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sabdo

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    San Diego
  • Program
    BioEngineering/Chemical Engineering M.S.

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  1. That really depends on the lab. Some are affected and some, such as my lab, are not. My PI gets his funding outside of NIH so he is doing fine. You really should be addressing this to members of your prospective PI's lab. They should be able to give you details.
  2. Their scholarship are 50% tuition cut + paid research up to 10K a year. Finding a research supervisor was easy for me as most of the professors are very receptive. A few are a little bit reluctant to taking on non PhDs, however if you make a good case they will usually take you. As for when to contact professors about research, you don't really need to until at least summer. Lots of professors will be still be dealing with PhD recruitment as first priority until then. If not, talking to them when you first come in will probably be the most open time. The professors would then be most fully aware of their capacities. That being said, don't wait too long either. As a MS, you can take research as counting for up to 2 courses worth of credit. So yes, they definitely want you to do research. I'm not doing a thesis for my masters, but you can start research at day one. However, it probably will take some training time to get to a point of doing real work. As for NIH/NSF cuts, I haven't experienced any thing regarding that.
  3. Hey, I am a current Duke MS BME so congrats on your acceptance! Regarding Duke, If you're looking for an EE focus in BME, look no further. That is one of Duke's biggest focuses (especially imaging.) Also, for scholarships, there were 2 for my class. We have about 18 students for my year and it was another guy and I who got it. It would be reasonable to expect the same amount for your year, maybe 1 or 2 more. Feel free to ask me any questions about Duke.
  4. Is there a PhD track for the MS program at MIT? If there is, then it may be worth going to MIT and backdoor your way into the PhD program. Granted, you would have to work hard initially to demonstrate your value, but I assume you would doing that at Princeton anyways. Also, if I remember correctly, MIT funds their MS students. If that's the case, then the finances wouldn't be such an issue. Either way, you can't really go wrong. I'm biased towards MIT but Princeton is also a top program. Good haul!
  5. ^ Only Berkeley-UCSF's and JHSU's CBID masters programs have interviews. Also, you will still be waiting a little while before you hear anything. Duke released their decision end of February last year. Berkeley started the interviews in late February too. Final decisions by Berkeley and other bioE schools were in mid March.
  6. Um... Excuse me? UT Austin even better than a UC? Thank god I wasn't drinking anything while I read that sentence or it would have been sprayed all over my monitor. I may be biased by having gone to a UC for my undergrad. However, Berkeley is in the top 3 best electrical engineering schools in the country while UT Austin isn't even in the top ten. I realize every thing in the end has to with fit, blah, blah... However, I still wouldn't see people normally looking at UT Austin over Berkeley unless there was a very specific PI they were looking to work with. Plus, Berkeley is in California.
  7. They have no idea what they are talking about. Assuming you have good LORs and a solid SOP you are damn competitive for a PhD in a top 20. Even though your GPA is fairly average, I can guarantee you that none of the MS kids in my year at Duke have anywhere near as many publications as you. Hell I don't even think most of the incoming PhDs do either. Also you have a chemical engineering background which BME programs like too. Let me tell you, if you can flesh your application out right and make your SOP paint a portrait of a person who can do amazing research at their school, you should be golden.
  8. With 2 patents and 11 papers? Is that even a question? Apply!
  9. 1) First of all how is a 157 a 560 on the old score? It should be around a 730. This chart corroborates this: http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/old-to-new-gre-conversion-table-quantitative/ 2) I told some other kid this in a previous topic: but assuming the rest of your app is strong, stop worrying about the damn GRE! I got a 74% on quant on a 90% on verbal for my GRE and I got in to 3 top 10 BME MS programs (with academic scholarship for 1 of them). Now I don't know what kind of program you are applying for however, you just need to present the rest of your app as the right fit for your particular school. For example if your program is research based: if you show that you are someone who can do good research in your SOP, have solid grades and letters of rec, they aren't going to care about how quickly you do long division on a glorified SAT exam. I would only worry about your GRE if it was really low (like <700) because then you might reach some cut off limit. However, your score is simply average but not low to the point where you could be facing cut off issues. Just make sure the rest of your app paints the picture of someone who the university is looking for and your GRE will not matter.
  10. In academia yes, in industry no. The medical device industry has been taking a major beating. It is very difficult to get a job with simply a BS in bioE/BME. Now the prospects are definitely better if you're getting a graduate degree but it still is no walk in the park. My best advice is to get into a school that has very good connections with the biotech/med industry. It is the best approach to getting a job.
  11. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax about the GREs! They are really not that important with respect to the other aspects in your app. Research experience, GPA, SOP and LORs are way more important than the stupid GREs. Don't believe me? I got into Duke (with scholarship), Penn, Berkeley/UCSF and BU with 74% quant on the GRE. I did get 90% on the verbal but that section doesn't even matter anyways. My point is: Don't apply avoid applying to the top schools just because you just have an avg quant score. You have to understand what each individual school is looking for. If you're applying to a research based school, what is going to be more representative to them of a good researcher? Your statement of purpose, LORs, and your performance in hardcore science classes or how fast you can do inane arithmetic multiple choice questions? The GRE is just a screening tool. As long as they believe you can make meaningful contribution to their program, they will want you. Like you, I seriously stressed about my GREs because I had an average quant score when I began applying. At certain points I wondered if it was even worth bothering despite that the rest of my application was strong. Well, I really wish in retrospect I hadn't spent so much time worrying about it because it ended not mattering. It would have saved me a lot of heartache and increased the quality of my life at the time. Anyways the take home message is: the GRE is BS. If the school believes you are what they are looking for, they are not going to care about an average GRE quant score. I mean, would you?
  12. I'm at Duke for BME and they don't have strict requirements regarding engineering backgrounds. I have friends both in the MS and PhD programs that have degrees in biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. Just as long as you can demonstrate you can handle the math, you should be OK.
  13. Hi Guys, I just started my MS in BME at Duke and I had a question regarding joining labs. I was wondering if it is a significant drawback to join the lab of a relatively new assistant professor vs that of an established professor? Essentially, I have a project offered to me from an established professor in BME. Although the project is interesting, it isn't exactly what I wanted to do. On the other hand, there is also an assistant professor who I don't know much about who has really cool research that is more inline with what I wanted to do. I guess my dilemma can be boiled to: go for established professor with research somewhat inline with what I want to do vs assistant professor who is doing the kind of stuff I want to do?
  14. I believe Ghanada will have this one covered.
  15. Are you applying for master's or PhD? Also do your grades have an upward or downward trend? Your gpa should be okay for the top 10/20 chem E schools for an MS (especially if unfunded). That being said I would focus on making those connections with professors because the LORs are important (The people you mentioned sound OK). Your gpa should be fine as long as you've got a solid SOP, some good letters, and a decent GRE. However If you're going for PhD, you better start doing some serious research...
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