<p>Hello community,</p>
<p>I recently received my acceptance letter from UVA and was accepted EA for UMich BmE. To say the least, I am conflicted in choosing between the two schools. I plan to go BmE with a pre-med track.</p>
<p>I understand both have great programs, but I was wondering what the pro's / cons of each program are.</p>
<p>I don't mind weather as I am a New Englander, and I understand that one must apply for UVA's BmE Program.</p>
<p>Any insight or general comments would be great!</p>
<p>It’s the best science/eng dept at UVa. UM is probadly as good or better and higher ranked so both are quite good</p>
<p>From UVa internal evaluation report:</p>
<p>Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Biomedical Engineering has 19 faculty17 and ranks number16 in FY2006 NIH funding
and number 2 in citations among such departments. With a planned new building for
Biomedical Engineering on the main grounds of the University, which is high status, they
will more than double their space. The department has an undergraduate class of 200
undergraduate students, and 86 graduate students, the majority of whom are on a PhD
track. They plan to grow to 25 faculty, but consider that plan not bold enough. External
research funding is $8.6M ($477K/capita) and research expenditures $4.4M. USNWR
rankings are number16 for the graduate and number 17 for the undergraduate BME
programs, which makes it the most highly ranked department in SEAS.
Their research funding illustrates the complexity of attribution, with $1.5M from SOM
faculty, $4.9M from College of Engineering faculty, including a Coulter Foundation
grant and Orthopaedics/ Laurencin projects, averaging to $480K per faculty member/year
(similar to Biology, Psychology, and Chemistry, and higher than Internal Medicine).
Founded in 1967, it is one of the oldest programs of its kind. BME enjoys strong student
demand and attracts substantial funding support including some major foundation grants.
In spirit and in faculty quality of life, it seems to be more closely allied with the School
of Medicine than with Engineering. Nonetheless, it is a highly valued member of the
School and deserves strong support from the Dean.
This department is especially multidisciplinary and engaged in translational research.
They have a world-class cardiovascular bioengineering group and a consortium of
biomedical imaging researchers. They have benefited from successful proposals for
national investments in biomedical engineering by the Whitaker Foundation and now the
Coulter Foundation. They have had three presidents and four board members of their
leading professional society; one of their junior investigators won the society’s Young
Investigator Award in 2004 and was named to the TR100 by MIT’s journal of innovation,
Technology Review. They have licensed products from their research on tissue
engineering materials, in vitro diagnostic devices, stem cell therapeutics, microbubble
contrast agents, imaging devices and software, and non-peptide drugs. The focus on
research is matched by an equal focus on education, especially undergraduate education
through classroom and laboratory experience. Undergraduate experience is also
augmented through student internships in biomedical companies around the
Charlottesville area, some being spin-offs from UVA and the BME activity in particular</p>