Hopkins BME, MIT, or Duke

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

<p>I am trying to decide between MIT, Duke, and Hopkins BME (biomedical engineering). I want to study biological/biomedical engineering, with a biomolecular focus, so having a good chemical engineering department would be a plus. I want to do premed, specifically MD/PhD, but as everyone knows, that can change. Here are the pros and cons of each university as I see it. Any advice or help in making the decision would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>MIT:</p>

<p>Pros: It's MIT, very good financial aid package, #1 Chem Eng department, #4 Biological Eng dept, advanced Nanotech institutes, can cross-register at Harvard, great business programs</p>

<p>Cons: Biological Eng dept is young and enrollment is limited to 40 (there is a BME minor that everyone can take), premed acceptance to at least 1 med school is ~75% (I know statistics can be misleading, but still), cold weather</p>

<p>Duke:</p>

<p>Pros: Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship (full-tuition, summer at Oxford Univ., opportunities to get research grants), #2 Biomedical Eng. dept, #6 Medical School, medical school adjacent to undergrad campus, good weather, more relaxed atmosphere, good business programs</p>

<p>Cons: No independent chemical engineering department (I'm pretty sure they cover it in BME, though)</p>

<p>Hopkins:</p>

<p>Pros: Hodson Trust Scholarship (partial-tuition), #1 BME dept, #1 Hospital, #2 Medical School (also near the campus), more students in the Hopkins MD/PhD program came from Hopkins undergrad than from any other institution, has a Chem. Eng. department, minor in Entrepreneurship program, close to home</p>

<p>Cons: BME major seems less flexible here than at other places, few if any BME majors have a second major at Hopkins</p>

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<p>I don't believe you can give up Duke's full tuition and summer at Oxford! I love Hopkins, but... Have you visited all of the schools? Perhapas you like the environment at one of them? </p>

<p>You really got a tough choice to make - but good news: you can't be wrong :)</p>

3

<p>duuukkeee!!</p>

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<p>DUKE! But one must also remember that Hopkins has excellent advising and I believe sends the highest percentage of applicants who want to go to medical school.. to medical school. Something like 95%? I'm not sure. But then again, Duke has great sports, great social life, etc... snobbery might be an issue (not sure if this is a myth), but I think the quality of life might be better at Duke. Have you visited Hopkins yet? Both Hopkins and Duke are very different, I personally think that for BME specifically it should be between Hopkins and Duke.. look up Duke's percentage in sending students to med school and find out how good their advising is, maybe?</p>

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<p>OK - just have to make sure there is balance here... Hopkins totally rocks.</p>

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<p>Wow.. tough choice! You really can't go wrong... Just to respond to what you wrote about BME at Hopkins, a decent number of people do double major in another engineering field (the one that corresponds to what track they are concentrating on in BME). However, not many people do a second major in Arts & Sciences, though I do know some who are doing just that. Some of the KSAS majors only require 10 courses for the major, so it is technically feasible to double major. I've decided to forgo the double major and do BME + 2 or 3 minors (probably in Math, Econ and Business) and take some random classes in areas that I'm interested in (like IR and French).</p>

<p>Back to your decision - like someone else said, try to visit the campuses if possible (I know there's not much time left and trips can be expensive). I've visited MIT and go to Hopkins, and I think the "feel" of both campuses is quite different (though I personally liked them both). Whatever you decide, good luck!</p>

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<p>Do you want to be a doctor or an engineer? You got to answer a few q's about yourself. If you want to be both then come to JHU ;)</p>