I have been admitted by ucsd, uw, rutgers and tulane. I want to major in biomedical engineering in my future study. As an international student, I know very little about tulane. Even though I have made some research about tulane, I still have a lot of questions about it. I want to continue my study to graduate degree, so I want to ask you the overall rate of students to go to graduate school and what kind of graduate schools they usually went. And I also want to know how is the study environment there like? Is it a good choice for the students who are both creative and devoted? Will there be a lot of research programs for undergraduate student to take part in? And how are the professors? Are they too busy in their own research to take care of the students? Thank you for your answer
@Davina congrats on your acceptances! I am in a similar boat, I will going to Tulane for BME and have done countless hours of research on how Tulane stacks up compared to other schools, including many of those that you mentioned. I’ll say this, online research can only yield so much information (seeing as how most rankings tend to be bogus), although even with these rankings, Tulane is still placed very highly. I found that talking to Dr. Donald Gaver, Dean of the BME program at Tulane was a lot more informative. He told me about how Tulane’s focus is on research and design opportunities for undergraduates, so if you want to get involved in research, Tulane is a great school for it. Also, he pointed out that Tulane’s BME program is close to forty years old, being one of the oldest in the country. Not surprisingly, the programs and the curriculum are very well founded and Dr. Gaver spoke very highly of his colleagues. Also keep in mind that all of the other schools you were accepted to are considerably larger; at Tulane it sounds like even introductory courses tend to be on the smaller side and more focused classes only have a few kids which allows more one on one time with professors. I strongly recommend reaching out to Dr. Gaver (his information is available online at the Tulane website) as well as reaching out to professors or department heads from the other schools you’re considering. Lastly, I am not sure about the exact number, but about one-third of Tulane graduates (for BME) go on to top graduate schools (some even stay at Tulane to continue their research) so to me, that says they prepare students extremely well for post-graduate opportunities. You can’t go wrong with any of your options but I think you would be wise to consider Tulane one of the better choices. Hope to see you in class next fall!
Perhaps @fallenchemist can address anything I may have left out.
@Davina
I have to say that @jasoncolorado did a superb job in highlighting the strengths of Tulane compared to the other schools you are considering. I really cannot add much, but can only emphasize that of the various strengths that Tulane has, the focus on undergraduates and research is one of the strongest I know of, and I have been involved with numerous universities and their science programs in my career. Last year, Tulane even started a peer reviewed journal devoted to publishing work by undergraduate researchers. And this emphasis is not something new. I attended Tulane in the 1970’s and I did research throughout my undergraduate years. As part of my senior honors work in chemistry, I developed an idea for a new line of molecules to study and my prof gave me the OK to give it a try. Long story short, we ended up with several publications from the research and the work has been cited in textbooks as one of the most spectacular examples in that area of spectroscopy. Very few schools and professors would have allowed an undergraduate to pursue an idea they were not already researching. Tulane is much the same today. BTW, I went to a top 5 grad school and this is also typical of Tulane students that want to go that direction.
My D graduated from Tulane last year and she also got tremendous support for her senior research, although hers was in the humanities, not the sciences. She is now a graduate student at Stanford, considered tied with Harvard as the #1 grad program in her field. She was accepted to Harvard as well.
I also cannot emphasize enough how much the profs at Tulane are primarily devoted to the undergraduates. That is just how Tulane is. You won’t find that at the large state universities. My advice would be to seriously look at Tulane for undergrad and then look at programs like Johns Hopkins, MIT, etc. for grad school. Tulane will serve you well for achieving that as long as you make the effort.
I’m not familiar with the BME program at Tulane but I can attest to the attention paid to undergrads in all areas. Some of My sons friends go to bigger universities and they don’t even have access to their professors, you have to go through your TA for questions or help. My son has found his professors to be engaging, accessible and genuinely interested in his academic pursuits. He even received an e-mail from the chair of his dept to come and meet with him because he likes to get to know the students. Then he invited him to register for a class he is teaching next semester that is only open to juniors and seniors. Another professor is having the class over to his home for dinner at the end of the semester! I understand this is pretty common at Tulane. You won’t find this at huge universities!
Edited to add- I keep hearing this theme over and over- there are great opportunities out there for students at Tulane if you make yourself available to them and seek them out!
My son is a freshman in BME at Tulane and so far has found things to be very good. The BME curriculum is a fairly tight, rigorous program (which I would gather is the case for most engineering majors at most institutions) which doesn’t leave a ton of leeway for elective coursework. That being said, my son has found the initial coursework for the BME degree very good, with excellent access to his professors. He is also very much being encouraged to pursue research (early rather than later) as an undergraduate. Good Luck.
Thank you all for your advice. The size of class is really a big thing for me so I have made up my mind to accept the offer of Tulane. I believe that I will have great time in Tulane. Thank you all again. @vandyeyes @dolphnlvr6 @fallenchemist @jasoncolorado
Good luck to you Davina! Hope you find all kinds of success and happiness at Tulane!
Can’t wait to see you next year!
You are going to love it. Plus, you get to enjoy the great food in NOLA.
DS got his degree in Chem. E (officially Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering). Was able to do research with faculty/grad students and as it is a small Department, had a strong, close relationship with faculty and peers. Enjoy it!!