Penn, Rice, Caltech Bioengineering

[metacurious]

Anyone have perspectives on the relative strengths and weaknesses of these BioE programs? Specifically, I am most interested in avg time to earn the PhD and whether any of these schools have particular ties to industry or track record of sending graduates to biotech/venture capital firms...Thanks

[gatorgirl]

When you asking about Bioengineering, are you refering to Biological or Biomedical engineering? While it may seem like a silly question, they are quite different and schools tend to be better in one or the other. I could help you evaluate this if you mean Biomedical. If you are refering to just Biological (Energy and Ag, etc) then I have no clue.

[metacurious]

Sorry - I mean biomedical engineering. The biomed devices, imaging/diagnosis, bionanotech for cancer, etc. side of things. Thanks!

When you asking about Bioengineering, are you refering to Biological or Biomedical engineering? While it may seem like a silly question, they are quite different and schools tend to be better in one or the other. I could help you evaluate this if you mean Biomedical. If you are refering to just Biological (Energy and Ag, etc) then I have no clue.

[gatorgirl]

Penn is the most highly ranked. US News and World reports has it at 6th. Next would be Rice, which is still top ten at #8. Lastly is Caltech, but I am unsure of its actual ranking.

[was1984]

I'm not seeking a bioengineering degree, so I can't help you directly, but I will recommend a website:

http://graduate-school.phds.org/

This site has some more relevant data than a lot of the other ranking sites out there like average time to a PhD, placement rates, etc. I think you might find what you are looking for there. Of course, graduation time has more to do with your advisor than anything else, so if you want to graduate quickly you should speak with students in the lab of your potential advisor and find out how long they have been there.

[metacurious]

Thanks guys, aside from "rankings" though, I'm looking for thoughts on relative strengths/weaknesses. Like what are the focuses/strong suits of each school. I'm looking for a program that is strong in molecular imaging, drug delivery, and biomedical devices research with a focus on translational stuff versus theoretical stuff.

[quadsbaby]

Thanks guys, aside from "rankings" though, I'm looking for thoughts on relative strengths/weaknesses. Like what are the focuses/strong suits of each school. I'm looking for a program that is strong in molecular imaging, drug delivery, and biomedical devices research with a focus on translational stuff versus theoretical stuff.

Best way to determine the research focus is just to check out the individual professors' websites.

[firefly luciferase]

Penn: http://www.be.seas.u...earch/index.php

Rice: http://bioengineerin...ocus_areas.aspx

Caltech: http://www.be.caltec...arch/index.html

I don't claim to be an expert on any of these schools - I've spent the most time looking over Penn's program, followed by Rice, and know close to nothing about Caltech. Also, my particular interests are in drug/gene delivery and cell/tissue engineering, so I might be biased.

Penn spans a wide range of research areas and also has a particularly large number of faculty (and more in other depts who are members of the Graduate Group). I know they have an HHMI program in biomedical imaging. They also seem to have fairly good ties to the med school for the translational aspect.

For Rice, Antonios Mikos and Jennifer West are a couple of the big names, and I think the department as a whole has traditionally collaborated with MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor, and Texas Medical Center, which if I remember correctly is one of the largest medical centers in the country. Actually, I just saw on their website that they recently got a big grant for cancer diagnostics with a bio-nano-chip - see http://bioengineerin...ent.aspx?id=223 - cool.

I'm not really familiar with Caltech's department except that it's a relatively new and interdisciplinary department. Most if not all faculty have primary appointments in other departments (chemistry, chemical engineering, biology, etc).

Edited January 17, 2011 by firefly luciferase