Getting into BME PhD program with biology degree?

[jenner]

Hey everyone,

I would love your professional opinion about my chances of getting into a decent biomedical engineering PhD program.  

I am currently a junior at UC Berkeley studying Neurobiology. I have a strong interest in studying neuroscience, but have realized that I want to incorporate research into actually engineering biomedical devices. However, it is too late to switch majors into BME as an undergrad, but I am still aiming for a BME grad program.

• Overall GPA 3.5, major GPA 3.2
• Haven't yet taken the GRE, but will optimistically estimate my scores will range 90th percentile or above (estimation based upon strong SAT scores in the past of 2300)
• 4 years of research experience in a behavioral vision science research lab (1 research paper, multiple project involvements, but no publications )
• 1 semester (going to be 1.5 years when I apply) of research in a bioengineering stem cell research lab, hopefully with a publication
• Taking courses in linear algebra & differential equations so I'll have 2 years of math when I apply

 

Do you guys think I have a chance at getting into a BME PhD program?  I'm looking at UCLA for its neuroengineering research, however I have no idea what range of schools I should be looking at. Do I have a shot applying to the most prestigious programs like Hopkins and Stanford, considering my mediocre GPA and non-engineering degree?

Thanks for your help and time!

Edited December 3, 2014 by jenner

[Hyraxes]

I have a pretty comparable background if it might help to hear my approach. Graduated from a tip-top, non-Ivy university with a barely relevant non-engineering degree. Stats as follows:

• Overall GPA 3.56, Major 3.88, Jr.-Sr. 3.86, Science/Math 3.25
• GRE: 162 Q, 166 V, 4.0 W (87/98/56 percentile)
• 2 years of social science and public health research undergrad
• 2 years in industry working for a startup (pharmaceuticals)
• 2 presentations (1st and 2nd authors), one pending research paper (3rd author), one paper where my research was included but not cited (I was a lowly undergrad at the time)
• Currently working in a mech eng lab at another top-5 university
• Only took through single variable calculus, currently teaching myself differential equations and some more phy sci math

I am applying to bioengineering or biomedical engineering at Univ. of Washington, Stanford, Boston Univ., U Mich, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, UC Irvine, and UW Madison. I'm also applying for a terminal Masters at JHU, Bioengineering Innovation and Design (cool program, look into it).

 

It's too early in the game for me to tell you my success or failure rate, but I think I'll get in at least somewhere. My tactic is to really highlight my differences, not apologize for them, and be super enthusiastic about the program. You're in a good position now, because I didn't really decide on my specific path until a bit later. My biggest pieces of advice are 1) Start thinking about specifics soon. Try and even draft a SOP so you can really flesh out what your interested in and why, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. 2) Contact professors of interest sooner rather than later. Try to get an idea of who might be interested in a candidate like you and open up a line of communication. I didn't do this enough. 3) Apply for NSF, NDSEG, and maybe even Hertz. Look into taking a year with a Fulbright, Rhodes, or Marshall Scholarship (or similar) to get yourself in a better position for grad school.

 

Don't sweat your GPA. It's not bad (the highest cutoffs I've seen are 3.5), and it's from Berkeley, so it's taken with a grain of salt. Also, programs in BME accept students from non-eng backgrounds all the time. It's an interdisciplinary field, so they want people with diverse domain knowledge. Finally, if they want you but think you need more training in a specific area, some programs will let you take some "catch-up" courses prior to starting your actual degree.

 

Hope that helps. I totally wish I had known about these forums when I was a junior! You're in a good place. Good luck!

[jenner]

Thanks for your comment, Hyraxes. 

Your advice and stats were extremely helpful and have given me some much-needed confidence.  Out of curiousity, how did you select the schools you will be applying to? Also, would you recommend simply contacting professors through email and giving them my background and expressing interest in working with them?

Best of luck in your applications and hope to hear some great news soon!  

[tuckbro]

Hi,  When I was applying I found that the actual GPA and GRE are MUCH higher at the top BME schools than on their website.  Look at who is actually getting in on the results page.  The advice I got, which turned out to be totally true, is you need a 3.9 plus GPA and 95% plus quant GRE to get an interview and then its fit after that.

 

I do not know one person I interviewed with at any of my schools, other than Rice & Syracuse, who had below that.  I am sure there are exceptions, but that was my experience.  For Rice most were in the 3.8 plus GPA range.

Edited December 4, 2014 by tuckbro

[tuckbro]

You can also check out last years thread on BME PHD applications and results under engineering and you can see what scores got interivews at your schools.  No one started one this year, but it is useful also for seeing when you will hear back.

 

If you are thinking of any of the schools listed below I can give you my experiences. 

[Hyraxes]

Your advice and stats were extremely helpful and have given me some much-needed confidence.  Out of curiousity, how did you select the schools you will be applying to? Also, would you recommend simply contacting professors through email and giving them my background and expressing interest in working with them?

 

I chose schools based on whether they had professors who were in my field of interest, had the right graduate culture, and many opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary research. This involved a lot of reading faculty descriptions on websites to start off with. I actually wrote a little script that would find keywords for me, which accelerated the process, but it was still labor-intensive. I have a rather narrow set of interests, so I actually knocked off some schools I was originally interested in due to the lack of relevant professors.

 

I'm a champion of cold-emailing, which has worked out for me alarmingly well. Leverage your network to see if you can get any introductions. There's a lot of material out there on how to write good POI emails to professors.

 

Aim for professors and programs that look like good fits. Make sure you feel ready for grad school. Take some time off to develop your skills if you think you have any areas of weakness. You do (as do/did I) have some ground to make up in terms of GPA, but I think there's more to an application than just your stats.

 

That said, make realistic aims by looking at the results search. I'm aiming high with some of the schools on my list, but I'm okay with that!

[Hyraxes]

Oh, also something else to mention. I was originally going to apply to just MS and MSE programs, but multiple discussions with faculty and a thorough examination of the results page here made me change my mind. There are many instances of people with GRE scores in my range and GPAs even slightly lower who have been accepted to my top choice schools. I don't think they throw out your application if you have under a 3.9.

[tuckbro]

Oh, also something else to mention. I was originally going to apply to just MS and MSE programs, but multiple discussions with faculty and a thorough examination of the results page here made me change my mind. There are many instances of people with GRE scores in my range and GPAs even slightly lower who have been accepted to my top choice schools. I don't think they throw out your application if you have under a 3.9.

I didn't say they did.....just sharing the experience at top BME schools.

[jenner]

You can also check out last years thread on BME PHD applications and results under engineering and you can see what scores got interivews at your schools.  No one started one this year, but it is useful also for seeing when you will hear back.

 

If you are thinking of any of the schools listed below I can give you my experiences. 

Thanks for the thread bump. Would love to go to a top program for the prestige, but I think realistically I want to find a program that's a better competitive yet realistic match/reach for me instead of something that's way up in the ranks and I'm unlikely to get into, or even do well in.  

 

Does anyone know how good the BME PhD programs at USC and UCLA are?  I'm having trouble finding a list of BME program rankings, in particular because it seems each program has strengths in different fields. 

[jenner]

I chose schools based on whether they had professors who were in my field of interest, had the right graduate culture, and many opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary research. This involved a lot of reading faculty descriptions on websites to start off with. I actually wrote a little script that would find keywords for me, which accelerated the process, but it was still labor-intensive. I have a rather narrow set of interests, so I actually knocked off some schools I was originally interested in due to the lack of relevant professors.

 

I'm a champion of cold-emailing, which has worked out for me alarmingly well. Leverage your network to see if you can get any introductions. There's a lot of material out there on how to write good POI emails to professors.

 

Aim for professors and programs that look like good fits. Make sure you feel ready for grad school. Take some time off to develop your skills if you think you have any areas of weakness. You do (as do/did I) have some ground to make up in terms of GPA, but I think there's more to an application than just your stats.

 

That said, make realistic aims by looking at the results search. I'm aiming high with some of the schools on my list, but I'm okay with that!

Awesome! I'll look into it and do my research.  Would love to see you post your results when they come out -- good luck! 

[ghanada]

What are your research interests? I do neural engineering, particularly brain-computer interface, so mixing neuroscience and devices. There are tons of schools doing good work in this field. But there's a pretty broad range of specific fields within neural engineering, so it depends on what you want to do. 

 

I also agree that your GPA is a bit low and will make it difficult to get into top 20 programs. But it isn't impossible, especially if you are willing to take some time off before applying and gain more research experience in a related engineering lab. For what it's worth, my undergrad GPA was 2.6 from UCLA. But I took a lot of time off, got a Masters in EE, and a good number of pubs. I made it to a top 10 school (U Michigan). So yeah, not impossible. 

 

UCLA and USC are both good, but not great BME programs. I wouldn't put them in the "top tier" profile. But they are both still very difficult to get into. UCLA has very little funding and puts the responsibility on the applicant to try and find money, even after gaining acceptance. USC's program is on the smaller side and just offers very few spots. I think my year they gave out under 10 acceptances, and only like 4 or 5 people matriculated. 

 

But if you are serious about doing anything in the neural engineering field, I highly recommend you leave Cali as there isn't a whole lot going on out there except Stanford and maybe UCSD...which are both incredibly difficult to gain admission to. 

[Flux2]

What do you guys think of Cornell for BME? Is it still difficult?

[madbiochemist]

I'm in the same boat as jenner, coming from Biochemistry and (hopefully) going into tissue engineering. I've asked professors and admissions reps about how willing BE/BME programs are to admit biology students and all of the ones I've worked with have been more than happy to extend offers to biologists (I've worked in tissue engineering, drug delivery/nanomaterials, and stem cell biomechanics), provided that they have demonstrated some math, physics, and programming aptitude. They say that certain professors are prejudiced against biology (particularly in biomechanics), but depending upon your discipline you should be able to find a good fit somewhere. Also, I've been told that if the BME program comes from the medical school (like Johns Hopkins) they are more likely to admit biology students than if it grows out of the engineering school (MIT, UCSD).