Engineers Speak !!

[dreaming]

<p>i will list my (mis) understandings or (mis)conceptions of Duke and please disagree/agree with my idea and kindly explain/help me :D</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Pratt is a very small part of Duke (meaning Tritiny is more focused), although it is going through a rapid growth</p></li>
<li><p>It's very theoretical. (what do you think about this? i think it might be theoretical, because so many BME are pre-med, many many engineers go into managements or research or teaching. so a very small fraction of students actually become pratice engineers, which i see as a downside of the Pratt)</p></li>
<li><p>Althought I wanna do BME, having BME so big (almost half i heard. in contrast there is only like 2-30 students in civil E) in the Pratt seems to be somewhat a downside. and of course changing a major later also concerns me since there is not much choices (e.g. it lacks ChemE.)</p></li>
<li><p>Because #1, it does not have much resource (and/or faculty members) as big technical schools (MIT, Caltech, Cornell, CMU, so on) What do you think?</p></li>
<li><p>Again, because of #2, most of research are very fundamental. there are no front-end products coming out from Pratt.</p></li>
<li><p>BME is so new that the ranking does not mean so much (compare to being a top ranking MechE or ChemE) since big name schools have not jumped into this field yet(MIT just started BioEngineering Major), or does not see it as a UG major.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I think all of those stuffs except for #4 could be positive thing. (and i'm mumbling alot) But at same time as i mentioned shortcommings of the Pratt. I welcome your opinion!!</p>

[lithiumbromide]

<p>it shouldn't be that bad</p>

[sempitern555]

<p>best bme in the nation.... nuff said</p>

[Ariesdrgn]

<p>2nd to JHU i thought.</p>

<p>why would a large BME class be bad? its only like 100-ish anyways</p>

[dreaming]

<p>oh well. as i said all of those things can be really positive.
i thought a large BME class might be bad, since (even though for right now, i'm pretty set for BME) i would not have much choices for other major, if have to later.</p>

<p>also having so many pre-meds or pre-professionals in BME might make BME so competitive and whatnot.</p>

[tooby]

<p>To any current students in Pratt or Trinity: How easy is it to major in something like BME and double in Trinity in something like econ? Is it the whole "not impossible but enjoy taking 6 classes a semester" or... what?</p>

<p>How do AP credits help you with double majoring?</p>

[dak]

<p>Our son is a freshman who would like to double major in EE and Econ. He knows it will be hard to fit everything in, but it is possible. One thing he is doing is attending one of the concentrated six week summer sessions. He will be able to get two classes out of the way and the tuition is 45% cheaper for summer session classes. Hopefully, this will ease his regular school year schedule somewhat, and he will still have July and August at home.</p>

[lithiumbromide]

<p>so if I want to double major BME and Econ, should i do Focus?</p>

[Amused]

<p>lithium...probably not, it depends on how many AP Credits you have. Look at the required courses for BME and Econ (I know BME has 34 courses required adn probably only 7 maximum fill Econ requirements) so it depends on you're willing to overload (>4 classes for a semester). </p>

<p>tooby, AP credits take up some requirements which leaves you free to do other things like double major. Again, you have to check however</p>

<p>dreaming, you are correct, Duke Engineering is not MIT and is not Cornell. It leans theoretical, but I know there are some clubs where you get to do hands on stuff (robotics, DELTA Smart House, etc). Also, all BME majors are required to take at least 4 design courses I believe which involves taking a semester to actually make something useful like an EKG or some sort of transplant. But like I said, if you want MIT or Cornell-type focus, Duke won't give it to you. And yes, there are lots of pre-meds and it is quite competitive. It is also big, but I don't think 100 people for a major is unreasonable. You meet most of them through classes anyways and the classes are all pretty reasonable in size, 30 or less usually.</p>

[deuxenfants]

<p>Amused ... My son is trying to decide between Pratt and a few other schools (Penn, Northwestern, Rice). Are you a current Pratt student?</p>

[Amused]

<p>yes I am. BME freshman.</p>

[deuxenfants]

<p>Amused ... Do you know if the BME majors who do not want to go on to med school are able to find jobs with their BS degree? Or do they need to go right on to engineering grad school? Also, do you think that the other engineering students (non-BME) feel like "stepchildren" since BME is the largest program by far?</p>

[Amused]

<p>deuxenfants, a third of the BMEs are pre-meds (though there were only 20 on the pre-med report so I don't know), a third go on to grad school, and a third go into industry. I think there's quite a few i-banker wannabes but Med-tronic also employs quite a few graduates to develop medical equipment. About that other point, probably, but I doubt they feel that left out. There are a lot of double-majors (mostly non-premeds) within the engineering school.</p>

[deuxenfants]

<p>Amused ... thanks for your response! Can you tell me how large the engineering classes are at Pratt? I think I heard that the BME classes are like 50 students. Is that true for a lot of the BME classes or only for a few introductory ones? Would BMEs have small classes as they got to be upperclassmen (like 15 students or so)? How about MechE classes? Are they smaller? Any info you have is appreciated!</p>

[tooby]

<p>Amused, you say that there are quite a few double majors within the engineering school. But say your future focus is the 'i-banker wannabe'/patent law kind of deal (and i hear BME offers a great background in all sorts of things), what would you suggest for minor focus (or even double major). I'm worrying that my current plan of taking economics is just wishful thinking and i might miss out on many things. Thanks for your interest in this thread.</p>

[bsbllallstr8]

<p>I want to do EE + Econ like a person mentioned above, but we'll see how hard it is.. I will be going to duke with 2 credits from AP, chemistry and Math 31... perhaps a summer session?!</p>

[dak]

<p>bsbllallstr8- I'll try to let you know how the summer school session works out after my son finishes...like I said in my earlier post, he can come home for 10 days before he starts, take two extra classes and still have July and August off. Seems like a pretty good deal. I think he may try to do the same thing next summer, which would be four additional classes in the two years.</p>

[bsbllallstr8]

<p>Since I am finanial aid I may go to a summer session for some insane discount.. I havent researched it, but it makes sence.. I think</p>

<p>What did his freshman schedule consist of?</p>