<p>I'm a girl planning to become a biomedical engineer. Over the past couple days I was excited and flattered to hear that I had gotten into the Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering Program as well as Tufts. Here's my dilemma:</p>
<p>Tufts is a dream school. My sister went there, I'd be able to play on their varsity lacrosse team (I actually almost committed here to play and decided to test my luck elsewhere), and I already know I love the community that the school provides. Every time I've been on campus I've had a lot of fun and I feel really comfortable there. However, the engineering program is just alright.</p>
<p>On the other hand Hopkins is the #1 biomedical engineering school in the country (maybe the world). The opportunities would be endless and I'd be so happy and amazed by the program that I would get to be a part of. The program is really awesome. However I'm from Baltimore and I worry that staying in Baltimore wouldn't allow me to have a true college experience. Furthermore, I worry that the program is really hard (which would further hurt my college experience) and I worry about the cutthroat reputation the school has.I also worry a bit about being a girl in the program (though I worry less about this).</p>
<p>As a note I'm a pretty fun-loving and social person and I want to make sure I'll have a place to do other things besides work at these schools.</p>
<p>If anyone has any insight about these two schools, the communities, and their engineering programs, as well as being from the town where they went to college please reply. Also if anyone has any insight about if you have to go to grad school if you graduate from JHop vs. if you have to go to grad school from Tufts (and the jobs that people go to after those schools) please reply. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I’d pick JHU hands down- you got into the best BME program in the country (I don’t think anyone would argue with it). This will give you limitless opprtunities when you are finished. Since you live in Baltimore, only you will know what it will be like to live there, but my son (who was also accepted to JHU last week- damn server was down for 3 hours before he could find out!!!) and I were there last week. I think that you would have a great college experience. Is it a school where parties and social life rule? No. But I gather that isn’t what you were seeking when applying to JHU or Tufts. But I think you would be able to have an active social life. As far as the cutthroat nature, the student blogs seem to downplay this and point out that this was present about 40 years ago. I would consider an overnight stay and ask around.</p>
<p>My son is deciding between JHU, WUSTL, and University of Michigan- planning to major in Classics and then go to medical school.</p>
<p>You can still get the college experience from a place you live close by. I live around about an hour from UCLA. One of my classmates lived 15 minutes from the school. We both went there largely in part because it had the best program. It didn’t ruin the college experience for either of us: we both met amazing people, had classes by amazing professors, and were given a rigorous education. We both enjoyed our time there.</p>
<p>Is lacrosse an option at JHU? If so, i’d go there.</p>
<p>Thank you so much to both of you! Other opinions are really helpful.</p>
<p>In terms of lacrosse JHU is D1, where Tufts is D3. It’s possible I’d make the team at Hopkins but I’m not sure I’d have time to play at the D1 level. I could play club at Hopkins, but from the website it seems like the club program will take anyone who wants to play, so I don’t know if it’d be very intense at all.</p>
<p>go for the dream school!! Rankings are not everything. IF you know you love Tufts and would have an awesome time there than that is the place for you. Remember you have to live there for 4 years. If you want to have time to have fun, enjoy life (not saying you cant enjoy life at JHU), and be happy go to Tufts. Before you make your decision though, visit both schools again and get a real feel for each. Also, money should be a factor. Good luck and remember this is your life for 4 years, make sure you go where you are happy.</p>