Duke v. ucsd Bioengineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
1

<p>First of all, i’d like to state that i’m interested in bioengineering, biomedical engineering, and a little bit of economics. I received the Regents scholarship at UCSD and i’ve been accepted to Duke w/o any aid. I visited UCSD today and I spoke directly with the vice chair of bioengineering, Dr. Sah, who was educated at MIT and Harvard, for undergrad and med school, respectively. He was a very friendly and approachable person who really helped me compare the BME programs at duke and ucsd. But I was able to ask him just how early i cud engage in research at ucsd. I convinced him to let me begin research even before freshman year, during this summer. So the problem I’m facing now is, do i choose UCSD, and get the better treatment, better weather, location (i’m from CA), better price, comparable BME program, but risk the weakness of UCSD’s other programs? Or do I play it safe with Duke (which i loved when i visited), pay the extra money, go out all the way to NC, and work my ass off, which i’m sure i’d do at both schools anyway? Any insight wud be helpful; thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>i'm really confused; i've got some really close friends who r going to ucsd, but they're kind of dumb. so i feel like i'll be more relaxed and more comfortable at ucsd, with maybe better opportunities, but is it all worth choosing over such a highly reputable school such as duke? if anyone cud provide me with some statistics on how many undergrads from UCSD go to med school or receive biotech jobs, or anything similar, i would greatly appreciate it. thanks once again.</p>

3

<p><a href="http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PMedHis.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.ucsd.edu/sa/PMedHis.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>SD is supposed to be ranked way higher than Duke in BioE. Still, both programs are great. Base where you go on how happy you'll be.</p>

5

<p>2006 us news rankings:
Bioengineering/Biomedical engineering</p>

<ol>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
</ol>

6

<p><a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engsp02_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engsp02_brief.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This is for Grad school, but UCSD is only behind JH.</p>

7

<p>Duke's campus is surrounded by poverty and racial tension. You can't get there non-stop; it's a full day coming and going. It's full of snotty, rich kids from NYC who couldn't get in to HYP. And it costs more. My advice, save your money for grad school, especially since you already have a relationship with Dr. Sah.</p>