<p>I know it's good, but what makes it good?</p>
<p>Is it the faculty? The students?</p>
<p>Is there something in their program that they stress unlike other schools? Perhaps like hands on learning or more research?</p>
<p>The San Diego area is one of the largest biotechnology hubs in the nation, home to many different companies such as Illumina and Nanogen. </p>
<p>I can’t say too much about the bioengineering program, because I left it after winter quarter of my freshman year. The program is pretty rigorous, and although I can’t recall the exact statistics that were presented in BENG1, I think by the end of your freshman year, only about 10% of students that were originally admitted into the major remain in it. UCSD also has a pretty large and influential biotechnology/bioengineering research department.</p>
<p>As Radiance mentioned, San Diego (more specifically, La Jolla) is the home to a lot of fledgling BioTech firms, which means that there are more research positions available to students. It’ll still take good grades, interview skills, and some luck, but there’s more out there to be had than at other schools.</p>
<p>Provided you graduate with good stats and some research experience, finding a job in one of the hubs (SD, South Bay, Boston) won’t be too hard a task either. Friend of mine from Lexington, MA graduated last year from SD and was able to get a few job offers back home in the Boston area despite not having top stats.</p>
<p>And we’ve got the [“Father</a> of BioE”](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan-Cheng_Fung]"Father”>Yuan-Cheng Fung - Wikipedia). Major brownie points for that one.</p>
<p>Hi, I graduated from UCSD in BioE. For kicks, I’m just looking back at what it’s like to apply, and giving a helping opinion.</p>
<p>yes, there are many biotech firms around SD, but from my own view i don’t think they give the ucsd bioeng department the strength and eminence it has. rather, i think it’s the research that makes the department strong (which is really amazing). and faculty get hired mainly for their excellence in research, but not as much in their teaching. i think the teaching at ucsd bioeng was mediocre – some were really good, and some were terrible. but most teachers have amazing CVs are are big leaders of their fields.</p>
<p>i think the students are very smart and strong. many are involved with research and internships.</p>
<p>but overall, yes, the departmental strength comes from the research. still, you have 3-4 majors to pick (they recently eliminated one of them).</p>