MIT vs JHU vs Upenn vs Columbia vs Yale vs Caltech vs Rice

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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Having tough deciding between these (deadline this weekend!). Major is BME, or Course 2A (mechE)/Course 20 (Biological Engineering)/Course 10 (ChemE) for MIT. Current goal is to go for a PhD in area relating to nanotechnology, biosensors, or biomaterials. Finances not a primary concern.

Any thoughts appreciated!

MIT:
+: amazing at engineering, research opportunities, Cambridge, spirit of innovation, more marketable degree if stop with BS.
-: too hard to enjoy self or have time to do research? Also arguably less academically diverse (less humanities)
?: Is the workload manageable with planning?

JHU:
+: top BME program (amazing curriculum), good engineering administration, outreach opportunities
-: social life is primarily the library?, less strong in other majors if change, competitive environment?

UPenn:
+: overall academic strength, alumni network, strong BME research
-: more pre-professional focus in undergrad students

Columbia:
+: strong humanities, diverse and passionate students, favorite campus and city, alumni network
-: curriculum arguably less strong, administration has reputation for being difficult, most expensive option.

Yale
+: diverse and passionate students, music and art opportunities
-: curriculum arguably less strong, don’t like some of the requirements, less engineering research going on

Caltech:
+: high percent of people go to grad school, strong academics, great professor contact, weather
-: similar to MIT - workload so tough it is difficult to have time for ECs or research? Less academic diversity of students.

Rice:
+: solid overall, good bioengineering program, nice residential system
-: not too much to complain about, less name recognition than some

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A lot of folks have suggested narrowing down to MIT versus JHU, any JHU folks willing to give their thoughts? @NixonDenier ?

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For background I’m a BME/CS double major at Hopkins.

I don’t know much about the other schools but I can try to expand on somthyour points.

In terms of the BME program most schools takes a very standard approach to BioE (that’s their version of the degree) in that they teach you standard engineering, standard biology, then try to jam those together into, what @NixonDenier once described as, “some chimera of biology and engineering”. I don’t know if that’s how BME is taught at the schools you’re considering, but that’s the standard approach. Hopkins teaches BME as a cohesive program and is focuses it’s courses on using engineering principles to solve biological problems. Additionally Hopkins BME is a design based program meaning that, from day 1, you will be learning how to design practical solutions to biological and medical problems. All freshman BMEs take a Modeling and Design course where this idea is first introduced and most juniors and seniors take a course called " Design Team " sponsored by the Center of Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID). In this course undergraduates are split into teams and given a year to design and build a solution to a biological or medical problem of their choosing (usually the problems are presented by doctors at Hopkins Med School).

You mentioned that Hopkins has a “competitive environment”. This is, in general, simply untrue. Yes Hopkins is hard, but so is every other school on your list. At Hopkins the students recognize that the work is challenging so they band together to get through it. Students generally work in groups to finish problem sets, study for exams, and generally complain about work. The atmosphere is distinctly of the " we’re all in this together" variety as opposed to the cut-throat atmosphere that we’re characterized as.

The social life at Hopkins is not “only on the library”. Yes people spend time in the library, but once again that’s going to be a characteristic of all the schools on your list, not just Hopkins. Someone else can expand more on specifics, but we have a wide variety of social outlets including Greek life, various clubs, intermural sports, etc.

Hopkins is actually a reasonably well regarded school for engineering - though not as much as Caltech, UPenn, or MIT so if you wanted to switch engineering majors there are definitely options. And if you want to switch into a non-engineering bio-related major we are will regarded for… just about all of them.

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Thank you very much for your detailed post, @saif235 !! I had put a question mark on competitive environment because it is often cited, but I wasn’t sure it was true. Maybe it was true a long time ago or something.

The curriculum seems amazing. May I ask, what is the average GPA of JHU BME students? Do most of the students that start in BME end in BME (i.e. what is the attrition rate)?

Do you have classmates that want to go to graduate school, and do they feel the program prepares them well for it?

CS+BME sounds awesome, congrats. :slight_smile:

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  1. I don't have a source or anything that gives an average GPA breakdown per major. Anecdotally though I believe the average BME GPA is somewhere between a 3.2 and a 3.4. It's certainly possible to maintain a high GPA as a BME.
  2. Once again this is anecdotal, but so far, out of the original ~120 person class, I think maybe 10 have switched out of the program. Usually students drop out of BME not because they can't handle the workload but because they realized they actually wanted to study something else (usually biology or computer science).
  3. According to the website 1/3 of BMEs at Hopkins choose to go to grad school (1/3 end up in med school and 1/3 end up in industry). That is pretty consistent with what I've heard from my classmates and older students. I haven't talked to any BME alums who are currently in grad school about this specifically, but our alums tend to go on to very prestigious grad schools (UCSF, Oxford, Hopkins, etc) so I'd say our students are pretty well prepared. Additionally most BMEs are able to conduct research during their undergraduate years which helps with grad school admissions.
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@saif235 I just want to be sure to thank you for taking the time to do this very helpful post.