I’ve been accepted to Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering program and University of Michigan College of Engineering. Currently deciding between the two, with lower cost being the main attraction for U of M as well as a stronger engineering program overall. The difference for me would add up to about $75k of debt vs graduating without debt. JHU has the top ranked program for BME, smaller community, and strong connection with the medical field, but given UM’s great engineering program overall, what are your opinions on the value of the two schools? Are there any JHU BME students who can elaborate on why they value their experience and eductation there?
I’m not a BME, but was friends with many of them (it is the most popular major at Hopkins so you’re bound to hear the pros and cons for the program from these students). In general, I can tell you that the benefits of a smaller private school like Hopkins will primarily revolve around resources per capita, which allows for early research opportunities, smaller classes, individual attention for academic and career advising and possibly networking benefits.
If your hope is to go into BME and actually use the education (about 1/3 of JHU BMEs, for example, actually are premeds in disguise), then yes, the Hopkins healthcare R&D expenditures and its established healthcare empire create unparalleled opportunities for your future profession. At the same time, though, you’ll see that second behind Hopkins in annual research spending (which one can translate to more numerous and quality undergrad research opportunities and a potential career down the road) is none other than UMich, which also has a significant healthcare system associated with the university (http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/colleges-with-highest-research-and-development-expenditures/). While there seems to be plenty of money going around at both schools, also keep in mind Hopkins has about 6000 undergrads to UMich’s 28,000. While this might mean a smaller pie per person in terms of undergrad research opportunities at UMich (and starting early in research is huge if you want to get your name on quality publications and actually learn skills and network in labs), your success more importantly depends on how aggressive you are at seeking those opportunities out, etc. The same goes for advising and educational resources. Hopkins has more resources per person to probably (probably, I don’t know the details on UMich) provide more individualized attention per student, provide better faculty support, smaller class sizes, etc. But again, if you are a hardworking and active student then you may not need these benefits to reach the same level of success at UMich.
Basically, the higher price tag (and it is significant) is buying you more resources if you have questions, need help or want more opportunities. While that sounds nice, that by no means suggests that you can’t work hard on your own and accomplish just as much at UMich, which is an awesome state school. While I admit I’m not familiar with UMich, I am very familiar with UC San Diego and UCLA. Dozens of my friends went for undergrad to these stellar state schools and constantly complained about the difficulties in securing research their freshman or sophomore years (it was very competitive, and even then, sometimes the “research” consisted of grunt work) and complained of non-existent academic and career advising. Given that all three of these schools are large, research focused, and awesome schools makes me think that UMich will have similar expectations that students need to fend for themselves to a large extent. On the other hand, I sent a single email out to an NIH lab my freshman year and was interning there a month later getting multiple publications over the next four years. Again, this is by no means dooming since many students from UCLA and UCSD are very successful, but it seems to me that they needed to be more self-reliant and hardworking to achieve that success.
When it comes to the sciences, research experience as an undergrad is huge. You are addressing real world problems, learning marketable skills, networking for a potential career and reinforcing what you learn in the classroom. Given that the market is inundated with engineering majors, research experiences (and meaningful ones that ideally involve years in the same lab doing quality stuff) are key to distinguishing yourself and getting a quality job out of college (or being a competitive grad school applicant). Hopkins is America’s first research university, and it has maintained its founding vision. It heavily emphasizes, often requires, research experiences for its students, and even encourages independent research with 46 annual $2,500 PURA research grants that you can qualify for even as a freshman. Not very many schools give out $2,500 research grants with limited oversight to unproven freshman based on a small research grant proposal (it is not that competitive or difficult, honestly). Hopkins does put its money (your money?) where its mouth is. http://web.jhu.edu/administration/provost/awards/pura/index.html. I know Hopkins also provides $10,000 Woodrow Wilson Fellowships and $3,000 DURA research grants to its Arts and Sciences students, but I’m unfamiliar with what other grants undergrad Engineering majors can apply for. Nonetheless, it goes to show that Hopkins is committed to the undergrad research experience.
In summary, Hopkins is awesome and will provide a stellar education, and so will UMich. If you’re a go-getter and willing to possibly compete for your piece of pie at UMich then you’ll do just fine and achieve your goals while saving a pretty penny. All depends on you and how you think you’ll fair in these different settings.