<p>I'm applying to biomedical engineering for next fall. If you were accepted into the biomedical engineering programs at the following universities where would you go:Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford. I haven't finished applying yet but I'm wondering whether prestige of the university as a whole or rankings are more important, as JHU is ranked 1.</p>
<p>Any school ranked in the top 10 is going to be prestigious, whether it’s for the program you’re looking at or for the general school reputation.
“Prestige overall” or “#1 in a program” does NOT matter at all, it’s really the same. Remember that rankings really are groupings, even Bob Morse (the guy behing the USNWR rankings) says so… Essentially, nationally, any school in the Top 25 is going to be exceptional.
In fact, for most engineering schools, as long as you’re going to an ABET accredited school, it doesn’t matter where you’re going as far as classes go since ABET homogenizes curricula - what matters is everything around it (research opportunities, class size, strength of advising system, study abroad in your field, internships…) and financial aid.
Before dreaming about getting accepted to all three schools, make a solid college list with 2 safeties (schools that offer your major, that your family can afford, that you like, and that you’re 100% sure you’ll get into - that means schools with admission rates at or above 50% and typically your istate flagship’s honors college) then find 3-4 matches.
JHU, MIT, and Stanford are reaches for everyone. Anyone would feel lucky getting into one of them.</p>