Duke or UCSD for PhD in Biomedical Engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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<p>Hello All,</p>

<p>This is my first post here. I would like a little help in gathering what you think regarding these schools. I have been accepted to UCSD and Duke for a PhD in Biomedical/Bio Engineering. Both schools are offering great stipends (Duke 32k/year and UCSD 30k/year), and are ranked in the top by US News and World Science Report. I am wondering which school will inevitably look better and provide me the best opportunities. Duke might have a better name, not sure? As of now I am leaning towards UCSD.</p>

<p>As additional information, UCSD is offering a 2 year fellowship which would allow me to pick a mentor while Duke would (in a round about way) force me to work specifically with someone. My long term goal would be to work in industry for awhile and then maybe become a prof down the road. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Personally, I think Duke has the better name. Overall, for undergrad anyway, Duke is ranked in the top 10 nationally every year and many rankings have Duke in the top 20 among worldwide rankings. These rankings rarely, if ever, have UCSD (Berkeley or UCLA, sure, but SD is rare to see). </p>

<p>I know you’re asking about a PhD program in BME, and for that specifically the two may be similar, but I think Duke’s overall amazing reputation for nearly every grad and undergrad program would make Duke the more reputable school. If I had your choice, I’d go with Duke in a heartbeat.</p>

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<p>disagree Senator – take a look at the NRC Ph.D. rankings. Undegrad is completely irrelevant. UC San Diego is in the top 5 schools in the country for Ph.D. rankings across the sciences. That’s higher than UCLA, and only behind Berkeley among the UCs (which shares #1 with Stanford/MIT in general across the sciences).</p>

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<p>Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate both of your answers. Basically I am wondering if Duke will have more connections in the long term. I did research at Harvard Med for a year, and this has opened a lot of doors. Just wondering if the same holds for Duke vs UCSD. In all honesty, I never knew UCSD was ranked as high as it was for BioMed until I began applying. However, most employers and the average pop knows Duke.</p>

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<p>biomed employers know UCSD more. who cares about the average pop :)</p>

<p>Forgot to post the link: <a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#RANKBYAREA[/url]”>http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#RANKBYAREA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BioMed Engineering: UCSD #2, Duke #4
Biological Sciences: UCSD #4, Duke #10
Engineering: UCSD #9, Duke… (WTH? is it unranked??) <strong>edit</strong> found it. It’s #45. took my a while to work that far down the list.</p>

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<p>Not saying it’s completely invalid, as the NRC surveys are some of the best, but it’s important to at least acknowledge that those are results from surveys done in 1993 - yes, SIXTEEN years ago. Things have changed since then. All high profile biomed employees will think highly of a BME degree from UCSD and Duke really. The difference is negligible. Other factors (research rotations, particular research interests, professors, labs, geographical preference, etc.) should be the deciding factors - NOT prestige. The decision making process for a PhD program is MUCH different than undergrad. The particular lab you are in and the professor you work with are of the utmost importance.</p>

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<h2>bluedog wrote: "The particular lab you are in and the professor you work with are of the utmost importance. "</h2>

<p>Yes x 3. Most Ph.D. students have that squared away before their selection… and I’d say most would rather have the particular professor of their choice as committee chair in a #15 program, than attend a #5 program where they must work with their #2 or #3 choice of chair.</p>