<p>Hi all, I'm deciding between a number of colleges now including JHU. I was not accepted into BME (my intended major) but was still accepted to the school. I was wondering how the other similar options (biomechanics, biophysics, biochemistry) are, and if I should still highly consider it?</p>
<p>Some things to consider:</p>
<p>I'm a California resident so I get in state tuition at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Both will cost me around $15k because of grants/scholarships. Hopkins offered me $30k in grants/scholarships so it would cost around $30k+transportation. I would also have to consider going across the country, and I don't know how much better of an experience I would get at JHU than at a school like Berkeley.</p>
<p>Congrats! You have a tough choice to make - the programs at Hopkins are very strong, but Berkeley has some great programs and the finances also make it very attractive. If you can, I would strongly encourage you to visit Hopkins during SOHOP and get a feel for campus life by staying overnight. The campus environment and campus culture are going to be very different at Cal/UCLA vs Hopkins because of sheer size (25k undergrads at the former two and 4700 undergrads at Hopkins) and you may feel like one is a much better fit for you than the other.</p>
<p>In terms of programs at Hopkins, the first thing you need to think about is whether you want to study engineering. People often don’t realize that BME is a very math-intensive engineering major, and the closest other program are in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and in Material Sciences and Engineering. The programs you mentioned (biophysics, biochem) are also very strong programs, but they are much more “basic-science” fields and not necessarily “applied” fields in the way engineering is. If you decide that what you want to pursue is something related to BME, then you should look at the different engineering programs and see which interests you. Most upper level BME students take their electives on other departments (I was a Tissue Engineering concentration and many of my electives were in the Material Science and ChemE department), and the upper level classes offered in the BME dept are always open to other engineering majors, so the things you will learn will be very similar.</p>
<p>Thanks tanman, your post helps a lot. I probably do want to study engineering, as math is one of my stronger subjects.</p>
<p>Are Chemical and biomolecular engineering and biomaterials engineering considered within the same level as the BME program, and would they provide me similar opportunities with graduate school/entry level jobs? I currently want to work with engineering in the medical field, and without access to the BME major at Hopkins I’m concerned about the opportunities I will get versus majoring in BME at Cal or another university.</p>