BME MS/PhD Fall '13

[rjd150]

May be a bit early to start this but I wanted to see where everyone's at in terms of schools lists, applications, etc. I'll start:

Undergrad: Applied Physics (2.94 GPA)

Masters: MechE. with Bioengineering focus (3.46 GPA)

Applying to Ph.D. programs in BME with a Biomechanics focus at:

Columbia

Cornell

University at Buffalo

CUNY-City College

UCSD

Stony Brook University

I realize I will probably only get into maybe 1-2 schools on my list but it's worth a shot. I'm going to start applying in a few weeks. Where's everyone else applying? Also does anyone have any info on the Stony Brook admissions? Their website says that if you already have a relevant Masters and want to apply for advanced standing you have to obtain a promise of financial support from a PI before applying? WTF is that?

[Tempest36]

Good to see someone's started the annual BME application thread.

Undergrad: Medical Engineering (4.00 GPA eqiv.)

Masters: Biomedical Engineering with Neurotechnology (In Progress)

GRE: 159/168/4.5

Applying to Ph.D. programs in BME with a Neuroengineering focus at:

Johns Hopkins, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke

Already started my applications and statements of purpose. So much to write in so little space. And some of the universities have really disorganised applications.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Tempest36

[oualidb]

Hi Guys,

nice to see that you've started this topic,

Here is my profile :

BSc Computer Science, GPA 3.59

Masters, Computer Science, GPA 3.61

Medical Doctor Degree, GPA 3.0 (Double Major)

I'm still preparing to pass the Toefl and the GRE,

Planning to apply to

Cornell,

UMichigan,

McGill,

UBC,

Columbia

Already started the work on my SOP and applications but still need your help,

I just wanna know if there what are my chances to getting accepted with such a credentials, I don't know if CS students are usually offered spots when applying to BME programs,

Hope I hear from you,

[intirb]

tempest36, any reason UW didn't make the list?

[Tempest36]

tempest36, any reason UW didn't make the list?

I'd never thought about UW before, I'm from the UK so there's alot of American unis I havent heard much about.

And now i've looked them up it seems their neural engineering research is alot more biologically based than i'd like.

[ghanada]

@Tempest36, you might want to look into University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. I'm there now doing neuroengineering work (neuroimaging and BCI). I can highly recommend the program and the research. There are literally dozens of labs doing work directly related to neural engineering. There are lots of labs doing work in all aspects like neural probes, utah arrays, brain-computer interface, EEG, fMRI, ECoG, bio-MEMS, biomaterials, bionanotechnology, rehabilitation engineering, neural prosthetics, etc.

I know UMich isn't ranked quite as high as the schools you listed, but it is right up there. I have been very happy with the program and don't really have anything bad to say about UMich. The BME program is really strong, and continues to get better as they spend more money, open new facilities, and hire new faculty every year. Also, if you are into robotics and instrumentation, most the labs are highly collaborative and there are lots of cross-overs with the EE and MechE departments, which are also very well ranked. Definitely worth checking out.

[intirb]

I'm not sure what you mean by biologically based.. I'm sure it depends a lot on your specific focus, but I find it hard to understand why Harvard would make a 'neuroengineering' list and schools like UW, UMich, Brown, and Pitt wouldn't. Anyway, please don't take it as criticism - just a suggestion that there are very well-respected institutions with great neuroengineering research that might not be in the top BME schools.

[ghanada]

yeah I completely agree. Harvard is a weird choice to throw in there, such a small BME dept and not well known at all. In fact, most people in the engineering field are surprised to hear Harvard even has a BME dept. I also tried really hard to find a reason to apply to Harvard for neuroengineering, but couldn't find ANYONE remotely related to the field. Even MIT is not particularly known for neuroengineering unless you are talking about optogenetics, but that doesn't really have to do with robotics/instrumentation.

If you are really into neuroengineering with robotics and instrumentation, the schools that make the most sense are U Pitt, Brown, UMich, UW (unfortunate that Yoky Matsuoka isn't there anymore), Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, Berkeley, and Minnesota. You could also make an argument for UCSD, Georgia Tech, USC, UPenn, and Northwestern, but those schools have a much smaller number of faculty directly doing that type of work.

[Dicer87]

Hello All,

Just want to throw my two cents in:

Undergraduate: Bioengineering (2.99 GPA at UCB)

Masters: Biomedical Engineering (3.80 GPA at 2nd tier engineering school)

Applying to Ph.D. programs in BME with a Biomaterials/Tissue Engineering/Drug Delivery focus

Applied to:

Columbia

NYU GSAS (Biomedical Chemistry)

MIT

BU

Tufts

UPenn

UCSD

UCI

UCLA

USC

NYU-Poly (just in case)

GRE: 800/166Q (94%), 640/164V (89%), 4.5AW (73%)

Research: 5 years of research experience

2 years in a microfluidics lab (2nd author on pub)

2 years in a developmental bio lab (2nd author on Cell paper)

1.5 years in clinical/materials testing lab for master's thesis at NYUCOD (7 pending pubs; 1 first author)

Publications: 9 total, 1 first author, 7 pending

5 strong LORs: all from previous prinicipal investigators, my graduate BME program head, and undergrad lecturer

Most of my applications have been submitted already, since I've been through the process once before with no luck. I suspect my undergrad GPA was the primary factor why I didn't have much luck the first time around, since my GRE, LORs, and res experience were pretty good. Hopefully, it won't be the case this time. I have already reached out to a few POIs at NYU GSAS and Columbia (since I am already in the area) with favorable results. Not too sure yet how I am going to do the cold contact thing with POIs at other institutions. Originally, a Cali guy but headed out east to attend NYU-Poly. I hoped the proximity to so many schools would help me build my contacts, do some good research, and build up my resume, despite the infancy of my graduate school's BME program. I figured I'll go high or go home for my list of schools haha.

[kvv_s28]

Hello All,

 

Had no clue there was so much to BME admission discussions until I came across this site today..glad I did :-). After lots of reading, I guess I am no better off than I was. Would be great help if I could get some views on where I stand a chance in getting in for Fall2013.

 

So I'm an international student, undergrad program in Electronics and Instrumentation, done with it last June, ended up in a software job at IBM(totally unrelated to what I studied) as is the usual trend is in my place. So I came across this course on Biomed Instrumentation during my undergrad, knew nothing of the existence of such a field of study until then; but for as long as I remember, I had always had this fascination towards going for research, Ph.D etc and this, I understood was the perfect field and I decided quite late in my undergrad that I wanted to go for MS in BME. Bad planning, lack of support and other factors, I ended up working at IBM. But now, I'm looking towards Fall 2013 entry to the U.S; this is my profile:

 

GRE: 162-Q;154-V

AW: 4.0

Toefl: 112/120

Undergrad GPA: 76%

No publications/No research experience either in BME or related fields.

Applying Univs:  Univ of Florida, Arizona State Univ, Purdue, Texas A&M, UCincinnati(MS Elec engg)

Good LORs and SOP

 

I did try doing something in BME-related fields like an academic project, which was more into virtual instrumentation than BME I guess; but with rare faculty and research here, I couldn't have done more (maybe).

 

My final goal is to do a Ph.D, but with an average profile, I would like to get some research experience, do some publications, get a better understanding of what in BME am I practically interested in. I have a vague idea of my interests in Biomedical Imaging, and Neuroengineering too, also something that will not involve a lot of dealing with biology and specimens (I'm not sure if I am ready for it), so would like to decide and resolve all these before going for a Ph.d study.

 

At this stage, I'm really confused if my profile is apt for what I have applied. And still considering applying for Rutgers, Univ of Minnesotta or Univ of Utah; and maybe GMU (MSEE program as a safe option), NJIT(is it good???). Also, being an int'l student, I will need funding support to pursue my abroad studies. Please let me know which among the above should I apply to; and any others that I might have missed or any info that might help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!!

[msr420]

Hello everyone! Glad to sharing the stats.

 

BS (Electrical)-top ranked in the country, low world ranked
MS (Computing, Neuroscience) - top ranked in the country, universally well-known [MS will not be completed by Fall 2013, some courses will be available however]

UGPA: 3.76/4.00 (overall), 3.92/4.00 (last two years)
GRE: V/Q/AW-340/770/3.0; IELTS: 7.0

Research: 3 years (Various labs at BEC, KTH, Karolinska, and Cambridge)
Teaching: 3 years (Electrical Engineering and Mathematics)
Publications: 3 Journals (1st author in 2), 8 IEEE Xplore (1st author in 4), 9 national (1st author in 6)

Awards: Most promising young scientist of the country, best paper and presentation awards in an IEEE conference, first place in mathematical physics championship and national math Olympiad (three times), several financial grants and scholarships

 

Applied to BME (Computational Neuroscience focus): MIT, JHU, UT Austin, Case Western, UW-Madison, UMN-Twin Cities, and UCI

Applied to EE/CS (Computational Neuroscience focus): MIT, UBC

Interviews: none yet

Acceptances: UBC (communicated with Prof for last one year)

[sassypants]

Did y'all know that Duke admits BME PhD students directly to specific labs?  I applied this cycle and am feeling pretty stupid for only finding that out today during a talk with a professor...

[ghanada]

Did y'all know that Duke admits BME PhD students directly to specific labs?  I applied this cycle and am feeling pretty stupid for only finding that out today during a talk with a professor...

 

Most schools work this way. I know UMich and Columbia (from your list) also do it that way too in case you weren't sure. You should ALWAYS tailor your app toward working with specific people/labs because ultimately that will be who funds you unless you have your own fellowship money coming in. Talking to POIs directly and getting them to agree to fund you is by far the best way of gaining acceptance to a university. 

[Gregg30]

Does Purdue have a PhD program? I would assume that they do, I have only know of their online school: https://purdueonlineengineering.com/ - one of my friends goes to the school.

[Dicer87]

Well...looks like MIT BE is out...

[msr420]

Well...looks like MIT BE is out...

Looking forward what happens. Do you know when MIT BE invitations come to an end?

[Dicer87]

No idea...according to previous years...MIT usually sends out their invites in one wave near the end of January. I guess they're early on the ball this year.

[rjd150]

Anyone have any experience with Carnegie BME? I applied back in october but I'm not sure when they usually send out decisions.

[dbmarks]

Well...looks like MIT BE is out...

 

Where are you getting your information? Here's what I pulled from the Programs page at the MIT Department of Biological Engineering (http://web.mit.edu/be/programs/grad_application.shtml):

 

"We require interviews of our applicants during our Interview Weekend March 8 & 9, 2013. Interviews are by invitation only; notification of selection takes place in mid/late February and will be posted on your online account. An invitation to interview thus signals that your application has reached an advanced stage of consideration, but does not guarantee admission. Candidates will be notified of interview selection until the end of March. In some cases where international travel can be problematic, faculty telephone interviews will be arranged with international applicants."

 

Based on that information, it would be suprising if any decisions have been made. Can you say how the admission decision was received? I have checked my online account and can see no indication of a field, link, or section where the decisions may be posted.

[nishiki]

Where are you getting your information? Here's what I pulled from the Programs page at the MIT Department of Biological Engineering (http://web.mit.edu/be/programs/grad_application.shtml):

 

"We require interviews of our applicants during our Interview Weekend March 8 & 9, 2013. Interviews are by invitation only; notification of selection takes place in mid/late February and will be posted on your online account. An invitation to interview thus signals that your application has reached an advanced stage of consideration, but does not guarantee admission. Candidates will be notified of interview selection until the end of March. In some cases where international travel can be problematic, faculty telephone interviews will be arranged with international applicants."

 

Based on that information, it would be suprising if any decisions have been made. Can you say how the admission decision was received? I have checked my online account and can see no indication of a field, link, or section where the decisions may be posted.

You can search the "results search" part of this website to see whenever anyone reports they've heard from MIT BE.

 

Also, I can vouch personally that at least a few interview invites have been sent out. They probably didn't send out all the invites at once, and I'm sure more will come out mid/late Feb, like they say on the website.

As for the rest of the information on that website, the interview date is definitely March 8/9. However, I was notified of my interview by email; I don't see anything on my online application. 

[Dicer87]

@dbmarks: nishiki is right. This is how I found out.

 

Well bye bye UCSD. Thanks for letting me know quickly at least haha.

[R380]

Interview at Duke (Talked to Prof. back in Dec)

Still waiting for:

MIT - BioEng (Apparently they are still sending interview invites)

MIT - CSB (They just started sending interview invites)

Berkeley/UCSF

WUSTL

Stanford 

J. Hopkins (My transcript did not arrive, they contacted me, apparently the committee is getting together at the end of the week to make decisions)

 

No rejections yet.

 

Good luck everyone!

Stats:

UCSD 3.85 - 2 years of research, solid letters of rec, some graduate courses

[msr420]

Has anyone got responses from BME at UT-Austin, UW-Madison or UMN-Twin Cities? Or, any idea about the date they send out?

[sassypants]

Has anyone got responses from BME at UT-Austin, UW-Madison or UMN-Twin Cities? Or, any idea about the date they send out?

 

I've had a couple of profs from UW-Madison e-mail me about their research, and each of them said 'the admissions committee will be meeting soon to make decisions about applications.' 

[AquaBear]

Are you guys who've heard back from schools applying for PhD programs? 

 

I'm primarily applying for MS BME/BioE positions, I don't think they have interviews, right?