<p>I have always planned on applying ED to Duke's BME program, as it is one of the best in the nation. However, after reading some of the things said on CC, I am questioning the strength of a BME degree. I am wondering how Duke's other majors (EE and MechE specifically) sompare to other top school, such as Stanford and Cornell. Also, if anyone has any other suggestions of schools with great BME programs and also strong traditional engineering majors, I would love to hear!</p>
<p>From a pure engineering standpoint, Stanford and Cornell are better than Duke for traditional engineering disciplines. Berkeley and MIT are good examples of excellent engineering schools with good BioE programs. UCSD has a stellar BioE program but its engineering school is not as strong as Berkeley, MIT, etc. Stanford does not offer a BS in bioengineering but the department is being rapidly built up with top-notch faculty. They do offer a coterminal MS program though.</p>
<p>^Stanford doesn't have an official BS bioengineering degree but you could always design such a major there.</p>
<p>JHU has a BME major that focuses very heavily into traditional engineering fields. (You can even with enough AP credits and lack of sleep pull of 2 engineering majors due to the overlap, it's been done but its hard.) The BME major with a concentration in a traditional engineering degree means you know your BM and your E. And that's important.</p>
<p>From their site:
Since 1980, we have offered a very successful undergraduate program based on the third approach, which encourages students to concentrate in one of the traditional engineering disciplines. Briefly, to achieve a concentration area notation on the transcript, a student is required to take at least 21 intermediate and advanced credits (seven courses) in one of the traditional engineering disciplines. This requirement is such that when combined with the required introductory engineering courses and relevant biomedical engineering courses, many students are able to obtain dual degrees in biomedical engineering and in the concentration discipline. This depth in a traditional engineering discipline has been attractive to industrial employers. Nonetheless, over the past several years, we have begun to realize that our program could be significantly improved by moving the emphasis from the concentrations in traditional engineering to focus on broadly defined areas in biomedical engineering. Several factors have led us to develop the new curriculum presented here.</p>
<p>(What they are talking about in the end is that you no longer concentrate for example in EE but you concentrate in #</p>
<h1>Sensors / Microsystems / Instrumentation Focus Area -- they basically changed the name and added more non-BME engineering credits.</h1>
<p>see: <a href="http://www.bme.jhu.edu/innovations/area1/a1_oview.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.bme.jhu.edu/innovations/area1/a1_oview.htm</a></p>
<p>three cents:
My cousin married a Cal ME and he designs and develops heart values. After a stint testing artillery weapons. </p>
<p>My son as a put the finishing touches on the "monkey hand" as a soph-junior ME student. </p>
<p>Do well in the core major and then specialize. Specializing too soon may limit your options rather than enhance them.</p>