<p>I think I'm leaning toward Biological Engineering at MIT, and Biomedical Engineering at Duke. I'm going to CPW and I haven't scheduled a visit to Duke yet. This is hard for me to decide... A couple of my good friends are going to Duke, and I have a few acquaintence-friends that are at MIT right now (but different majors than mine). Anyway... I think I would enjoy Boston as they say it is the perfect place for college students, and Duke is like, what, country-side? Financial aid is not under consideration for this decision.. My dad says MIT is recognized internationally, so I should go to MIT. I don't know.. help me out?</p>
<p>I guess it depends on what you really want in the end. Duke is not exactly in the country-side... it's relatively ghetto, but it's getting much, much better. They're doing a lot of construction right now, new biomed building if I remember correctly. Duke definitely has a well established biomed program, MIT's is relatively new and very few people will get into the bio engineering program at mit (20 people i think it is). however, duke's biomed program is much more focused on the mechanics of creating artifical limbs and such, while MIT's is more focused on the microbiology aspects of it. (someone correct me if i'm wrong)</p>
<p>culture wise, mit and duke are really different schools. duke is a much more jock school, people go out and cheer for every sport whether or not they win and it's a big deal. Also, i've heard that it's really important to dress up on the first day of school (dont know if that's really true), mit is just a different culture.</p>
<p>If you decide that biomed engineering is not for you at duke however, there are relatively few other engineering majors at Duke.</p>
<p>MIT, because Duke rejected me. =( Haha, but Duke would have been my second choice.</p>
<p>MIT is amazing because it's MIT and it's so, so nerdy. Which some people find appealing.</p>
<p>What I really liked about Duke was that it was so flexible. You could design your own major, and even Pratt students could take classes from the regular college! That's so rare, the level of flexibility they give even to engineering students. </p>
<p>I hope I didn't make you more confused or anything. =)</p>
<p>MIT!!! because i think im going there =)</p>
<p>well, you posted this on the MIT board, you really can't expect much of an unbiased answer. I'm kind of in ur situation.. as in, I got into both Duke and MIT, but I'm not really into BME. You should research more into what MIT BME has to offer and Duke BME.. if u r really set on doing BME for sure, I would suggest Duke because its program is already established and seemingly less excluding (~20 ppl at MIT BE program is pretty small). .. In all other cases go for the Beavers!</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> i'd toss out the stat on how many folks switch majors from what they indicate when they enroll, but i'm too lazy to find it. do remember to consider the strength of departments outside your intended one, in case you do switch or even (as is likely) just take classes. i'd say MIT trumps Duke in general, but know nothing about BE/BME, so i'll let that alone.</p>
<p>I got into MIT and Duke, and I know from rankings that Duke's BME program is better for the time being. MIT has a new BE-SB major, but they will only let 20 freshmen into this program for the class of '09, since it's a relatively new program. I'm actually choosing MIT even though I'm really interested in BE, because there's a Chem-Bio Engineering major now (Course 10-XB), which gives a very good grounding for future work in BE.</p>
<p>So I guess it depends on what you really want=)</p>
<p>I'll echo Goddess on the switching majors thing. I did it myself, even though more people switch out of course 6 (Comp Sci) than most. Still, you may find yourself interested in something else than BE, so be careful. </p>
<p>That said, if you're solid on BE, go to Duke. MIT is really behind in that area. While indescribably strong in many areas, BE is not one of them. As people have said, the fact that they only just introduced that major is a huge deal. At this level, luck of which professors teach which classes will dictate your teaching experience more than which school you choose, so academically, the only thing you have to decide on it research experience. MIT simply won't have the number of jobs and variety that Duke will during your time in college. If you think your interested in BE, go to MIT. If you know you're interesting in BE, go to Duke.</p>
<p>mit_hopefulgirl
Hi, do u know any Singaporeans waitlisted for MIT this year?
Thks</p>
<p>hrm i think there's a singaporean guy called titanium88 here on this forum who's the same age as you and got waitlisted. He doesn't live in singapore anymore i think.</p>
<p>But as for those in singapore, so far either accepted/rejected.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation as drivesoberk. However, I suppose my concern is that if I decide to go to MIT ( I am a nerd and from what I've heard, I'd probably fit in better at MIT) and that I want to apply to grad school in the future/possibly med school (I have no idea at this point), MIT, b/c of how hard it is and what a GPA "killer" it seems to be, will be a big deterrence. But then again, MIT is more well known, more prestigious, and a once in a life time opportunity.</p>
<p>You are right. My dad will kill me if I don't go to MIT. I'm one of the most hardest working students at my school (except that I'm getting senioritis right about now) and people are amazed at how much I put myself through (taking a college grad level course, plus having 2 part time jobs)... so maybe I can deal with the horrendous work load. </p>
<p>I am really sad I didn't get into Stanford. California was my heaven. I'm sure Boston will be better, but god I love California so much...</p>