Masters in Biomedical Engineering -- Duke or Johns Hopkins?

Graduate School
1

I’ve recently been accepted into the BME Masters program at Duke and Johns Hopkins, and I’m having trouble deciding on which of these schools I should go to.

To start things off, I’m a Chemical Engineering major at the University of Alabama. I’m switching from ChE to BME because I’m more interested in pursuing an R&D career in the healthcare/pharmaceutical field as opposed to becoming a process engineer at some chemical plant. I’ve also been accepted to Berkeley’s M.Eng in Bioengineering program which I’m also considering. Since I’m considering Berkeley, I’m just trying to narrow my list down to 2 by knocking out Duke or Johns Hopkins. Plus, I’m visiting Berkeley in a couple of days so I’ll be able to see if they’re even the right fit for me.

Financing is not an issue for either school. Plus, both schools will cost about the same.

Location-
Duke is part of The Research Triangle, so there are plenty of career/collaborative research opportunities present there. Moreover, I’ve visited Duke before and absolutely loved the campus.
Johns Hopkins- Baltimore also has a plethora of opportunities. For Johns Hopkins, I won’t have time to visit the campus because the deadline to accept/decline is approaching quickly (April 15th). I’ve visited Baltimore a couple of times and enjoyed my visits there. I’ve also walked through part of JHU’s medical school, but that is a completely different campus from the engineering campus. I’ve done research on the safety of attending JHU and feel as though safety won’t be an issue because of their security. In terms of opportunities,

Social Life-
This isn’t very important, but I’d like for this to be answered. I’ve read the JHU’s social life is not nearly as good as Duke’s. Can someone discuss this?

Education-
Both are very prestigious programs. JHU differs because the first year is completely dedicated to coursework and the second year is for thesis research. Duke spreads out its coursework over 3 to 4 semesters and also has a smaller student to faculty ratio (7:1 compared to JHU’s 9:1). Does anyone here have experience going through either of these two graduate programs?

Research-
I’m planning on being on the thesis track and have listed a few professors for both programs. For Duke, I enter under the Director’s of Master’s Studies, which should help in finding available research opportunities if the professors I’ve listed aren’t available. JHU says that they assist students in finding labs, but the main responsibility belongs to me. I feel as though both program’s research opportunities are very similar. However, everyone knows JHU as “the” BME powerhouse, so JHU might be a better research program.

All in all, I need some opinions on both programs so I can figure out which program would be better for me.

Thanks in advance!

2

I’m not really familiar with either program and can’t speak to specifics, so will just offer a couple general pointers:

Regardless of where you go, you should assume that the responsibility of finding a research advisor will be on you. In fact, at this point, you should already have contacted (or be in the process of contacting) potential advisors to figure out who might have space and/or funding and/or projects for you in their lab and might be willing to take you in.

What’s more important is finding an advisor whose research interests (as well as space, funding, and availability) align most well with yours.

3

To answer some questions about JHU:

The difference in annual R&D spending between the two schools is significant (Hopkins outspends Duke 2:1 annually, and when just looking at Engineering R&D is outspending Duke about 14:1) and I believe this is a reasonable way to assess where more opportunities for research experience are available and the likelihood of you finding research in a field of interest. ( Source: http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/colleges-with-highest-research-and-development-expenditures/) Additionally, Hopkins has built its name around its healthcare empire, so, when coupled with its unparalleled research spending, it is unsurprising that the undergrad and graduate BME programs are some of the institution’s premiere programs.

That being said, this by no means suggests you can’t find what you’re looking for at Duke, but I think it is wrong to suggest that these two schools are on equal footing when it comes to research opportunities. Baltimore is also next door to Bethesda, which is the NIH headquarters, and there is significant collaboration between Hopkins and the NIH (and many NIH labs are located in Baltimore). Nonetheless, the onus will ultimately fall on you to reach out to professors and labs to find suitable research projects. Additionally, if the undergrad JHU BME program has any bearing on the grad program you speak of, then it really will be a hands on experience with an emphasis on design: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1881734-choosing-between-bme-at-jhu-and-bu.html#latest

I’m not familiar with the Master’s program, but having completed my undergraduate there I can answer general questions about JHU, especially the infamous rumors of Hopkins students having no social life and Baltimore being a war zone (both of which are not true). Lastly, the grad program will be on the Homewood Campus with the undergrads (and this is a very different environment than the medical campus - more suburban, quieter and scenic), so much of this will apply to you:

Safety: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1821701-questions-about-baltimore.html#latest

Social Life and other common non-academic questions: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1878658-johns-hopkins-vs-cornell.html#latest

Lastly, I did have friends complete the Neuroscience Master’s program at Hopkins, and it was a similar setup with one year dedicated to coursework and a second year primarily for research. The idea is that you completely immerse yourself in your research spending 8-14 hours a day in the lab much like an actual researcher. I think this truly gives you a research experience and prepares you for a career in research (and you tend to get better research outcomes when you’re truly dedicated to the research without the distractions of other coursework).

4

@NixonDenier thank you for all that information, it was extremely helpful!
I decided to accept JHU’s offer.