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Biohazardia

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  • Location
    New York
  • Application Season
    2016 Fall
  • Program
    Biomedical Engineering

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  1. You should take the GRE ASAP, so if you don't do that well on it you can retake in the summer. It's good you're thinking about rec letters now. Make sure they mention your GPA in the letter and are able to say you are a great worker in the lab & learner despite the lower GPA. This semester if you are able to make a very good impression on one of the profs you have a class with, I would ask them, especially if you are able to get a good grade in the class.
  2. I had a BS in molecular biology and am now in a bioengineering PhD. What really helped was that I had a biomedical engineering minor and took a couple advanced math classes (differential equations, multivar calc, engineering physics) in my undergrad, and I had a biomedical engineering professor write one of my rec letters. However, I did undergraduate research in a purely molecular biology lab. To be honest though, I do think a lot of schools prefer their BME students to come in with engineering backgrounds as opposed to biology and I agree with madbiochemist, I was also told by faculty I'd be quite competitive in biology PhD programs, but would be seen as less competitive for BME because of a non-engineering major. Bottom line is - yeah it's hard, but you can do many things to help your case and it is certainly possible, such as experience in an engineering lab (I really wish I had that), BME classes, higher maths, etc. I also second applying to a lot of schools.
  3. Definitely reach out to professors about your application, and have many professors around you look at your SOP to edit it and make it stronger. Also you need pretty strong recs to offset that bad GPA. (My GPA was around yours when I was applying for an engineering PhD and basically I had to do everything I could to offset it). Keep doing research, try to publish if you can or at least have something in submission, and definitely try to apply for SMART, NSF, etc. grants that will make you more marketable in the spring if you get them. You should be able to get into several MS programs at least with your current credentials though (assuming good SOP and recs - personally I think that's more important than concentrating on improving your GRE). Also if you can bring up your GPA to above 3.2 or 3.3 with your fall grades, that would be helpful. You might have a harder time with a PhD, its definitely possible in my opinion but hard. Try for schools in the 20 - 60 range, ranking wise. Good luck!
  4. Also to help out students in my field, I'll put the Biomedical Engineering information (2016) up here too. Good luck to you all too. 1. Johns Hopkins 2. Georgia Tech 2. MIT 4. UC San Diego 5. Stanford 6. Duke 6. UC Berkeley 8. UPenn 9. Boston University 9. Northwestern University 9. Rice University 9. UMichigan Ann Arbor 9. UWashington 14. Columbia University 14. Washington University in St. Louis 16. Cornell 17. Case Western Reserve 18. UPittsburgh 19. CalTech 19. UC Davis 19. UTexas Austin 22. Carnegie Mellon 22. Harvard 22. Purdue University West Lafayette 22. UIllinois Urbana Champaign 22. UMinnesota Twin Cities 22. UWisconsin Madison 22. Vanderbilt 22. Yale 30. UUtah 30. UVirginia 32. UC Irvine 32. University of Flordia 32. USouthern California 35. UMaryland College Park 35. Virginia Tech 37. NC State Chapel Hill 37. Penn State 37. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 37. Texas A&M College Station 37. UCLA 42. URochester 42. Ohio State 42. Arizona State 45. Clemson 45. Dartmouth 45. Drexel 45. Rutgers 49. Brown 49. Northeastern University 49. Tufts 49. Tulane 49. UConnecticut 54. Illinois Institute of Technology 54. University of Arizona 54. University of Delaware 54. UIllinois Chicago 58. CUNY City College 58. Indiana University Purdue University Idianapolis 58. Stony Brook SUNY 58. University of Iowa 58. University of Miami
  5. I haven't found a reliable way other than getting an account. (Sadly). It's 35$ a year, then cancel after your first year of course. I found the 35$ to be worth it to look at the entire list, personally. But here are the rankings for Computer Engineering so you don't have to. (Personally I was rather peeved that we had to pay to see the full rankings, so while I think it's worth it if you have no other option, I'll gladly spare someone else from paying for a service that IMO should be free). 1. MIT 2. Carnegie Mellon 2. Stanford 2. UC Berkeley 5. U. Illinois Urbana Champaign 6. Georgia Tech 7. UMichigan Ann Arbor 7. University of Washington 9. CalTech 9. Purdue University West Lafayette 11. Princeton 11. UTexas Austin (Cockrell) 13. Cornell 13. UCLA Samueli 13. UWisconsin Madison 16. Columbia 16. UC San Diego 16. UMaryland College Park 16. USouthern California (Viterbi) 20. Rice University 21. Harvard 21. Penn State 23. Northwestern University 23. Texas A&M College Station 23. UC Santa Barbara 23. UMinnesota Twin Cities 23. UPenn 23. Virginia Tech 29. Duke 29. Ohio State 31. Brown University 31. Dartmouth 31. Johns Hopkins 31. UC Davis 31. UC Irvine 36. Arizona State (Fulton) 36. North Carolina State University 36. University of Florida 36. University of Virginia 36. Washington University in St Louis 36. Yale 42. Boston University 42. Michigan State 42. Northeastern University 42. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 42. Rutgers in New Jersey 42. UMass Amherst 48. University of Arizona 48. UColorado Boulder 48. University of Notre Dame 48. UPittsburgh (Swanson) 48. University of Utah 48. Vanderbilt 54. Iowa State University 54. NYU 56. Stony Brook SUNY 56. UC Riverside 58. Oregon State University 58. UC Santa Cruz 58. URochester 58. University of Tennessee Knoxville 58. University of Texas Dallas 58. Washington State University Good luck!
  6. I'll be at UMD this fall, doing a PhD in Bioengineering. Does anyone know of any roommate/housemate finding platforms? Now that I've gotten over the hurdle of getting in, I'm now faced with the problem of finding an apartment and housemates! Also, what are the best places to live for graduate students near College Park? I've heard CP is kind of crime-heavy so places like Silver Springs are better, but I'm wondering if I should be looking elsewhere as well.
  7. I am a senior undergraduate in Cornell's BME - so take my advice with a grain of salt. Both schools are really great places and I agree, there's no really wrong choice! In terms of transportation to California, I also have family in Cali and I can tell you that plane trips usually require 1-2 layovers in order to get to LAX. I would expect the same for SF. Also in terms of Cornell - Ithaca is absolutely gorgeous and a wonderful place to go hiking and do nature-y activities (seriously there are some places here that look like Middle Earth straight out of LotR), but there isn't much to do at all in the way of city, so if you really enjoy the city life, Ithaca might not be good for you as the closet large city is Syracuse (1 hr away by car). All other major cities are over 3 hours away. Another consideration with transport is that living at Cornell as a graduate student is pretty uncomfortable without a car from what I can tell, though most grad students walk or take the bus to lab since there isn't much parking on campus. I would not worry too much about the academia versus industry thing since your PI should personally be working with you and helping you to achieve whichever side of the spectrum you prefer (industry or academia). There's also to consider that a ME degree is much more marketable to employers than a BioE degree. (However, that won't matter if you are looking to do academia). It's a hard decision but I hope I helped shed some light on things Cornell-related at least. Good luck!
  8. I'm a Cornell undergraduate senior, moving out this summer to graduate school. Welcome to Cornell all The title of this thread is rather accurate, considering it just snowed a couple days ago and there are occasional flurries going by my window right now. Definitely make sure to bring warm clothes...
  9. Talking with current graduate students and having done an interview myself, I would say questions that helped me out most were: - About their lab atmosphere and mentoring system (Does the PI directly mentor students, or do post-docs mentor grads?) - Possible collaborations with other students, labs, hospitals, companies, etc. - How students in their lab are funded - What core research facilities and equipment does the lab have access to - Do they let you network and go to conferences - For a non-POI I would ask if they will assign you a project or if you come up with your own project. If you are allowed to come up with your own project you may get to work on something closer to your own interests if you do end up working with that prof. Then I would add 2-5 questions about their research anyway.
  10. It seems the general consensus on this thread was that it's a good idea to ask the graduate department about it, and they will usually have a positive response.
  11. I'm wondering about this too considering that I took all classes in the field I am applying to (BioE) this semester and got very high grades in all of them, far better than the grades I've gotten in my straight biology classes (my major). Would just emailing a PDF of the updated transcript with a quick explanation to the graduate admissions coordinators suffice?
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