generally considered a stronger science school, but Dartmouth is widely considered a better school overall.
I agree that it would have better science connections, but if the end goal is actually business, I wonder if Dartmouth might be a better decision. Dartmouth’s business program is much stronger, and a lot of companies recruit heavily from Ivy Campuses
And they won’t from JHU? JHU is essentially the country’s leading school for Biotech. That will definitely open more doors for you in terms of recruitment than saying you went to an Ivy.
I know you shouldn’t go by ranking but I know recruiters do and many job employers do as well. JHU is ranked 1 in the nation for Biomedical Engineering and I am completely sure that they will have no problem with regards to recruitment from BioTech companies which are probably their strongest recruiters on campus. The Big Green is still an amazing school and has a renowned graduate business program, so I would figure you could get good connections for other business fields such as investment banking or asset management. However for your BioTech inclinations, I’d probably advise JHU. Either way I feel like you can’t go wrong with such amazing options. Just my 2 cents
I agree with everything that you said. It is worth noting that I wouldnt be doing BME at Hopkins - there was a special application for that program that I didn’t know about. What I would be doing is Biomolecular. Similar in a lot of ways, but not all
Not sure where you’re getting Dartmouth is considered a better school overall vibe from - perhaps from superficial ivy supporters?. I would consider Hopkins to have more name recognition and to be literally several tiers above in engineering quality. It’s telling that Dartmouth only offers a Bachelor of Arts engineering degree (kind of ridiculous) in 4 years while requiring 5 for the Bachelor of engineering (aka BS anywhere else) diploma. Dartmouth is also unheard of except for strong biotech firms like genentech or amgen or medtronic (source - friends who work there - there’s a glut of coworkers from science heavy schools like MIT, Penn, Hopkins, however). Dartmouth does have more name recognition to a certain extent in wallstreet and consulting due to tuck, however. If you’re interested in finance and wallstreet, I would recommend dartmouth, but absolutely Hopkins for anything else. Also, Dartmouth has no undergrad business (neither does Hopkins - although Hopkins does offer a business minor).
I also work at McKinsey as an engagement manager and would have to say Dartmouth Tuck does very average or below average in elite business consulting placement here relative to many many other schools. This past year, Tuck placement was in the single digits for MBAs relative to Columbia with over 25+, Northwestern with over 15, along with several other schools doing substantially better. But to each their own.
I’d have to vote for Hopkins with a prospective career in bio-tech. If you truly want to emphasize the business side of bio-tech later in your career, you could consider Tuck for an MBA. Though you may want to consider Blah’s post above (though I also wonder if those figures have something to do with overall class size).
To the above, class size contributes as Tuck’s class size is smaller. But the interview to offer conversion rate is not impressive, and neither is the amount of McKinsey sponsored MBA candidates who choose to attend tuck (hint, it’s sometimes 1 in a given year).
I mean money is always in play, but its pretty much equally bad everywhere. Everyone going to college nowadays will graduate with some pretty substantial debt, but I am hoping that BioTech is a good way to pay it off quickly.
If anyone has found any interesting comparisons between the two school’s engineering departments or anything of the sort, I would be very interested in reading it. I have looked but direct comparisons are surprisingly scarce.
You will need some sort of graduate degree (either a PhD or at least MBA) if you would like to be involved in biotech in a scientific/business capacity-so keep that in mind. In that case, your graduate program will be more important for determining your career and either of these schools should set you up fine for grad school. If you would be interested in pursuing a PhD, both schools are probably comparable though Dartmouth might have the edge for setting you up for an MBA.
I agree that for bio-tech, a graduate degree will likely be necessary. However, there’s more than one route; you may also consider a law degree, or at least patent certification. There’s also the possibility of M.S. or PhD plus the law certification. These combinations are often found in bio-tech and related technology transfer fields.
In this case, I would recommend doing well in chem/bio-molecular engineering at Hopkins, then pursuing your graduate degrees accordingly. As you get further into your studies, you should discover what interests you most, and your advisors can also help direct you better. You should find more resources and a wider variety of research opportunities await you at Hopkins.
I actually haven’t visited either school yet. I will be later this month. I have to admit that I like the idea of Johns Hopkins’ campus more. I would like to have something to do on a Friday night in December