<p>Hi,
I'm having a really hard time deciding between UC Berkeley and UCSD for the bioengineering major. Berkeley
Pros:
- better overall prestige
- more honors clubs and other social activities
- a lot more things to do around the campus + good campus food
- beautiful campus
Cons:
- hard to find housing
- very competive environment --> hard to find internships & research opportunities
UCSD
Pros:
- better bioengineering/biotech program (ranked 2nd)
- less competition
Cons:
- less student involvement, heard it's pretty laid back and the social scene is dead
- need to have a car to go to places</p>
<p>if you're thinking about going to grad school for bioengineering, i think the best approach if i were u would be to go to undergrad at cal, and apply to ucsd for grad school. housing is not hard to find; you just need to search a little... and there are plenty of research opportunities on and off campus; you just have to be really assertive.</p>
La Jolla isnt that bad. There are a lot to do in San Diego and they dont all include the beach.</p>
<p>But to address your question, I think UCSD would be the better choice because as you plan to go into bio, SD is the better school. Also, you can get internships at Salk, which is one of the best institutes.</p>
<p>Berkeley recently completed the new BioE building. I can only imagine Berkeley's BioE program will only continue to climb up on the rankings.</p>
<p>I also toured the new building, and I'd say the facilities are very nice. The lecture rooms are even more comfortable and better looking than those in Haas!</p>
<p>IF you are set on BME go to UCSD because its BME program is ranked pretty high, along with Johns Hopkins University. At this point I am deciding bet JHU (BME) and CAL (EECS). So yea... BME ----> UCSD</p>
<p>first of all, does it matter if i go to a program that is accredited by ABET? i'm planning to go to graduate school for sure, probably in bioengineering. so is it better if i go to a program that is accreditted by ABET? also, since i'm planning to go on to graduate school, is it better to go to a school where the competition is not as fierce so that i might have a better chance of getting into graduate school?
Thanks!!</p>
<p>The response that I got was that less ranked schools have ABET because it shows that their cirriculum measures up to a certain standard. But when you are going to a great school like Berkeley, it is less relevant. However, a lot of people still want Berkeley to have it, so Berkeley is working towards it now.</p>
<p>Of course, people will argue how important ABET is (or isn't).</p>
<p>You also have to consider something else: what if you come to college and decide you don't want to major in Bioengineering anymore? I know quite a few people who have switched out of BioE (unlimitedx can tell you about it), and if you do decide to do that, Berkeley is better than UCSD in almost every other department. I agree that a good plan of action is Berkeley for undergrad and then maybe UCSD for grad school if by then you are still set on Bioengineering.</p>
<p>after having gone through the whole grad school application/interview process myself (for biomedical sciences) and having a roommate who is a current bioengineering grad student at cal, i can safely tell you that where you go for undergrad is not important. as long as you have the research experience and great LORs, the name of the school will not matter much... it's probably the least important out of the admissions criteria, which is research experience, lor, gpa, gre, courseload, and school name in approximate order. </p>
<p>my roommate was from some obscure private university in tennessee, and he got interviewed at jhu (#1 in bioengineering I believe), upenn, ucb to name a few. i myself have met many interviewees from various obscure schools that i never knew existed. grad schools only care about your readiness in pursuing a phd, so choose a school that you feel will give you the best preparation. </p>
<p>btw, one reason why i recommended going to cal for undergrad was because of the fact that some schools don't like accepting students from their own school. i don't know how much this applies to bioengineering and ucsd, but it's something to think about.</p>