I recently got my college acceptances and am deciding between them for my UG. However, since I’m pretty set on going to grad school, does anyone know if certain schools will help more/less than others for any various reason? Though this may change a bit, I’m interested in biomedical engineering for grad.
Currently, I’ve brought my list down to:
Columbia University
NYU of Abu Dhabi
Dartmouth
Johns Hopkins
Alternatives I’m considering less: Duke, Emory, Williams
I would not recommend choosing a school based on graduate school potential. If cost isn’t an issue for you, then choose the school you want to go to most as an undergraduate. All of your options are excellent. Now you will have to do well wherever you choose to matriculate. That will be the determining factor for admission to graduate school, not which one of the schools on this particular list that you attend. Besides, you may change your major or mind about graduate school over the next four years. Choose for what you want now.
@NorthernMom61 I definitely understand and for me, the four schools I listed as my top considerations are a good fit. I just want to consider job/grad school potential as a factor, since they’re all very good schools in other ways. I basically just want to know if there’s any significant differences between them in that regard.
I would cross Abu Dhabi off the list. The others are much better, even better than NYU in NYC. Coming from a prestigious US mainland university is going to open up a lot more doors to grad school, as you will have access to much higher quality faculty. The most important thing for BME grad school is research experience, the big shots are all in the US, plenty of them at Columbia, Dartmouth, J-H, Duke, and Emory. Working in the lab of a big shot is the most important thing for grad school in your field, and the best people are not in Abu Dhabi.
Grad school admissions are a whole different beast to undergrad. The name of your undergrad is rarely an influencing factor (with the exception of a few humanities subjects, such as philosophy). In general, GPA/GRE/research experience will matter considerably more than the name.
Were you admitted to BME at JHU? Transferring into it (2nd semester 1st year) is possible, but def not guaranteed. If you weren’t admitted into BME, and you aren’t able to transfer in, do you still want to be at JHU?
I am also skeptical that if you are equally enamored of Columbia and Dartmouth that you have done sufficient homework on the two places.
It won’t matter. All of the schools you’ve listed are excellent options; they all do very well at getting undergrads into PhD programs in science and engineering fields.
Well, except for NYU Abu Dhabi. It really hasn’t been around long enough to make conclusive assumptions about its ability to get students into graduate school, and I’d imagine it’s baccalaureate graduates are lumped in with NYU in New York.
You don’t have to work in the lab of a “big shot” doing the most cutting-edge research to be competitive for graduate school. Really, what you need is a professor doing research in your field (or a closely related one) who is willing to train and mentor you. That’s (partially) why per capita, students from liberal arts colleges do as well or better than students coming from major research universities.
Also, Emory’s department/program in biomedical engineering is joint with Georgia Tech’s and also excellent. Certainly in league with Johns Hopkins’ and Duke’s. I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. (Do note, though, that it is a dual-degree engineering program - you earn a BA or BS at Emory and a BS in engineering at Georgia Tech. However, this is different from a traditional 3/2 program in that the BME department is shared between Emory and Georgia Tech and the two universities are in the same city about 15 minutes apart.)
Thank you for the advice, everyone! (Though this is a very late reply)
@collegemom3717 I liked Dartmouth and Columbia for very different reasons, and ended up choosing to prioritize the positives Columbia had more. Also, I wasn’t admitted for BME but for Biochem (and I doubt I’d apply for BME for my undergrad at JHU).