I'm looking into biology

<p>hey there...I'm really interested in entering a career involved in bioengineering...which schools would be options to look into for undergrad?</p>

<p>From US News</p>

<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Biomedical / Biomedical Engineering
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
Methodology<br>
1. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
2. Duke University (NC)
3. Univ. of California–San Diego *
4. Georgia Institute of Technology *
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology<br>
6. University of Pennsylvania<br>
7. Case Western Reserve Univ. (OH)
8. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
9. Boston University<br>
10. University of Washington *
11. Rice University (TX)
12. Northwestern University (IL)
University of California–Berkeley *
14. Stanford University (CA)
15. Vanderbilt University (TN)
16. Washington University in St. Louis<br>
17. Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *
University of Virginia *
19. U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
University of Texas–Austin *
21. University of California–Davis *
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY)
23. Tulane University (LA)</p>

<p>Gourman ranking for undergraduate biomedical engineering follows:
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
Brown
Duke
Northwestern
Tulane
Case Western
Texas A&M
RPI
Marquette [this is a surprise entry...]
UC San Diego
Louisiana Tech
Boston U
U Iowa
Arizona State
U Illinois Chicago</p>

<p>cool, a bioengineer!</p>

<p>I don't have anything for you as far as rankings go, but I'm in the biological engineering program at Cornell.</p>

<p>I almost went to U Rochester or RPI for biomedical engineering (both have good programs). I liked Cornell better overall, but entered as a bio major, because I thought the biological engineering at Cornell would have too much of an environmental focus. I transfered into biological engineering fall of my sophomore year.</p>

<p>While I can't give you rankings, I can give you some advice. Biomedical engineering is a very specialized undergraduate degree, in my opinion, you are better off doing biological engineering undergrad and biomedical graduate work. BME is a more narrow subset of BEE, so you can actually take most of the same classes as biomedical engineering, because you can take all your upper level with a medical focus.</p>

<p>However, the intro classes will give you a taste of everything, from biomedical, to food science, to environmental engineering. </p>

<p>For instance one of my sophomore year projects was to propose three designs for a biosensor to detect anthrax spores in the environment. This probably wouldn't have been in a biomedical engineering course....but it got me interested in biosensors, and now I"ll be doing research for an inexpensive HIV test biosensor that just got a large grant from the Gates Foundation. I think that taking courses in a scope that doesn't only cover medical applications exposes you to more...and ultimately broadens your options.</p>

<p>I agree that all the posted schools have strong departments. JHU is known for BME, not sure how much individual attention you'd get there, because that's one of the most popular majors. RPI, U Rochester, Duke, and Boston University all come to mind as good schools. I really like Cornell, it's program isn't on the rankings, but they are well known for their engineering and biology....most of the classes you take will be in either of those strong departments, so although it's not on the other lists I would consider it a strong program as well.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for the insight! I heard Rice was pretty good...what about that?</p>

<p>Here are my list of schools so far:</p>

<p>Reach:
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Columbia</p>

<p>Match:
Duke
Rice
Northwestern
Washington St. Louis</p>

<p>Safety:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ($60000 scholarship)
University of Maryland - College Park (In-state)</p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

<p>I think some of your matches are actually reaches. Duke's admitted student stats are higher than Columbia's, and Northwestern's are in the same range as well.</p>

<p>Consider HYPSM as high reaches.</p>

<p>oh, I plan to. If I even hit 1 out of 5 high reach schools I'm applying to, I'd be really happy</p>

<p>I am taking the ACT in a couple weeks...I took a practice this weekend and scored a 35. I'm taking another in a couple days to see if it wasn't just a fluke. But, I know my test scores are a bit on the low side...hopefully my ec's and rank will compensate for the slightly weaker test scores</p>