<p>My daughter was admitted by Columbia's SEAS and JHU-BME major this year. She loves BME but not for the medical school. She seems to have preference toward JHU. However, I encourage her to learn more before making a decision. We will visit both schools in the next week.</p>
<p>Personally, I prefer she go to Columbia with the following reasons:
(1) Big name; Columbia was ranked #4 by "US News" last year;
(2) Lowest admit rate; 6.9% second in the row (Harvard: 6.2%);
(3) Financial aid; Columbia gave us more generous money than JHU;
(4) Big city; NY could provide more resources than any elsewheres</p>
<p>However, JHU's BME is ranked No. 1 and Columbia is 16. This really bothers me.</p>
<p>Please give me your thoughts, we will greatly appreciate.</p>
<p>JHU’s BME department is definitely one of the best in the nation and boasts incredible professors. but at the same time the school doesn’t foster the best educational environment. my sister went the JHU for graduate school and urged me to attend Columbia over JHU BME. her opinion was that at JHU, BME students learn a bit of everything, but not enough of one thing to excel in research. the students there are also all premed, creating a really competitive environment. i don’t know about JHU, but at columbia, it is very easy to obtain great research opportunities. columbia’s BME department is fantastic, and the many people who chose columbia over JHUBME here don’t regret it. columbia excels in all of its departments. it provides a more well-rounded education. if your daughter has any interests aside from engineering, she can also explore those interests while taking classes with renowned faculty in those areas, something you’re less likely to do at johns hopkins.</p>
<p>As What I learn from their administrators JHU-BME students did have very high gpa in average as well as very high graduation rate. It sounds it is not difficult to stay on. Also, majority of BME undergraduate students went to graduate for MS/PhD program instead of turning into medical school. This seems contradicting your sister’s experience. I am not sure which one is more accurate. </p>
<p>What I plant o do is to encourage my daughter to attend Columbia BME and then pursue the graduate career in any schools she loves in the future. I am not sure will it be easy to move to JHPBME for MS/PhD after she finish BS in Columbia BME?</p>
<p>i was probably being a little unfair with hopkins. i would trust facts over opinion. but a high gpa average doesn’t reflect much other than grade inflation. a high graduation rate is also very common at top schools. your daughter can get into great graduate programs from any top school. but columbia’s location, student diversity, and amazing faculty in all departments, also offers so much more.</p>
<p>@garygary You were definitely being unfair :P. I’m looking at the two schools for BME too (along with UPenn and Duke). JHU BME has four specific focus areas that undergraduates pick their Junior year, hardly something that I would call a detrimentally broad education.</p>
<p>@paultaiwan51 Addressing points 1 and 2. I don’t personally follow US News rankings very much but as far as prestige goes, JHU BME is a pretty darn big name. Also, if you are looking at admit rate as an indicator of how good a program is (something I would definitely disagree with, but that’s another debate), JHU BME is pretty darn selective. 18% acceptance rate this year. And, as AdmissionsDaniel has said in past posts, only 1/3 of the students who apply to BME and get into JHU actually get into JHU BME. Which, if you take a third of 18%, is much lower than Columbia SEAS which had something like a 9.9% acceptance rate this year (if I recall correctly). Anyways, just offering another perspective. I love both schools haha.</p>
<p>Attending an Ivy League school will put anyone on good footing to get into any other school for grad programs. </p>
<p>No one keeps track of admit rates for grad school on the undergrad side <a href=“i.e.%20how%20many%20undergrads%20from%20the%20school%20applied%20for%20phd%20programs%20and%20got%20in”>to my knowledge</a> but from anecdotal evidence in my year (chem.e.) I can say that the rate is pretty high for top level schools. My year had kids going to MIT, CMU, Stanford, Michigan, and GA Tech, all top tier programs.</p>
<p>There are some who might disagree with me but in my experience, MOST (tier 1) schools don’t encourage students to do their undergrad and grad in the same school. Sometimes this is a departmental preference instead of a school-wide policy and would be worth asking both JHU and Columbia’s BME departments. Ask the head of the department, not the receptionist tho.</p>
<p>My daughter has decided to go with JHU. Her decision was based on the repution of BME department instead of the big name of school. Before making decision, she has visited both campuses and consulted many BME students. As a father, I respect and support her final decision. In a matter of fact, she is in JHU now and is happy there at least at this time. I have also visited Baltimore three times. I like this harbor city but same as other big cities there are many bad places where you may not want to go. Basically, the Homewood campus and its surrounding areas are safe. </p>
<p>Thank you all you guys for your very valuable opinions.</p>