<p>I’m still researching what schools to apply to- i’m planning to major in biomedical engineering right now. how much should i trust rankings? should i not even apply to any schools that aren’t ranked for BME? and how do i tell if a BME dept. of a school is strong? EVERY school claims their own to be “nationally acclaimed” or something of the sort.
and another thing - i didn’t do super hot on my bio AP test…would that affect my admission chances? i figure that if it did, could i take the SAT subject test for it (and do well) to compensate for it?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, trust the rankings…but you can be well-trained in BME at schools not ranked. Yes, take the Bio SAT II.</p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Undergraduate Engineering Specialties: Biomedical
Ranked in 2009
1 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
2 Duke University Durham, NC
3 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
4 University of California–San Diego La Jolla, CA
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
6 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
7 University of Washington Seattle, WA
8 Boston University Boston, MA
9 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH
Rice University Houston, TX
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
12 Northwestern University Evanston, IL
13 Stanford University Stanford, CA
14 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
15 Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN
16 University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI
17 Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO
18 University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA
19 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX
20 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
21 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA</p>
<p>A few things to consider:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Most students change majors. You say you plan to major in BME, but you may wind up in physics or economics.</p></li>
<li><p>Rankings are only as good as the criteria they apply. The US News overall college rankings use criteria that include the volume of alumni contributions, as well as peer assesements based on the subjective opinions of college administrators at other schools. Is the Dean of Admissions at Notre Dame really in the best position to judge the quality of undergraduate programs at USC? That said … the rankings in specialty areas such as BME are by definition more focused than the general all-school rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>Even assuming that you are sure about your major, and even assuming that the rankings are very reliable, it is very difficult to judge the significance of small-to-middling spreads in the rankings. How much better is #1 JHU than #13 Stanford, really? Especially when you consider all the other factors besides department strength. Many top students would pick Stanford over Hopkins even for BME because strength in the prospective major is just one factor in the decision.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Bottom line: by all means use rankings to assemble an initial list of prospective schools. But then do your homework, and visit as many as you can, to build a final list based on what is most important to you.</p>