I am leaning toward chemistry or biomed engineering for grad schools, and I have gotten a couple emails from these two schools. How good are they?
Look at their faculty listing and then see how much they publish on either Google Scholar or Web of Science. This can give you an idea of how productive their research is. You can also look at selected papers and see if the research being done is supported and whether is fits your interests. There is no substitute for doing the legwork and finding out about the departments yourself. Alternatively, speak to your faculty mentors at your undergraduate institution and the their opinion.
Are you currently a Chemical Engineer looking to go to grad school? My understanding was there was not a lot of pressure on Chemical Engineers to get a masters degree. They seem to do very well with just a Bachelor degree.