So, I got accepted REA to Stanford and have been thinking about applying RD to both MIT and Princeton. How do these compare (regarding their BME departments)?
I know that Princeton’s degree is “Biomedical and Chemical Engineering”, MIT’s is “Biological Engineering”, and Stanford’s “BioEngineering”, but, in the end, these are all synonyms.
Should I apply and then decide? Apply to both or just one? Apply to another one I did not consider? Not apply?
Thanks!
Really, @jakerman1234? You didn’t do any of this before you decided to apply to Stanford REA? how did you pick the Stanford program in the first place if you don’t know the difference between it and the others?
I edited myself from a more elaborate (and much snarkier) answer, but the jist was that imo your question comes across as very entitled and it doesn’t make me feel like doing your homework for you.
@collegemom3717 I chose the Stanford program over MIT’s because it had the largest difference between Early Action and Regular Decision admit percentages. I was unsure between these two and chose Stanford because 3 current MIT students told me they would’ve chosen Stanford had they gotten accepted.
The reason why I add Princeton is because I’ve heard that it offers much better financial aid than either Stanford or MIT, and that would really help me out.
Just out of curiosity what are your stats/EC’s/things that helped you get into stanford??
@jglover I was actually really surprised by my acceptance.
GPA: ~3.9 UW (my high school weights differently so I won’t report weighted GPA)
Class Rank: 1/150
SAT: 2170 (710 CR, 780 M, 680 W)
ACT: 33 C (36 M, 34 E, 32 W, 30 S)
APs: Spanish Lang and Culture (5), Lit (3), Chem (5), Bio (4)
Senior Course-load: AP Computer Science, AP French, AP Spanish Literature, AP Lang, Strength and Conditioning, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC.
EC’s:
Tennis Varsity
Volleyball Varsity (MVP and best spiker)
Chess
MUN
NHS
Great placement in national Math and Physics Olympics (my country’s)
Editor in Chief of Highschool Magazine
President of Engineering Club
Piano and Guitar
I believe I had great recommendation letters and I worked extremely hard on my essays.
Intended major: Engineering (possibly biomedical)
@jglover Anything else?
So your college research is a mix pragmatism (best odds of getting in) and hearsay (what you’ve heard from other students)?
Did you run a NPC for all the schools (who all promise to meet need, btw)? That will address the Princeton question.
Have you looked at why those 3 students wish they had picked differently, and considered whether those reasons are relevant to you
Have you even read the program descriptions for all three?
@collegemom3717 Yes. Time was running out for the early action and, since it wasn’t early decision, I went with pragmatism and hearsay.
I did run NPCs and Princeton turned out to be less than half as expensive.
I have asked those students their reasons and they do not all apply to me. (For example, weather. I’ve never seen snow, so I don’t actually know how bad Boston might be)
I have read the program descriptions, but I am not yet entirely sure of what exactly I want to do. I might not even study engineering. If I knew I wanted Biomedical Engineering for sure I would have chosen Johns Hopkins.
Fair enough. Which of the three has the most flexible program if you don’t choose BME?
Also, why Princeton in particular, v higher ranked engineering schools such as Carnegie Mellon, CalTech, Georgia Tech, USC, Cornell, or Columbia? (I left out state universities as they would have less finaid)
For now why don’t you apply to the other schools, see if you get in, see what the aid is at all of your options and then re-post if the answer is not obvious.
@collegemom3717 I actually applied to GATech EA (since it’s a public university). Regarding the others, I did not like Caltech when I visited, and I don’t see myself in Pittsburgh.
I actually thought that Princeton had better engineering than Columbia. And, although Cornell is great, its location is not, at first glance, the most appealing. Do you think that I should apply?
The nice thing about EA is you aren’t bound to it, so it seems to me your strategy is fine. My nephew went to Rice for biomedical engineering (over Cornell) and had an amazing experience. Research from Day 1. Loved the residential college system there. Got a Goldwater and is now a very stressed grad student at MIT. (He started off at Berkley which he loved, but unfortunately his prof moved.) Amusingly MIT had originally been his first choice college and he didn’t get in, but ended up feeling he was happier and had more opportunities where he ended up. Have you, or are you going to be able to visit any of the campuses? They are quite different in feel both on and off campus. I know very little about the actual departments however.
If you don’t have your finaid offer from Stanford yet, and the finaid is genuinely a big deal, revisit all of the big names, re-run the NPCs (I am actually pretty surprised that P would be 1/2 of S) and apply to any that you would actually go to over Stanford. Think hard- and honestly- about what it would take for you to say ‘no’ to Stanford. You have the luxury of not randomly taking spots that other people are longing for.
@mathmom As a matter of fact, I have visited all three campuses. I loved both Stanford’s and MIT’s especially. I know they are very different (city vs suburb) but both were incredible to my eyes. I loved the proximity that MIT has to Boston but I also adored the size and feel of Stanford’s campus.
Does anyone know anything about research and internship opportunities at either? (Specifically Stanford, since I know about MIT’s UROP and since it’s just over the river, internships in Boston are probably very easy to get. However, do MIT students actually intern since MIT is infamous for being a hell of a lot of work?)
I also visited Princeton and Columbia and liked both campuses. I would be happy (with my environment I guess) at any of these places (maybe Columbia not so much).
Do Stanford students intern at Google and the rest of the Silicon Valley Companies (both big and small)?
<<<
@jglover I was actually really surprised by my acceptance.
GPA: ~3.9 UW (my high school weights differently so I won’t report weighted GPA)
Class Rank: 1/150
SAT: 2170 (710 CR, 780 M, 680 W)
ACT: 33 C (36 M, 34 E, 32 W, 30 S)
APs: Spanish Lang and Culture (5), Lit (3), Chem (5), Bio (4)
Senior Course-load: AP Computer Science, AP French, AP Spanish Literature, AP Lang, Strength and Conditioning, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC.
EC’s:
Tennis Varsity
Volleyball Varsity (MVP and best spiker)
Chess
MUN
NHS
Great placement in national Math and Physics Olympics (my country’s)
Editor in Chief of Highschool Magazine
President of Engineering Club
Piano and Guitar
I believe I had great recommendation letters and I worked extremely hard on my essays.
Intended major: Engineering (possibly biomedical)
@jglover Anything else?
<<<
I’m not surprised by your acceptance. You’re a US citizen living abroad. English isn’t your first language and you’re URM. You add to the class mix.
/bump
I’m sure lots of Stanford student intern at Google in the summer at least from CS, but I don’t know about from BME. You sound very adaptable. I suspect you’ll do fine wherever you end up.
Where are the real answers? This thread is mostly derail and noise. Surely there’s someone here who knows the ins and outs of these BME programs.
Gee, it’s Stanford, I think it’s program will be up to your standards. It’s in Palo Alto, which has much, much better than Boston … but you can still apply to MIT or other schools.
To get comments, I might post in the engineering forum instead of the college generic forum.
No ordinary mortal has these problems … and if you get in no other school, you are truly blessed.
Here are the USNWR for biomedical engineering, which has Stanford tied for #4 with a few other schools.
Spend about an hour exploring Stanfords biomedical engineering program website, including looking at the four year plan, the coursework, the professor’s research interests, etc. Now repeat with all the schools you would still consider applying to. Stanford deserves a lot of attention, for other programs, if the coursework, research interests, focus of the department do not appeal to you, take them off your list (and settle for Stanford).
There can be major differences between Biomedical, Biomedical and Chemical, Biological, whatever engineering. Some is more medical (dealing with human anatomy), some is more biotechnology (dealing with say green energy or biochemical engineering, making biological products in fermenters, etc, or pharmeceuticals), some is medical devices, medical prothesis / biomechanics, computers in medicine, you name it.
The only way to know, unless someone appears from somewhere who has done all this … is to read the websites … and maybe send a few emails with good questions that show you have already read the website (at Stanford, as an accepted student, you can likely get a lot of answers from their people).
OP, 'tis true you have no ordinary problems.
About your friends who wish the weather in Boston were better: ha, ha, ha, ha.
You’ve got to know that there is real weather in the Boston area, and last year’s winter was straight out of the core of the earth, if you get my meaning.
If you liked MIT’s campus and Columbia, though perhaps not the idea of living at Columbia apparently,can you say why? Stanford’s campus and location must be looked at in a completely different light. The lifestyle and activities are simply vastly different.
Hopefully the strength of the program offerings are what you really seek to make a determination of, but a little more searching should yield answers for you in that regard without any trouble at all.
My friend is in his second year of Princeton’s CBE major – he loves Princeton – but it really has an emphasis on a chemistry-based core. If BME is what you’re interested in, you may benefit more from colleges with a straight BME major. He says he hasn’t had the opportunity yet to take any classes pertaining to medicine & the like.