<p>Hey everybody, how are you? Thank you for reading this, and I will appreciate whatever good advice that you have! :)</p>
<p>I am looking to major in biomedical engineering, and I'm curious about the programs at Yale, Brown, and UPenn. I also am looking at Duke, Hopkins, MIT, and Georgia Tech, but that's another story! ;)</p>
<p>How is Yale's BME program? I cannot tell if it is worth it or not because I have gotten some mixed reviews. My old college counselor told me to stay away from Yale for BME, but I've heard of wonderful research oppurtunites, easy access to professors because the program is smaller, and a non-vicious atmosphere. Who is right? I like Yale, but biomedical engineering is important to me, and I want to look at schools with solid programs. Which one is strongest between Yale, Brown, and UPenn?</p>
<p>UPenn is simply at a whole other level from the other two. No competition really. </p>
<p>That said, I would probably take MIT, JHU or possibly even Duke or UCSD over UPenn. Georgia Tech is excellent, ranked second in BME overall. These six schools are quite similar in quality though.</p>
<p>Try looking at the ASEE website for the schools you list. The American Society for Engineering Education collects info on almost every school. The reports - available online for free - cover a lot of ground. [url=<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4046/screen/29?school_name=Yale+University]Here[/url”>http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4046/screen/29?school_name=Yale+University]Here[/url</a>], for example, is one page for Yale, the one that lists the external grant funding engineering receives, broken down by area in the overall department. I took a quick look at the first 3 schools you list and, to be blunt, it looks like Penn has many more resources in that field. A lot more. Not even close.</p>
<p>I can’t give you fair read on any of these departments at any of the schools you list, but actual research tends to go where the money goes. Brown, I know, has put more resources into engineering in recent years - though that’s not reflected in their external grants - but I think you should realize that an important advantage of a Brown education, meaning next to no course standards and thus flexibility, doesn’t apply to engineering. You start right away because you have a ton of requirements.</p>
<p>How much is affordability an issue for you? Yale’s financial aid is more generous than any of the other schools mentioned, by a significant amount (notwithstanding merit scholarships), so if you are making below $100 a year, Yale would be the cheapest option. Additionally, much of what you have heard about Yale is true (not from your old college counselor), and Yale has poured nearly one billion dollars into science and engineering facilities and programs. You wouldn’t be disappointed, especially for an undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Yale medical school and the related complex gets a lot of money but I don’t know if they get biomed money and if that expertise filters into the department. That is a question to ask. </p>
<p>(As a personal disclosure, Yale engineering - and I’d say the same thing about Harvard - have to me been overrated because of the school’s overall reputation. I don’t see those departments as traditional strengths at either school. I think Yale has improved more in computer science.)</p>
<p>I do agre that UPenn has a better reputation than the other two, and my does what it can to prepare for the dread"financial hit" of college! I would love to get like 15 grand knocked off the price of any schools on my list, but that may not be realistic.</p>
<p>I may have been misinformed about Brown’s engineering because I thought that they were fairly good, but I must have been wrong. I like that there is course flexibility because I want to take classes in other forms of engineering as well, but still major in bio-med (realize that there is a TON of requirements, but ther has to be some flexiblity, right?). The RISD-cross registration is also tempting, and I love Providence, RI. I have dreamed about Brown, but we’ll see where this goes. </p>
<p>Lergnom, I agree that the majority of the nation doesn’t go gaga about Yale or Harvard’s bio-med programs, but that’s why I have to look at other schools as well. I do wonder the quality of a Yale education in engineering. Thanks for the link Lergnorm! :)</p>