I’m thinking of applying to duke’s biomedical engineering program which is in their pratt school of engineering but in their trinity school of arts and sciences they have biotechnology under their biology programs, and I was wondering the difference between bme, biotech, and bioengineering? Is bme more focused on engineering aspects like circuits, comp sci, electricity, electromagnetism, physics, etc because that is something I am NOT very good at nor interested in. However, I am really interested in designing processes for bacterial insulin growth, genetic modification, and designing molecules for protein transportation. Which major would these fall under? Also, I got an A in ap bio but a B+ in physics honors so would that affect my chances of getting into bme at Pratt? Should I just apply as a biology major under Trinity instead?
Look up the curriculum for each program and review the courses. BME programs can be very different, based on which school we’re talking about. The same “biotech” or “Bioengineering”.
Things have changed over the years as @Gator88NE mentioned. Traditionally the functions you’re interested in have been in the realm of molecular biology and in agronomy in plant physiology and genetics if we’re talking analogous plant processes. You’d have to look to know for sure. I suspect it won’t be the program in Pratt.
I’ve looked at Duke’s BME curriculum description and it says in addition to engineering courses, students choose an elective-course sequence to learn specific knowledge in biomedical imaging and instrumentation, biomechanics, electrobiology, or biomolecular and tissue engineering. Idk if the engineering courses take up a majority of the course or what they entail though.
What you want to do, at least on any meaningful level besides conducting repetitive technical lab work, requires an advanced degree. That’s why you’re probably having trouble finding it. In my cursory search, I didn’t find an equivalent to this: https://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad at Duke. It may exist and I just didn’t find it.
Which brings up some other issues, no matter how qualified you are, Duke is a reach. Have other options. It’s also possible that Duke doesn’t even have what you want. Sure they’d offer a solid platform for a Molecular Biology PhD, but you seem to want more specialization as an undergrad. Only you can decide if the name of the school carries more weight than the name and qualities of the degree you’ll earn.
Good luck.