<p>I was pretty much dead set on going to Hopkins for their renowned BME program until I found out i was accepted into the murphy scholars program at Northwestern which is an invitation-only special program within the school of engineering that gives undergrads a $4000 stipend for research, internships, design projects, etc. as well as multiple faculty advisors and the ability to design their own major. i know i want to major in BME and i want to go to med school. i would love to have access to jhu med and hospital as well as do research with faculty. what should i do? is jhu's bme program worth foregoing nu's murphy scholars program? let me know what you think i should do. thanks.</p>
<p>This is hard. I also got the Murphy Scholars thing. After talking a current Murphy Scholar, I felt like a huge advantage is that you get to know the faculty/mentors right away and can maintain that relationship because you’re a Murphy Scholar. Apparently it’s really easy to get good recommendations for grad school and/or jobs and internships because of that relationship. </p>
<p>But honestly, I’m not sure if the Murphy Scholars program alone is a reason to go to NU over JHU’s BME. I mean, I’m sure you can get research opportunities at JHU, just maybe not as fast as you can at Northwestern. </p>
<p>Hmm…</p>
<p>i talked to bme students at jhu and they said you can get started in research as early as freshman year and with jhu bme you are required to do design projects so i think you get all of the opportunities that you would get with the murphys program. i’m thinking that the med school bump of jhu, especially bme, might be enough to trump the murphy scholars program. it’s really frustrating because i was pretty much dead set on jhu until i opened the packet from mccormick about the murphy institute program. i feel like with jhu bme you already get everything the murphy program offers plus the bme program and faculty/advisors at jhu are the top in the field. i’m leaning toward jhu right now…</p>
<p>yeah i got a call from a northwestern student in the program as well. i’m going to give him a call on monday probably. did you mention jhu bme in your conversation with the murphy student? what was his/her opinion (obviously it will be biased)?</p>
<p>MITpwns, I will let you make the decision on your own, but from what I have observed, people have turned down the likes of Princeton, UPenn, Berkeley, Columbia, Stanford, and even Harvard/Yale in order to attend JHU’s BME program. It truly is magnificent.</p>
<p>But to each his own.</p>
<p>jhu bme = #1… by miles and miles.</p>
<p>thanks guys, northwestern can dress up their program until they’re blue in the face, but you’re right, it’s never going to be as good as hopkins. i think the decision is clear…</p>
<p>any last comments that will help me make my decision tomorrow? it’s really coming down to the wire…please help.</p>
<p>northwestern dude. its ranked higher than JHu and a scholarswhip would be teh icing on the cake. NU is so prestigious. I knwo hopkins bme=1, but still. NU!</p>
<p>wow, what an intelligent response with very insightful, compelling, and elaborate justification. rank is trivial at this level. you’re seriously splitting hairs when you’re talking about the top 15 schools. plus considering i want to go into medicine, there’s no place better than jhu. i’ve already decided on hopkins.</p>
<p>you can’t blame him. I’d be bitter too, if i was rejected everywhere and had to pay out of pocket for NYU.</p>
<p>
Well, at least it’s looking beyond “JHU is #1 in BME!!! It’s like, miles and miles ahead of everywhere else!!! My career prospects would totally be better there!!!” :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Northwestern and Hopkins are both top 10 schools in BME, and they’re pretty much on par academically. The research fellowship would definitely have meant Northwestern for me (you’d already have something for your CV!), but to each his own. Good luck at Hopkins!</p>
<p>^ Hopkins BME already basically guarantees research opportunities to all BME students in their freshman year. The good part about NWU’s research guarantee would be because not so many people get to do research at NW as freshmen or sophomores, where as at Hopkins, it is not weird or “extraordinary” to start research during freshman year.</p>
<p>Hopkins affords a lot more research opportunities than NWU, and BME is already extremely strong in research at Hopkins. I doubt there can truly be a program stronger than Hopkins for BME.</p>
<p>i was referring to northwestern being ranked 2 points higher overall on usnews as trivial not the BME program. 2 points is a lot less significant than 14 places, as it is with BME. and hopkins has a higher peer review score on usnews than northwestern (4.5 vs 4.3) which puts it on par with columbia, upenn, and cornell, and above brown, dartmouth, wustl, and duke.</p>
<p>and yeah i decided that while having the $4,000 to do research is nice, i could do better research at hopkins because hopkins is the top research school in the country, especially in biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>Hope2getrice,</p>
<p>I don’t believe JHU has “a lot more” research opportunities. Maybe that’s true if you are talking about bio/biomed research. But I doubt that’s the case in others. NU has consistently produced more winners in Goldwater, Rotary Ambassorial, Cambridge Gates, Rhodes, DAAD, Marshall, Goldwater, and Fulbright in recent years.</p>
<p>it’s not just about the bme program vs murphy scholars either. when it came down to it i just think that hopkins would be a better fit for me overall. in the end i just went with my gut.</p>
<p>I love it when people make baseless claims like SAM about stuff they assume is true:</p>
<p>Gold water scholars (note JHU has among the most ever, above NU):</p>
<p>[Four</a> K-State students win 2006 Goldwater Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/NewsReleases/Goldwater32206.html]Four”>http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/NewsReleases/Goldwater32206.html)</p>
<p>in recent years, JHu has produced three and the max four alloted:</p>
<p>[Headlines@Hopkins:</a> Johns Hopkins University News Releases](<a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/news/home06/may06/goldwat.html]Headlines@Hopkins:”>http://www.jhu.edu/news/home06/may06/goldwat.html)</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>[Headlines@Hopkins:</a> Johns Hopkins University News Releases](<a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/news/home07/may07/goldwat.html]Headlines@Hopkins:”>http://www.jhu.edu/news/home07/may07/goldwat.html)</p>
<p>For fulbright, JHU recently had 16 in one year (out of the years I could find info for):</p>
<p>[Headlines@Hopkins:</a> Johns Hopkins University News Releases](<a href=“http://jhuniverse.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home07/jun07/fulbright/cage.html]Headlines@Hopkins:”>http://jhuniverse.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home07/jun07/fulbright/cage.html)</p>
<p>while NU had 13 in the same year:</p>
<p>[2007-2008</a> Winners](<a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/fellowships/winners/indexWG.html]2007-2008”>http://www.northwestern.edu/fellowships/winners/indexWG.html)</p>
<p>For marshall scholars:</p>
<p>JHU this year had 2 whereas NU had 1:</p>
<p>[Winners</a> Announced](<a href=“http://www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/]Winners”>Scholars - Marshall Scholarships)</p>
<p>This is pretty good considering JHU has 4478 undergrads, where as NU has 8284 undergrads (double JHU’s size)</p>
<p>The only verifiable scholarships where JHU has less winners than NU are the rhodes and gates (which were equal in some past years)</p>
<p>As for research beyond Bio, check out the PURA program (which I did as an undergrad outside of bio) for advanced research done by JHU in other areas:</p>
<p>[PURA[/url</a>]</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2009/06apr09/06pura.html]Johns”>http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2009/06apr09/06pura.html]Johns</a> Hopkins Gazette | April 6, 2009](<a href=“http://web.jhu.edu/administration/provost/pura/]PURA[/url”>http://web.jhu.edu/administration/provost/pura/)</p>
<p>It’s a competitive program open to all. A lot of the time, applying will show initiative to your research advisor, who will likely advise your project regardless of funding. Just make sure to apply.</p>
<p>It’s a program that was started by JHU and emulated by institutions like Duke and Stanford.</p>
<p>In the end I think you made the right choice. NU can’t even claim to be the best university in it’s own city. As a non-bme engineering major, I along with all my friends had our choice of grad/med schools and decent jobs upon graduation (when the economy was good).</p>
<p>Blah2009,</p>
<p>Goldwater this year: Northwestern 3, JHU 1; NU also got 3 last year
Fulbright: NU had 24 in 2007 and 2008 (4th most in the nation); the Office of Fellowship doesn’t post everyone’s picture.
NU has had 10 Marshall scholars since 2000 while JHU has had 6</p>
<p>Okay, relax. Not that they are really statstically different; but this just suggests research opportunities aren’t significantly different outside of the biomed field (note that almost all JHU Goldwater winners mentioned in your links were in bio/biomed fields; your links actually reinforce my point).</p>
<p>I think you should stop ■■■■■■■■ unless you want me to go to NUs board and assess your weak arguments there. It’s funny how no one here bothers to go to NU’s board to argue. All you are doing is manipulating data in NU’s favor. Marshall’s since 2000? You did mention recent years after all. Additionally, JHU having 3 bio goldwater scholars and 3 out of 4 means its bio department and bio students are exceptional. It doesnt mean their other departments are lacking in undergrad research, as you obviously don’t know. Again, see PURA link for research conducted in other areas. </p>
<p>Or see this for JHU’s other engineering majors and what they are doing after graduation:</p>
<p><a href=“http://engineering.jhu.edu/include/content/pdf/convocation09.pdf[/url]”>http://engineering.jhu.edu/include/content/pdf/convocation09.pdf</a></p>