Deja vu, 4 years later...chances for bioeng./mat'ls eng. PhD programs?

Graduate School
1

<p>I feel like a high school senior again. I like the "it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks" message at the top when I logged in...it's been a bit longer than that!</p>

<p>I am interested in combining aspects of bioengineering and materials engineering, so I am applying to some schools under the materials program because they have a strong bio aspect, and others under the bioe. program because they have a strong materials aspect.</p>

<p>My stats:
Demographic: White male, 21 years old, MD born and raised
School: U of Md.-College Park
Major: Materials Engineering with a Biomaterials Specialization</p>

<p>GPA: 3.2
Average for freshman year was around a 3.2, then I had a poor fall semester sophomore year where I was working ~35 hrs/week and got a 2.6. Additionally, I was a business+engineering double major my freshman year, so I kind of crashed that semester and decided to scale it back to just engineering. my average GPA for the 3 semesters since then is around a 3.5-3.6, and will probably be around a 3.5 for this semester as well.</p>

<p>GRE: verbal-167 (98th percentile), quantitative-165 (93rd percentile), writing-5 (87th percentile)</p>

<p>Research: 2 years (spring freshman year to spring junior year) in a bioengineering lab working on drug delivery systems, a semester and a summer (spring and summer of freshman year) in a nanotech lab working on nanowires. no publications, posters, or presentations. Decided not to continue doing research so I could work and keep my grades decent.</p>

<p>Work: always have held at least 2 part-time jobs. I paid for my entire undergrad education myself, as well as all my personal expenses, and will touch upon this in my SOP. My jobs were mostly in student affairs/customer service. I was the manager for freshman orientation, I worked for a semester at a calculus tutoring program, and I have been an RA for two years.</p>

<p>Letters of rec: will be decent, not great. I am getting 2 from the professors I did research with--the one I worked for for two years was not too impressed with my work but said he would write positive things. the other professor's letter may be a bit better. the letter I am getting from a teacher I did not do research with will, I think, be my strongest, because it will detail how committed I am to being a mentor and teacher, and getting more underrepresented groups interested in the sciences.</p>

<p>SOP: Very good, my professors have told me it is very strong.</p>

<p>Schools/Programs:
UMCP (both materials and bioe.)
Drexel (not sure yet whether materials or bioe....materials program is a bit higher ranked and may be harder to get into, but I am in the process of making a good contact with a prof. there)
Dartmouth-bioe.
Boston U.-materials
UWash-Seattle-materials
UC-Irvine (not sure if materials or bioe yet)
Penn State (bioe.)
U. Illinois-Chicago (not sure which program yet)
Oregon Health and Science (bioe.)
Temple (bioe.)
Illinois Institute of Tech. (bioe.)</p>

<p>Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it!</p>

2

<p>Just one clarification, you say bioengineering but often there are two separate programs, biomedical engineering and biological engineering. Which one are you looking at?</p>

<p>Your GRE scores are quite good and your GPA should be good enough to get you into a good fraction of the schools you have listed. As a professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, I can tell you that you would have a good chance of getting admission and a financial aid offer in either our biomedical or biological engineering programs. My guess would be that you get into 60% or more of the schools you mention in your post. Once you know who accepted you, go visit if you can and try to decide which progam fits you best. The overall ranking of a program is is less important than getting the right thesis advisor.</p>

3

<p>Thank you! I’m looking at biomedical engineering, thanks for point that out. I really appreciate your input!</p>

4

<p>UC Irvine BME senior here, just wanna chime in a little bit about the BME program at UC Irvine for your reference.</p>

<p>currently, there are 2 strongest research areas in BME department at UC Irvine: laser and tissue/cardiovascular engineering. there are the Beckman Laser Institute and the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, and almost 2/3 of BME faculty members are in either or both of these 2 research institutes. The Edwards Lifesciences Center is new but it’s very active at this time, and it has goood funding and connections with many biomedical companies located in Irvine area (especially Edwards Lifesciences).</p>

<p>your GPA is not as competitive for PhD program here but you meet the minimum of the department (average GPA of admitted PhD applicants is 3.5). I got this info from graduate academic counselor, since I’m in the master accelerated program. but your GRE score is high and it might make up for your GPA.</p>

<p>I talked to the professors in my department, and they think letter of rec and GPA are the two main factors to look at.</p>