BOYSOFWINTER

I'm interested in opinions on how respected an engineering degree (particularly mechnical) from BU is. Is it assumed after the BS degree one has to go on and get a master's to be a well-educated engineer and work in the field?

Also, has anyone been accepted into the engineering college ED? What were your stats? What schools are comparable to BU and why did you chose BU? (Not interested in Northeastern). Thanks.

CrazedChimp

Hey, I'm a BME freshmen and I was accepted ED II last year so I figure I can answer a few of your questions.

First of all, I honestly don't know much about how well ranked ME is at BU compared to other schools, but I do know that BU's engineering program in general is quite respectable. ENG is one of the most selective college's at BU, and has one of the toughest curriculems.

From what they've told us in the freshmen seminars, most engineers go into the field with just a BS, but I think around 20% continue on for a master's degree or further. I've been told that most employers hire engineers with just a BS and then will later pay for them to go back to school to get a master's degree if they decide they like you and want to keep you working for them, and this will probably be my plan after I graduate.

My stats last year were an overall GPA of around 3.4-3.5 with a senior year GPA of 3.7ish. I also took 3 science and 2 math classes senior year, and I think that helped me out. My SATs were 1380 with a 680 in math and a 700 in CR. My writting was a 630.

The other schools I applied to were WPI, Tufts, NEU, and Johns Hopkins (super reach). Comperable schools to BU in terms of engineering would be WPI (a little easier to get into than BU) and Tufts (a little harder to get into than BU).

Personally, I'm really happy with where I ended up, and I like the ENG school a lot. If you do choose to go here, be prepared to do more work than just about every other major. Any engineering is going to give you a ton of class hours (I have 24/week, mechanical engineers have around 21, and something like a psych or IR major will have around 14-15). I'm not saying those majors are easier, I'm just saying that ENG has tons and tons of class hours, so be prepared for it.

Pikachusbutt

BU's BME program is not as easy as what you think. About 350 freshman in each class there are about 230 BME majors. Before graduation, about 2 out of 3 of the initial BME freshman switch major. For many colleges such as JHU or MIT, it's usually harder to get in rather than to graduate with the degree you want. In BU's case, it's super easy to get in, but harder to graduate (especially with the BME degree).
BU's BME program is ranked 8th undergrad & 6th graduate level in the nation. That's something that WPI and Tufts don't have in their ENG department. However, the rest of BU's ENG don't really stand out.

Schools I applied are Brown, Cornell, Rice, BU, RPI, UVM and UT Austin. Accepted into everyone except rejected by Cornell and waitlisted by Brown. Had 3.9 gpa and 2060 SAT. My stats are only ranked about 75% percentile in BU's ENG freshman. So, that gives you a look at how conpetitive is BU's ENG admission.

CrazedChimp

He asked about ME not BME.

BOYSOFWINTER

BME is biomedical? Who ranks it No. 8? That's pretty impressive.
Where do you find out the stats for ENG freshman? Still not accepted so would like to obsess about it.

CrazedChimp

There's some good stuff here: http://www.bu.edu/eng/facts/

and the rankings are here(graduate is 7th not 6th unless this is old):

http://www.bu.edu/dbin/bme/home/ranking.php

BOYSOFWINTER

Thanks for that. Will read it carefully if admitted!!!