Duke vs UMich vs Cornell vs JHU (BME)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

<p>Hi, I want to major in biomedical engineering (premed). I am really confused about which school to choose. So far my thought process: </p>

<p>Duke:
Great BME program, and is also the strongest overall school of the four. It's beautiful and I can totally see myself loving it there...the acceptance rate was low this year and I know I'll have a competitive class!!!! But it's out of state tuition..</p>

<p>JHU BME:
AMAZING BME program, but I've heard horror stories about how cutthroat it is...and it costs as much as a nice house over the four years!!! Also if I didn't like BME, JHU isn't as good for other types of engineering</p>

<p>Cornell:
It's an Ivy.....haha. Yeah. The engineering is probably the best of the ivy league, but still nothing like Duke or JHU. And it's still pretty pricey. </p>

<p>University of Michigan:
Love it already. I live in state and got a full tuition scholarship for four years so financially, it's solid. the BME program isn't the best, but it has a good med school and a good hospital. But it's just disappointing to stay in state when I've worked so hard my whole life....maybe I'm just being immature :D</p>

<p>So what do you guys think i should do? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>hm this is funny a year ago i was in your exact position (minus michigan) - deciding between engineering at duke, hopkins, and cornell. now i’m an english major haha. that being said, i can tell you the decisions that led me to pick duke. they may be subjective, but these were just my opinions:</p>

<p>hopkins - my dad went there, i visited and loved the campus; their BME program is insanely good; the campus was pretty and baltimore is awesome; however, as my dad warned me, i definitely felt the competition in the air. i never attended hopkins, so i can’t know for sure, but i felt very worried about the level of competition, especially for engineers or pre-meds</p>

<p>cornell - i never actually visited (i went to duke first and fell in LOVE) but i can tell you what i did and didn’t like about it from research. pros: strong engineering program (my grandfather was a mechanical engineer there and loved it), less of a cutthroat environment than hopkins, very close knit program; cons: veryyyy secluded campus, weather is not very pleasant most of the year (as a friend who is a freshman there now has confirmed for me) <– yeah most of cornell was based on atmosphere of the campus, because i knew the academics at the three schools would be comparable</p>

<p>duke - yeah i’m here and i love every second of it. veryyyy different environment from any other school that i visited/applied to. pros: campus is gorgeous, many people are incredibly intelligent, which actually motivates me to work harder, weather is wonderful (except right now, its rainy and 42 degrees sadly), not cutthroat at ALL - i literally felt like i could ask anyone ( my TAs, fellow students, friends, and professors ) for help, there is an active social scene that is pretty much open to all people; cons: engineering is intense, especially for someone who hasn’t had much experience with it (i.e. i was doing civil and in a required programming class my first semester, which i found very difficult), your next 4 years of classes are pretty much locked in, especially if you don’t have a ton of AP credits, durham itself is cool but you kind of live in a duke bubble, also about half of pratt students come in as BME but either leave engineering or switch to another type, especially if they are pre-med because engineering is really hard and you can end up with a lower GPA than you’d like</p>

<p>so yeah. i hope my veryyy long-winded explanation helped a little bit. its my own personal opinion, but i can tell you one thing for sure: its been almost 2 semesters, and i have not regretted my decision to attend duke. not one day. however, given that you have been accepted to 4 amazing schools, i have no doubt you’ll love it wherever you end up.</p>

<p>also, sorry i wasn’t able to offer perspectives with regard to money :/</p>

3

<p>I’ll give you the money perspective as the parent of one son who graduated from U of Michigan and who is now a PhD student at Cornell, and another son having to decide now between U-Mich, Duke, Cornell, Carleton and Emory. </p>

<p>Son #1 was in-state at U-Mich = main reason for going there. No regrets. Great foundation.</p>

<p>Son #2 is out-of-state for U-Mich and has ruled it out. Now has to decide between merit scholarship at Emory or paying full tab at one of the others.</p>

<p>I think you’d be crazy to forgo your full scholarship to U-Mich! If you think it’s boring to stay in-state (and I get that) use the money you save by going to U-Mich to travel the world during your vacations - or take a gap year to live overseas. My son’s probably going to defer admission to spend a year in Spain. With the money you save you have lots of options!</p>

4

<p>^I agree with what you’ve said above, but I think there’s a distinction between the money saved by the student vs. the parents. (Not saying you shouldn’t save your parents’ money though.) If you have to take out loans to finance your education, that’s one thing. If it’s just that your parents have to (but are able to without significant financial burden) shell out more money for your education, that’s another.</p>

<p>"use the money you save by going to U-Mich to travel the world during your vacations - or take a gap year to live overseas. "</p>

<p>Like I said above, some parents don’t think that way. Just because their son is saving money by going to Michigan, doesn’t mean they’re going to give them thousands of dollars to travel. Or maybe they will…I don’t know them. Having said that, a full ride to Michigan would be hard to pass up.</p>

<p>Duke was cheaper than UMich for me, so the choice was easy. :wink: All great choices; you can’t go wrong.</p>

5

<p>I think your decision should come down to Duke or Michigan. I think Duke’s BME program/college atmosphere in general trumps JHU and Cornell. The positives of the BME program at Duke is that it’s very flexible, meaning you can pursue industry, grad school, med school, business school, etc… This is due in part to students in Pratt often going into fields not related to their major. Both schools are very sporty, so theres no real advantage there. The weather is great at Duke compared to the north! And its really a great school filled with a variety of diverse people i don’t think you’d meet at a state school. If you really really are set on premed, I would choose Michigan just because it’s cheaper, and as they say, where you do your undergrad doesn’t matter.</p>

6

<p>Duke- strongest out of the four in term’s of prestige. Very good BME program.</p>

<p>Hopkins- the BEST BME program in the country, hands down. Go there if you’re certain that you want to study BME.</p>

<p>UMich- I am an international so don’t know much about the school’s overall prestige or about it’s BME program. However, a full ride puts everything in its favor. Now if a person who has NO clue about a school as well as the specific program at that school, but is still inclined to that school, then you, who is “already in love with it” should have no qualms about it.</p>

<p>I think the debate should be about Hopkins vs UMich: and that certainly becomes a debate about the best program in the country v/s a full ride. With all due respect, I’d suggest that this discussion takes place on the family dining table rather than on CC.</p>

<p>Good luck to you wherever you go, you are a fantastic student to have been accepted to such great schools.</p>

7

<p>There isn’t that much of a difference between the best BME program and the 2nd best one. The OP seems to prefer Duke so this should be a Duke-UMich debate with the finances becoming key.</p>

8

<p>While you might think between 1st and 2nd its not much of a difference, but as a BME at Hopkins I can tell you the program and the opportunities are absolutely incredible! I wouldn’t rule it out if you’re set on BME. While I don’t know the extent of Duke’s programs and the opportunities they provide, VERY few schools if ANY come close to JHU’s program. I’m designing a medical device on a team that we will market in the near future as a freshman, and several of my freshman friends are in really cool research labs already. You won’t get to do anything until your junior and senior years most places.</p>

9

<p>I’d be shocked if Duke didn’t have those same opportunities as well although I’m not BME here so I can’t confirm that. What I do know is that Duke’s location in the Research Triange is more conducive to finding cool jobs and internships in the biomedical field than JHU’s location in Baltimore.</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to Duke BME | Duke Biomedical Engineering Department](<a href=“http://www.bme.duke.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.bme.duke.edu/)</p>

<p>Check it out. There’s a lot of cutting edge research going on.</p>

10

<p>Duke actually may be better at finding you a job out of undergrad - but most people don’t choose to go straight into industry out of undergrad anyways. I do know that LOTS of companies come here looking for people for internships as well as hire. As a BME I get at least an email every week or two about someone looking for research positions or some place asking our department to see if anyone wants to apply to elite summer programs. Although, the research programs here are some of the best in the country, so often people just choose to do research here rather than over the summer at other places.</p>

11

<p>I was kinda wondering…do BME students take human anatomy?</p>

12

<p>No, BME students don’t take human anatomy. The closest that’s required is learning the structure of the heart for electrocardiology. You can take a look at the curriculum here <a href=“http://www.bme.duke.edu/sites/bme.duke.edu/files/Ugrad%20advising%20handbook_F11.pdf[/url]”>http://www.bme.duke.edu/sites/bme.duke.edu/files/Ugrad%20advising%20handbook_F11.pdf&lt;/a&gt; . If you do want to take human anatomy, I believe the evolutionary anthropology department has that.</p>

13

<p>Thanks again! :)</p>

14

<p>I had a friend who went to JHU BME. Absolutely hated it when it came to medical school admissions. </p>

<p>He warned me not to do engineering if you want to do pre-med, something that has rung very true at my current university. Look for the school with the best environment and the lowest barriers when it comes to transferring between engineering and the liberal arts. Also, look for a school that provides other career opportunities besides medicine if you happen to find say…finance more lucrative. Most importantly, find an environment that you’ll enjoy socially because as cliche as it sounds, college is 4 years that can define your outlook on life and it can really be one of the best 4 years of your life (just don’t walk into school expecting it).</p>

15

<p>Using beard tax’s criteria: It’s trivially easy to transfer out of Pratt to Trinity if you find yourself not enjoying engineering. Even if you stay in Pratt, you are free to take any Trinity class you qualify for provided you have the time and will to take it. Lots of seniors, both in Trinity and Pratt, go into consulting or finance, so those options are always open.</p>

16

<p>Just look at the statistics … </p>

<p>How many students change their major? How many BME students at Duke/JHU/… drop-out or change their majors? </p>

<p>How likely are YOU to change your major? (If you’ve been ‘locked’ in on BME since 8th grade and have a real aptitude for science, engineering, bio, etc. and you can easily digest a high workload and pressure, then you’re probably unlikely to change major) </p>

<p>If, however, you are not 100% convinced that you’re going to graduate as a BME major you should compare the colleges a little differently! Then, I guess, JHU doesn’t look all that attractive anymore … </p>

<p>Besides all of that - the full tuition at Mich would look awfully tempting to me … (I’m a dad, paying for a son @ an oos college …). The question is: do you plan to do graduate studies (other than medical)? If so, then your undergrad-college becomes less important, and you could save a ton of money … (UMich is really a good address …)</p>

17

<p>Although I would love to go to Hopkins or Duke for BME, unfortunately my parents have informed me today that they will only pay 12000 a year. But the EFC at Duke and JHU are both around 35000. So, unless I want to be 90K+ in the hole by the time I graduate and then have to shoulder med school debt, too, I think I don’t really have a choice. I think it has to be Michigan. </p>

<p>I just wish my parents had told me this before I’d filled out all the applications and gotten my hopes up. Do you think that I’ll regret not going to Hopkins/Duke? There’s still a chance I’ll get just as solid an education at Michigan…right? :(</p>

18

<p>Michigan is a great school - there’s nothing wrong with going there and you should be challenged academically and also have a great time. It’s not worth going $90k into debt to go to Duke or JHU, especially if you want to go to med school. Enjoy football Saturdays and don’t look back!</p>

19

<p>^ But what kind of med schools can a top Michigan premed student go to? I’ve heard of kids with straight 4.0’s from UMich and great MCAT’s get rejected from Hopkins for Med. I will work my butt off for the next four years if it means that it’s quite possible for me to get into a top med school (UPenn, Duke, Harvard, Stanford etc.) But will JHU give me more opportunities to go to a great med school?</p>

20

<p>Don’t give up. Let the financial aid office of both JHU and Duke know of your situation, that you cannot afford school at these tuitions and that you have a full ride from University of Michigan.</p>

<p>Definitely explain your story and tell them that though you would attend school X, you can’t afford it and will need to choose U Mich because you plan on attending medical school in the future. </p>

<p>See which school gives you more money and see what you can afford. Regardless, take school X’s offer and leverage that for more money from school Y so that money becomes less of an issue. Don’t give up, be persistent and realize that financial aid is a game of chicken as well as a matter of need. They might try to call your bluff, but definitely trump up U Mich’s attributes and whatever honors program that you got into. It never hurts to try, especially when you’re talking about 4 years of your life</p>