Decision day is coming up (ahhhhh) and I’m really indecisive and I would love some advice on what to choose. I’m stuck between JHU BME, Berkeley Regents, and USC Trustee. Honestly I can imagine myself adapting to each one of these schools, and this is such a big decision that I don’t want to make the wrong one.
Johns Hopkins (BME)
pros: BME #1 (I like the program at JHU the best out of the 3), really nice campus, open curriculum (I hope to explore some other topics, and possibly double major/minor), spacious dorms
cons: location, far from home (I live in Northern CA), 25k more per year than Berkeley or USC
Berkeley Regents (Chem E)
pros: lots of people/diversity, regents scholarship, close to bay area (lots of opportunities in industry here), close to home, cheaper than JHU (about same price as USC)
cons: the city (the city of Berkeley isn’t my favorite but its alright), major (although Berkeley Chem E is really great, I would probably try to transfer to bioE or just do Chem E with a bio emphasis)
USC Trustee (bioengineering)
pros: Trustee scholarship/Viterbi fellow/undergrad honors program (research money, distinguished speakers, etc), easy to double major/minor, cheaper than JHU (about same price as Berkeley),
cons: location (LA is okay)
After undergrad, I plan to go to either grad school or medical school (although I’m not sure yet). Any help/insight would be appreciated! Thank you so much!
On the cost, do you need loans for any of them? How much, if any?
Note that bioengineering is not the best for bachelor’s level job prospects in the field. In UCB’s career survey at https://career.berkeley.edu/Survey/2015Majors , you can compare bioengineering to chemical engineering. It appears that fewer bioengineering graduates report jobs that are directly related to their major than chemical engineering.
Changing into a College of Engineering major at UCB can be difficult. Chemical engineering does include some biology type stuff.
My family can afford to send me to either one of the schools, but in the back of my mind I realize I need to factor in money as well. We won’t need to take out loans but it would just be a little harder financially for my family to send me to JHU. I know I will go to grad school or med school or maybe pursue an MD/PHD so I also may need to factor in the cost of grad school in there as well. However I might take a break in between undergrad and grad school - not sure yet at this point in life.
I think my parents would like me to either pursue a PHD or a MD/PHD so they would not have to pay that much for grad school. Spending 100k more right now for undergrad, as opposed to significantly more than that for medical school, is probably more feasible financially for them. However I’m unsure whether the 100k difference for JHU is worth it - I really like the program but the location is meh and the cheaper options at UCB and USC are hard to turn down.
Huh? Reread your post and clarify–I am very confused would your parents be willing to pay $100k for JHU and also cover medical school-- if you do go for an MD.
They are willing to pay the 100k for JHU but would rather I pursue a PHD or MD/PHD after undergrad to save money, since both those programs are mostly paid for by the college.
If your parents are willing to spend extra for JHU BME I’d say go for it. My parents made a deal with me where I’d have to cover the extra cost of attending JHU over UCB since they’d preferred the instate tuition price (I’m from LA) over JHU with some but not significant aid. However, I believe I made the greatest decision as I planning on graduating a year early so the cost of 3 years here is about the same as 4 years would have been at a UC.
Unrelated to cost though I believe the program at JHU is truly phenomenal and can easily say I’ve never been so engaged and well-connected to the leaders of the field and their research. The program definitely lives up to its standards and will put anyone at an amazing prospects for graduate school.
On the flipside, I worked in a lab last summer at USC and can say that USC’s bioengineering department is definitely on the rise and they’re acquiring great new faculty and resources everyday to catch up to its peer schools and has connections to Keck Medicine and the county hospital where finding research should be easy.
All schools have superb engineering programs but if BME is the way you want to go I’d say JHU. If you’re still iffy though go where you feel the most comfortable. PM any specific questions though! best of luck.
best of luck.