Cleveland State University - Applied Biomedical Engineering PhD

[mtarek]

Hi all.

 

I've been admitted at CSU and will be conducting research at the Lerner Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. 

However, I stumbled upon some very bad reviews on CSU, granted they were all 3-4 years old, but that's all I could find. The only good, relevant review I could find was from 2011. 

So I'm hoping someone here could fill me in on how good CSU is, especially the ABE program if possible.

 

Thanks!

[jimmy_01]

Had a friend who went here....He never really complained about it. Overall, CSU is not a nationally recognized university...If your intentions are to stay withing the Cleveland area after your PhD, go for it...If your plans are to work outside of Cleveland after graduation, I would think twice about CSU.

[somethinbruin]

Hi all.

 

I've been admitted at CSU and will be conducting research at the Lerner Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. 

However, I stumbled upon some very bad reviews on CSU, granted they were all 3-4 years old, but that's all I could find. The only good, relevant review I could find was from 2011. 

So I'm hoping someone here could fill me in on how good CSU is, especially the ABE program if possible.

 

Thanks!

 

I don't know much about the biomed engineering program at Cleveland State, but I can speak to the university's reputation as a whole. The university has done a lot in the past 10 years to transform itself from a commuter campus into a college that feels more residential. I think the physical results have been good. The campus looks more like a university campus, although it is urban, and the area immediately to the east of the campus community gets very sketchy quickly.

 

While the physical grounds and some buildings are much improved, the academic reputation of CSU still lags behind some of the other universities in the region. The two best schools in NE Ohio are Case Western and John Carroll University (CWRU is better in some things, and John Carroll in others), followed by Kent State.   Cleveland State and the University of Akron are larger schools, but their academic reputations are not as strong. Both are working to get better, but I wouldn't say they're "there" yet. Cleveland State in particular is struggling with the transition from quarters to semesters, with the faculty and the administration at (somewhat heated) odds over teaching loads and how best to assign classes appropriate credit hours under their new structure/curriculum. A few weeks ago the faculty voted "no confidence" in the president. 

 

Beyond CSU, I would say that opportunities to work with the Cleveland Clinic are probably huge positives. The Clinic is a jewel, a hospital the likes of which we are lucky to have in Cleveland. And the Lerners don't do anything halfway (except perhaps the CLE Browns...but let's not go there). They've been very generous to several of NE Ohio's universities. 

 

I'm sorry that I can't be more specific about your program, or more positive about the academic quality of CSU. The school has worked really hard in some areas, but general perceptions of its academics is that it lags behind several of its geographic neighbors. That said, it may be the right fit for you if the research opportunities allow you to do the work you want.

[mtarek]

Thank you jimmy. And somethinbruin, special thanks to you for the detailed reply. 

 

I want to clarify a couple more points that maybe helpful:

- Work at The Clinic is what I'll be doing mainly, with CSU just a helper for me to get there. Meaning, I just have to be admitted at CSU to be able to work at the Cleveland Clinic. I also have the option to apply later to CWRU if I want to.

- The faculty at the program under discussion are from different unis all over the US. UCB, UCD, UCSF, Michigan state, Ohio, and CWRU to name some. http://www.csuohio.edu/engineering/chemical/ABE/faculty.html Would that make a difference academically?

[somethinbruin]

Cleveland State seems to be trying to attract decent faculty, but I'm not sure how much it helps them on a national stage. The greater problem, I think, is with some of their admissions standards (The MBA program in particular is not very selective. If you can pay, you can attend, basically). Granted, this doesn't cover all programs, and I'm guessing not yours, but some have pretty lax admission standards, and it hurts the academic reputation of the university as a whole.

 

I'm afraid I really don't know enough about ABE to say whether the opportunity to work at the Clinic outweighs the fact that CSU isn't particularly well regarded nationally as a research university. I wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction, but I think it's probably a question you could ask to a current faculty member or student. If you did so tactfully, I don't think that should be a problem.