<p>I love Duke - just about everything about it, BME, environment, beautiful campus, general vibe....but I received no financial aid. Is a Duke education worth putting myself 200k in debt when Case is offering me half tuition?
any and all feedback welcome!!</p>
<p>What do you want to do after college?</p>
<p>probably get a PhD - but I have no idea how much that would cost, tuition-wise…</p>
<p>Hello everyone on College Confidential.
hiltzation: Since you want to do graduate school, I would go against it. Graduate school already costs so much, so going to Case would be cost-effective. I know that you would love to go to Duke, but think about your future and consequences of your actions before you resolve on big decisions like this. Perhaps you can ask Duke to offer some financial aid (if you still can).</p>
<p>thanks, muhammadsajjad. I’ve heard many instances in which people work toward a PhD for free, in exchange for teaching, etc. Is this not very common with BME grad programs at prestigious schools??</p>
<p>If you do grad school right, it should be free. If you can’t get departmental fellowships or any other fellowships, I would consider working a while and going back… grad school should truly be close to free.</p>
<p>BME programs should have more funding available to them simply because the NIH provides a ton of funding. You should really be able to get a fellowship, especially in such a marketable and well-funded field.</p>
<p>Oh, and for the vast majority of PhD programs, you are expected to TA for several semesters. In the programs, you normally get certified to teach (well, to a certain extent… you become qualified to be a professor), so that’s why they require TA-ing for most grad students.</p>
<p>That said, paying full sticker price for Duke is a tad insane if you have to go in debt for most, if not all, of it. Case is an well-regarded school, especially for science.</p>
<p>There’s a study that’s posted on the chicago board that found that those who turned down “better” schools for a “lesser” school had about the same earnings as those who went to the “better” school over the long run. It’s not the college that makes you successful. You are the one that determines if you are successful. Whether you go to Case or Duke isn’t the defining factor. You might have to work a bit harder at Case, but if it means not going into crippling debt, then it might be worth it.</p>
<p>Before you make your final decision, I would call the financial aid office and ask to appeal your offer. I would also ask if there are any departmental or institutional scholarships for which you can still apply.</p>
<p>Hello everyone on College Confidential. You’re welcome hiltzation. I’m happy to give advice. kitkatkatie, that’s great counsel you are giving!</p>
<p>i was with a young co-worker, he had a PhD in engineering from MIT but went to a state university undergrad (3.9 GPA). He go a fully funded ride to MIT for his PhD.</p>
<p>if you plan to go to law school, med school or grad school, do not take on debt while an undergrad (or at least keep it under $20K), do well in undergrad, and then you will get the golden ticket to a full ride for a science PhD.</p>
<p>my child turned down Duke last year, we were told to pay $52k/year, he is at flagship in-state school and doing well (perfect grades)…best decision we ever made.</p>
<p>I agree that Case Western is a fine college and half tuition merit money there should be strongly considered if you don’t have funds for grad school. </p>
<p>I do not agree that grad school is free unless you are hard core in sciences…certainly NOT for MBAs for instance. Forget about it if you are a lawyer re undergrad debt…the salaries are not commensurate with upper realm debt load, and most med students are into debt management as they choose their med school.</p>
<p>Many Duke BME students won good jobs with excellent training right out of Duke…in a major recession. All of my Duke 09 son’s engineering grad friends are employed, albeit a couple are in armed services in engineering…another “smart plan” for some which provides a great deal more of training.</p>
<p>BME is one of the most difficult paths at Duke. Pratt is hard! But the prize at the end of the challenge is quite good.</p>
<p>yes, I am not surprised that most Duke engineers found jobs during ths recession. However, this was true for most engineering graduates from top engineering programs such as Georgia Tech, U of Michigan, U of Illinois, Virginia Tech etc…so this was smart of them if they paid in-state tuition for these schools.</p>
<p>I am an engineer and hire young engineers, any of the above schools are on our recruiting list, a Duke engineering degree is not rated higher than a GT grad. We look beyond that into their EC’s, presence, communication skills, etc…</p>
<p>Also, getting a BME is really stupid, that is a limited field. No one when they graduate with an engineering degree knows what they will be doing in 20 years, get a degree with more flexibility such as ChemE, Mech, EE, CSE…with health care being squeezed, BME opportunities are going to decline.</p>
<p>A distinction between professional schools and graduate school needs to be made here.</p>
<p>Law school, business school, med school, etc are professional schools. Their students earn professional degrees. Their tuition is also pretty insane so taking on a large undergrad debt load while planning to go to professional schools is a bad idea. </p>
<p>Grad school usually award masters and PhDs in their specific fields. While a master is not funded, PhD candidates are almost universally funded for a majority, if not all, of their training. Most of the time, the first two years of a PhD is largely coursework during which a student is funded by the department’s general budget. After prelims, the student joins a lab where the PI funds the student (health insurance, cost of living, etc) until they graduate. </p>
<p>For the BME department at Duke specifically, a PhD student is usually sponsored by a member of the faculty whose lab he/she intends to join. That Pi is then responsible for funding all of that student’s expenses and stipend. That’s the way international grad students are funded at least, I think it’s the same for all grad students in the department. </p>
<p>Anyway, just wanted to point out that grad school (not professional schools) are usually all funded. </p>
<p>Also CollegeChecker, let’s not be ignorant. If you had any idea what kinds of research is going on in the BME department, you would not make such a foolish comment. Research and commercial applications in BME overlap significantly with all other engineering and many scientific fields, for instance, a small sample of the research conducted in our department:</p>
<p>1) Design of new ultrasound systems for non-invasive 3D probing and imaging of internal body systems</p>
<p>2) Design of neural and gene circuits </p>
<p>3) Genetic engineering for cellular reprogramming, cell-based regenerative therapy</p>
<p>4) Design and implementation of neuromechanical interfaces for prostheses</p>
<p>5) Design of new, smart drug delivery systems based on polymers, proteins, DNA/protein hydrids, nanoparticles, etc. </p>
<p>many of these research projects over aspects of ChemE, Mech, EE, CS, etc. In fact, I’d venture to say that BME is much more flexible than the traditional engineering fields because it is an amalgamation of these field. With “healthcare being squeezed” (which I also disagree with), there are even more opportunities for innovation that BME’s can pursue in areas such as more cost-effective diagnostics, cheaper and more effective drug delivery methods, targeted therapies, regenerative treatments that obviate use of immunosuppressant regimes, etc. I’d say that biomedical research and especially BME can only go up from here, not down.</p>
<p>Edit: also wanted to add that the diversity in BME is represented by the spectrum of courses in BME that are available to students. As a BME major, I’ve taken courses such as:</p>
<p>1) Electronics and signal processing
2) Biomaterials (polymers, metals, ceramics)
3) Biophotonics and optical design
4) Solid and fluid mechanics
5) Modeling of cellular phenomena (cardiac electrophysiology, cellular gene networks)</p>
<p>The only thing I haven’t delved into is compsci and even then engineers do a fair bit of programming in both matlab and labview and many (myself included) have taken courses such as C++, C, Java, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I’m hoping to convince my parents to cover a little more than half of tuition, which might make things a little easier…</p>
<p>this is just my opinion so dont attack me…i live in the cleveland area and people here think that case is A LOT better than it actually is. idk about people from other parts of the country, but around cleveland people have this annoying habit of almost equating case with like ivy league. idk if you ask me duke is alot better. and dont worry bro, ill be going into debt to pay for duke too.</p>
<p>It’s only natural. I used to live in Atlanta and people there thought Emory was like the harvard of the south. Of course, Duke was held in high esteem too. I’m not surprised Case is so well thought of in cleveland, it’s a good school.</p>
<p>@kitkat: can you site/name the study you referenced</p>