pterosaur

BMI is a field where people come from a lot of undergraduate majors into the PhD, even from non-engineering backgrounds. (I did my undergrad in neuroscience.) To figure out what other pre-requisites you might need, I would look at the admissions websites of schools you're considering. Why are you only interested in public universities? Any school in the US that offers you a PhD acceptance in engineering should be funded. If it's not, don't do it. That basically negates worrying about differences in cost. Biomedical engineering is a very broad field and covers everything from biomaterials to robotic prosthetics. The specific type of research you want to do should really affect where you want to apply, and it will hugely affect your chances of getting in, because research fit is a big part of deciding who to take. As you pointed out, you have loads of time to figure this out. It's good to start early, but don't stress yourself out. I didn't have much idea what schools do apply to until a few months beforehand. Your interests will evolve as you spend more time in research. As long as you have solid recommendations, grades, scores, and research experience, I wouldn't worry about the prestige of your undergraduate institution - there's nothing you can do about it anyway. My biggest recommendation ad this point would be to try to cultivate a mentor relationship with a professor. I worked in a professor's lab for 4 years and she was hugely supportive and helpful through everything academic, including applications, course selection, fellowships, grad school recommendations, and general advice.

I did my undergrad at Northeastern, so I can answer a bit. Co-ops are not guaranteed. You apply and interview for them like you apply for a regular job, but they have a database of co-ops from employers that plan to hire a northeastern co-op, and almost everyone gets a position. As for salaries, I only know for undergrads, which isn't really relevant.

I just ran across this thread. I've got my application in for this as well. Now it's a waiting game until April.

I tried this with the first Skype interview I had, then realized I didn't understand anything in the paper and gave up. Interview still went reasonably well, I think.

As a programmer - that's probably trickier than it seems. They'd have to hire someone to write code to do that which wouldn't be worth the cost to them.

Apparently there's still hope for CMU! I was emailed by a professor today that 3 profs want to Skype with me about my application. Just yesterday I sent an email to the program admin saying that I'm a Hertz finalist, so I wonder if that greased the wheels.

What degree were you applying to for Harvard? I haven't heard anything from them one way or the other.

Is anyone else still in the running for this? I got an email on Friday that I'm a finalist! As for the reduced percentage of interviews this year, when I was at my interview they said that their budget/endowment mean they're offering fewer fellowships this year. Historically, it's been 15, but last year it was 12. Last year there were 50 finalists for those 12 fellowships, and this year there are 40 finalists, so I'm guessing there will only be 10 fellowships. I don't like my chances...

Just submitted my last application, so now it's all a waiting game!

For an international student, I don't think it will hugely hurt your chances of admissions to do a Skype interview. (They'll understand the cost issue.) What you will lose out on is the chance to see how the fit is. I think there is a lot you learn from the informal parts of the process, like seeing what current students think of the advisors, the program, the support, etc.

I saw someone posted an acceptance from CMU BME on the results. Anyone else heard from them? Just checked the website and nothing posted. I've had 3 awesome interviews with Harvard profs, though, with 1 to go, so I'm really optimistic on that front. (Sorry for spamming. CMU is the chronologically the first school I expect to/might hear back from.)

Ah, my mistake then. That's actually good, though, because if you haven't heard back it means no disqualification! Do you know what time zone those announcement times are in?

Yeah, it was more of a minor thing like that, so I don't think I'll do anything. And with contact from 4 profs at Harvard, I'm getting more optimistic about getting in there, which is my top choice.

Aaaaaagh. Just submitted my last application and screwed up the BioE/BME thing. It's where I did my undergrad, it's sort of my backup, and I'm pretty sure I'll get in. Do you think it's worth doing anything about?

I don't think so. You can look back at GRFP threads from previous years on Grad Cafe to verify what people heard when, but I'm pretty sure everyone finds out at the same time. If you were disqualified, you won't get reviews, but it'll come out at the same time.

I think in the past it's been around the beginning of April.

So is no news from CMU at this point bad news? Haven't heard anything about interviews. I have been contacted by 2 different professors at Harvard now, though, so at least I've got one that's looking good.

My interest is the intersection between biology and robotics, from a control perspective. So basically cyborgs and robot neuroscience.

I just got an email for an informal interview from a POI at Harvard who I mentioned in my SOP. It's my top choice so I'm super excited (and afraid of screwing it up).

Northwestern has hunted me down insisting that they need a transcript for the one college class I took in high school to verify my grade for it, which is turning out to be a massive pain since this was over five years ago. But at least that means they didn't toss my application out as incomplete! (Which is now making me paranoid about my other applications...)

Harvard and CMU.

Are they using ApplyYourself? The ones I've submitted are all using that I don't see such a page. (Though tell me if I'm being oblivious and just missing it.)

Is there a way to check if the schools have gotten your GRE scores besides calling them to ask? That bit of important information isn't part of the ApplyYourself applications...

I was going way more broad with the specialization. I currently have my specialization down as "neuroengineering." I'm having more trouble figuring out what discipline to categorize under. It's definitely under the purview of the scholarship, but I'm not sure whether to classify it under Biosciences; Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Processes; or Computer and Computational Sciences. I want to do stuff with biomimetic robotic control and robotic prosthetic control.

I think it means that they don't want to lose a strong applicant just because they missed one arbitrary cutoff marker. They're leaving themselves wiggle room while trying to tell you realistically what the expect of applicants.