<p>As you know, MIT has its new Biological Engineering thing going on this year.</p>
<p>It says BE major has limited enrollment.....how hard is it to get into that thing?</p>
<p>Even if I get into MIT somehow, how competitive should I be against fellow MIT students?</p>
<p>Perhaps, it is better for me to go to Johns Hopkins with its BME program?</p>
<p>Anyfeed back welcomed.</p>
<p>First, it's possible that BE enrollment won't be limited for the class of 2010 and later -- enrollment is currently limited for the classes of 2008 and 2009, but that's due only to physical limitations in laboratory space and class size. By the time the class of 2010 reaches sophomore year, there may be enough space/enough BE professors that the major doesn't need to be limited.</p>
<p>Second, the "selection" for the major doesn't really have any competitive aspects -- according to the website, "All students who fulfill the eligibility requirements have an equal chance of being selected for the BE SB. To be eligible, you must complete the following subjects with a passing grade by the end of fall term sophomore year: 7.012, 7.013, or 7.014; 8.02; 18.03; BE.110/2.772J." So even if selection is still in effect for classes in the future, it's not as though you're actually competing against other MIT students to be "admitted" into the major.</p>
<p>Third, there are other programs at MIT which allow engineers to explore biological problems, such as [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/cheme/undergraduate/index.html%5D10-B%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/cheme/undergraduate/index.html]10-B[/url</a>], the Chemical-Biological Engineering program by the Department of Chemical Engineering, or the [url=<a href="http://www-me.mit.edu/UGradProgram/Course2A.htm%5D2-A%5B/url">http://www-me.mit.edu/UGradProgram/Course2A.htm]2-A[/url</a>] program by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.</p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>One more question. Do All majors get decided during sophomore year?
Or is this just BE that is selected during sophomore year?</p>
<p>Actually, everyone declares a major at the end of freshman year. </p>
<p>At the moment, the people who will be majoring in BE choose a non-BE major at the end of freshman year, and then are eligible to participate in the BE major lottery at the end of fall term sophomore year. I highly doubt, however, that this somewhat unorthodox situation will be kept in place beyond the classes of 2008 and 2009.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>One irrelevent question: I heard MIT students GPAs are just butchered by the difficulty of the classes, and the chance of getting into medschool from MIT is comparatively low. If so, would I be safer with "less rigorous" colleges?</p>
<p>Well, 82% of MIT undergrads who apply to medical school are accepted somewhere (data here</a>), so I think "low" is kind of an odd word to use. Lower than grade-inflated peer institutions, yes, but 82% still isn't bad.</p>
<p>In general, however, it is better to take cakewalk courses and get a high GPA; medical schools will not be particularly impressed by someone with a low GPA, engineer or not. It's possible to get A's at MIT, but you have to do better than most of the people in your class.</p>
<p>"It's possible to get A's at MIT, but you have to do better than most of the people in your class."</p>
<p>That is exactly what I am afraid of. But is it really that MIT is harder than other top colleges?</p>
<p>Again, thanks for the great info.</p>
<p>Well, it's more that MIT is less grade-inflated than other schools, and therefore it's more difficult to get A's. (Personally, I suspect also that yes, MIT is more difficult than other top schools, but I can't really back that up.)</p>
<p>I'm not exactly sure how grades are done at other schools -- perhaps there are more straight-scaled classes, or perhaps there's a significant component of extra credit -- but at MIT almost all classes are curved and B-centered: do better than one standard deviation above the mean and you'll get an A, do worse than one standard deviation below the mean and you'll get a C. Using this system, more than half the people in a given class will get a B.</p>
<p>Only if I could get in.......<sigh></sigh></p>