<p>Help!! I am trying to decide between Georgia Tech & Tulane for Biomedical Engineering? I like both schools for different reason....</p>
<p>That is not nearly enough information to prevent everyone from just answering GT. Without any other input, it is GT hands down.</p>
<p>I like Gerogia Tech the visit was good…but I am worried about a little bit of social life on the weekends…I love Tulane and the campus and the location…I want to go to med school afterwards so…I wish $$ was an issue but they offered the same amount so it really doesn’t come into play. I also got into Ole Miss and Univ Colorado for engineering but they don’t offer biomedical engineering. I did receive more $$ from those schools but not sure they are where I want to go. I think I like GA. Tech and Tulane the best.</p>
<p>If you want to go to med school. I wouldn’t suggest doing biomedical. Haiving just BS in biomedical doesn’t do much just like biology. You need least MS level in biomedical to be useful. If you want option of going to work and not go into med school in the future, I suggest you major something other than biomedical and get the premed requirement done. Biomedical at GT will give you lower GPA than the people who pursue regular premed at GT which will harm you when you apply to med school. I know someone got into Emory with regular premed route but the one majored in biomedical went to Georgia Medical School and their Mcat scores were pretty even, just not GPA.</p>
<p>Going to GT will allow you to be joint enrolled at Emory, which is a world class medical school. If you’re going to apply to Emory for med school then that will make it easier to get accepted. Besides that, you’ll be getting some of the best engineering education as well as some of the best education in medicine from two top tier schools in their respective fields.</p>
<p>Though there is something that seems like it might be a cause for concern. Students with only a BS in Biomedical engineering generally have a hard time finding work in their fields, and from numerous sources I’ve read that biomed eng. is something that most nearly requires a graduate degree in order to get job offers. Maybe you’d be better off doing a mechanical or computer engineering degree and then decide if you really want to get into biomed eng. for grad school. There are a lot of factors that would go into a decision like that, but I’d say to atleast consider it, though be sure to get confirmation from a biomedical engineer in the field before you make any important decisions.</p>
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<p>As far as I know, you are not “joint-enrolled” at Emory simply by being in GT’s BME program. I also do not know that it would help you with getting into med school there.</p>
<p>Not that it changes anything. Tulane is really gutting their engineering program as of late and so I think GT is the easy winner.</p>
<p>All good advice, but I plan on figuring out in college if I want to pursue a masters in BME or continuing to Med school, and from what I understand, if I am going to pursue grad or med school, where I did undergrad does not matter</p>
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Maybe, I don’t know the specifics, but it seems that you would be since it is a joint Emory/GT degree (from GT’s website). And if you want to get into Emory’s med school, then yes it would matter.</p>
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It will matter if you plan to apply to Emory, which is a very good medical school. Generally, however, you’re right it doesn’t matter, though your major will matter and according to a thread not too long ago, the rule of thumb seems to be that you can go from a mechanical undergrad to biomed grad but not so easily the other way around (though I’m sure it’s doable, it’s just a good idea to keep your options knowing since you’re not completely sure yet). Also, majoring in mech. eng. will not alter your chances of getting into med school either.</p>
<p>Still, note that you would be essentially attending two highly regarded schools in their respective fields, not something so easy to pass up when compared to Tulane, unless you have some very strong attractions to the school that are besides academics.</p>
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<p>This is the first I’ve heard of this. This would make sense for a research-based program because conceivably you could have an advisor lined up, but med school? Also, I was referring to Emory’s medical school as well, hence the “there”.</p>
<p>It’s not a very official sort of thing… and it isn’t too uncommon, i.e. MIT undergrads can get into MIT grad easier, etc. It’s not like they’re going to outright admit that Emory undergrads have the advantage because that just wouldn’t be fair. Alas, that’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess.</p>
<p>I currently go to Emory. Joint enroll just means you take a class here at Emory. You receive a degree from tech. Far as I know it only applies to undergrad. You basically just take classes that georgia tech does not offer</p>
<p>gthopeful mischaracterizes the Tulane engineering situation. Yes, Tulane eliminated civil, mechanical and electrical engineering after Katrina, and kept Chemical and BME. That actually tells you how devoted they are to those programs, because if they were at all on the fence about them that would have been the easy time to just eliminate engineering entirely. To the contrary, Tulane’s BME program is very highly regarded. It isn’t going anywhere, unless it goes up.</p>
<p>James18 - you seem unsure about your major. I would submit that Tulane is a more diverse school for exploring your options. Many many non-science majors go to med school. You might just decide something like that is right for you. If you were 100% sure about BME or even engineering, then it is a tossup or even slightly favors GT on that basis alone. Well, only GT if you thought it might be mechanical, civil or electrical. But otherwise the factors line up in Tulane’s favor. You just have to decide how sure you are versus how much flexibility you want.</p>
<p>Sorry fallenchemist, but even in BME, GT is the better school. Tulane is a good school in a pretty awesome location, but none of it’s engineering programs are really on par with GT.</p>
<p>boneh3ad - I don’t see where I said that GT’s program was better, as good as, or worse than Tulane’s. Did I not even say that if he was 100% sure about engineering it favors GT? I would argue that to say GT’s BME is light years ahead of Tulane is rather silly. Ranking undergraduate programs is a fool’s exercise. You take the fundamental courses, you take some more advanced courses, but in the end as long as the university has qualified professors and facilities, the undergraduate education at any two schools is not going to be radically different. That is why I say it is a tossup in most cases. Unless you want to tell me that either the Tulane professors are incompetent or the principles of mathematics, physics and biochemistry are somehow different at GT than they are at Tulane. It is hard for me to imagine that a BME student at Tulane and a BME student at GT are going to finish 4 years with significantly different knowledge and skill sets. Given that, it is really more about all the other factors being discussed.</p>
<p>Now graduate school is another matter entirely. But we are not talking about that, are we? Anyway, my real point is you critisized me for an argument I never made.</p>
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<p>Sounds like gutting to me. BME is an amalgamation of many different engineering disciplines along with some biology. One of the strengths of GT’s program is that faculty from many different engineering departments dabble in BME and so you get an especially rich course offering. I myself have taken two BME courses as an EE, dealing with various aspects of the form and function of the electrical signals in the body.</p>
<p>How can Tulane hope to compare if they do not even offer those different engineering disciplines? According to their website, they have 10 faculty - 14 if you count adjuncts. GT has many times more than that.</p>
<p>This quote right here:
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<p>implies to me that you believe Tulane to have the better program. Seems to be the only logical conclusion.</p>
<p>However, I, at no point, said that GT was lightyears better. All I said is that it is the better program.</p>
<p>As for the actual factors involved with determining a program’s quality in undergraduate engineering, there is definitely more to it than just “all the schools teach the same fundamentals.” For example, with BME, a field where you all but need a Masters to get a good job, it would be very useful to have good research opportunities available to you, as graduate programs LOVE undergrads that already have some lab experience. Additionally, having recommendations from well-known professors carries more weight than relatively unknown professors. I would argue that GT offers the advantage in both of those.</p>
<p>Since the OP does not yet know if he/she wants to do med school or a graduate BME degree, I would argue that GT has a more diverse array of opportunities for leaving all doors open. Sure, you can get into a good grad school from Tulane as well, but GT offers more diverse routes to getting there.</p>
<p>However, the OP seems to really like Tulane, so if he/she feels that they would be happier there, then I encourage them to attend Tulane. As I said, it is a good school. I am a proponent of the idea that being happy where you are is AT LEAST as important as the reputation of the school. However, I just simply don’t agree with any assertion that Tulane is the better school for BME unless it is on a personal comfort basis.</p>
<p>gthopeful - And how many can teach a class at once? Most people take about 10 courses in their major. Not sure what the point is in saying GT has a huge faculty of engineering professors. Of course it does, it is Georgia Tech. I am not saying that GT isn’t a stronger engineering school than Tulane. Of course it is. You guys sure are defensive. “Gutting” is a non-quantitative term that can be taken different ways, including meaning that engineering was eliminated. I just wanted to make it clear what the actual story was. Tulane’s program in BME is indeed highly regarded. Tech no doubt more so. Many students are looking for a school that is broader overall than a highly focused school like GT. I just wanted to make sure the OP knew what was and wasn’t available to him. You are an EE. Great. You would have no interest in Tulane obviously. As a BME, he would get a perfectly fine education at Tulane, I would even say an outstanding one. I doubt you have any real basis for knowing otherwise, since Tulane has the exact same accreditation for their program, ABET, as GT does.</p>
<p>boneh3ad - You completely misrepresent the context I said that in. If you did the whole quote:</p>
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<p>The bold part is obviously the main subject I was addressing by my statement that those factors line up in Tulane’s favor. To truncate my quote that way is dishonest and unfair.
If that is your idea of logic, you could stand some time in some good liberal arts courses on the subject.</p>
<p>You are now misrepresenting the part that was important. When taken as a whole, I agree with your post if you remove the line about “only GT if you thought it might be mechanical, civil or electrical.” That part is the part that leads to my interpretation.</p>
<p>And why is it that everyone’s canned response on this forum is “you could stand to take a class in _______.” It is distracting to the topic at hand and totally uncalled for. I didn’t attack you, why must you attack me?</p>
<p>By not only mischaracterizing my post, but also being obtuse about it, you are attacking me. Read the “But otherwise” part. If you cannot understand the flow, then that is too bad for you. There was an If “clause”, the clause being everything past the If and up to the “But otherwise”. Everything after the “But otherwise” refers back to the original subject. Not that hard. I never once said or implied that Tulane was better than GT in any engineering area, unless you cannot read.</p>
<p>Now let it drop. You are the one distracting.</p>