<p>I'm interested in studying Bioengineering or Biomedical Engineering, and wanted to ask a few questions about the fields.</p>
<p>From my research, the fields overlap quite a lot, but not always. I'm mainly interested in things like bioelectricity, biomaterials, neural engineering, tissue engineering, and synthetic biology. I'm also interested in doing research in these areas, with the possibility of pursuing an MD/PhD (either of the two, or a combination of both) in the future. I realize this means that I should choose a school where there are professors doing research in these areas.</p>
<p>However, I'm an international student, and my stats aren't that great, so I might have to go to a community college first. Right now, my dream schools are the likes of UC Berkeley and Duke, which have profs doing research I'm interested in, but I'm not sure whether I have a chance of getting in directly. I'm look into going to a community college for at least a year or two first. Is it better to get an associates degree from a CC or should I just take the pre-reqs for transferring? Should I go to a CC with a BME program or a general Engineering program?</p>
<p>Also, some of the programs I'm looking at are not ABET accredited. What effect will this have on getting a job after graduation? I hear that for BioE & BME majors ABET accreditation isn't the most important thing, how true is this? Will the lack of an ABET accreditation cause grad schools/med schools to look down on my degree?</p>