2016 Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Applicant Stats and Responses

[SynBioGuy]

4 hours ago, BrazilianStrongCoffe said:

Undergrad Institution: Brazilian University -  Very prestigious...here (University of São Paulo)
Major(s):  Electrical Engineering
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.00
Overall GPA: 3.00
Position in Class: Since i made an international program, it is hard to compare with peers
Type of Student: International Hispanic Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version): revised
Q: 161
V: 159
W: 3


Research Experience: 

One Semester in Medical Imaging

One Year in Biological Effects of Electric Fields

Research Assistant in Control Engineering

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Scholarship for research assistance, best paper award in  international conference

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:  I was freshman Physics Tutor

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I volunteered on teaching poor children and in the project of a community radio

Special Bonus Points: I have ten publications (Journals and Conferences Proceedings) and four poster presentations - one of the publications got a best paper award and i have a masters degree from germany
Applying to Where:

Yale BME

Harvard BME

Rockefeller Neuro

NYU Neuro

CUNY BME

I focused on research insead of grades - i was wondering if the GPA would not be a problem...USP tend to have lower grades than USA schools

Wow 10 publications!

[BrazilianStrongCoffe]

I hope that the admcom will consider that pubs balance the grades:)

[Edotdl]

Only applying to two BE/BME programs but I'll join you guys.

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): EE
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.8+
Overall GPA: 3.8+
Position in Class: top?
Type of Student: Asian Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.5 (80%)

Research Experience: Multiple semester long experiences in not super related areas during freshman and sophomore year. Sophomore summer did research program at Big 10 school in Neuro. Started in lab beginning Junior year in another Neuro lab at my current school (in this lab now). Amgen scholar doing Neuro research summer after junior year.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Dean's list, GPA stuff

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA one semester.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Letters from PIs that did PhD at MIT

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Recs from the two summer programs and the lab I'm in now at my school. At least 2 are relatively famous in their fields (which is not exactly what I want to do in grad school though)
Applying to Where:
All PhD

Berkeley-UCSF- BioE

JHU-BME

[pali123]

40 minutes ago, Edotdl said:

Only applying to two BE/BME programs but I'll join you guys.

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): EE
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.8+
Overall GPA: 3.8+
Position in Class: top?
Type of Student: Asian Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 4.5 (80%)

Research Experience: Multiple semester long experiences in not super related areas during freshman and sophomore year. Sophomore summer did research program at Big 10 school in Neuro. Started in lab beginning Junior year in another Neuro lab at my current school (in this lab now). Amgen scholar doing Neuro research summer after junior year.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Dean's list, GPA stuff

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA one semester.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Letters from PIs that did PhD at MIT

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Recs from the two summer programs and the lab I'm in now at my school. At least 2 are relatively famous in their fields (which is not exactly what I want to do in grad school though)
Applying to Where:
All PhD

Berkeley-UCSF- BioE

JHU-BME

I would apply to more BioE schools! I personally know a lot of non-BME/BioE students who got into top programs like MIT and Stanford :). They obviously did some BioE research though!

[Edotdl]

14 minutes ago, pali123 said:

I would apply to more BioE schools! I personally know a lot of non-BME/BioE students who got into top programs like MIT and Stanford :). They obviously did some BioE research though!

Not sure if you looked at my signature, but I'm applying to a variety of programs (EE, Neuro, BME, etc.). I just listed those two since they were the ones relevant to the thread.

[pali123]

20 minutes ago, Edotdl said:

Not sure if you looked at my signature, but I'm applying to a variety of programs (EE, Neuro, BME, etc.). I just listed those two since they were the ones relevant to the thread.

Oh yeah I see now! Well good luck your stats are great!

[pali123]

Has anyone heard of U Chicago IME graduate program? Is it good? Also what is their ranking I could not find it on Google. 

[pali123]

Hi Guys I am a question: I recently got a fee waiver without requesting it to UChicago IME program. I guess they noticed activity on my profile and sent me a waiver and strongly encouraged me to apply to their program. Is this fairly common to happen? Also how good is their molecular engineering program if anyone knows?

 

Thanks!

[Edotdl]

2 hours ago, pali123 said:

Hi Guys I am a question: I recently got a fee waiver without requesting it to UChicago IME program. I guess they noticed activity on my profile and sent me a waiver and strongly encouraged me to apply to their program. Is this fairly common to happen? Also how good is their molecular engineering program if anyone knows?

 

Thanks!

I don't know how common it is for UChicago, but I got several fee waivers from various places this semester. I ended up not using any of them, but if you're somewhat interested in the program and have professors you want to work with I don't see why you wouldn't apply.

[pterosaur]

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...

[Extra Espresso]

5 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

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...

A lot of the applications I have done have a checklist screen that you can view anytime after you've submitted your applications and the GRE score status will show up there. I've also had a problem of it taking forever for my scores to be linked to my apps, though. Stanford still hasn't linked mine, but if my other applications are correct, they received my scores over two weeks ago...

[Extra Espresso]

Did you guys contact POIs at the schools you're applying to, and, if so, when? I haven't yet, and I am debating if it would help me or hurt me at this point. 

[pterosaur]

10 minutes ago, Extra Espresso said:

A lot of the applications I have done have a checklist screen that you can view anytime after you've submitted your applications and the GRE score status will show up there. I've also had a problem of it taking forever for my scores to be linked to my apps, though. Stanford still hasn't linked mine, but if my other applications are correct, they received my scores over two weeks ago...

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.)

[Extra Espresso]

The one I've finished so far on ApplyYourself has all of the checklist information on the main page I see after I log in. It has my recommendation, transcript, and test score status. I don't know if that's school-specific, though. I haven't finished my other two on ApplyYourself, so I can't verify. Is it Harvard you're considered about? That's one of the ones I still have to submit. 

[pterosaur]

Harvard and CMU.

[Extra Espresso]

@pterosaur I'm going to finish Harvard today, so I'll let you know if I have any luck after I've submitted!

[Extra Espresso]

@pterosaur I finished Harvard today and I am seeing no such information about the receipt of GRE scores. I forget if that's what my Hopkins app looked like or not before my GRE scores were added in. It's possible that it's a setting in ApplyYourself that Harvard has disabled, or maybe the status doesn't show up until your scores are linked to your application. 

[Extra Espresso]

Other BME/BioE applicants, how screwed am I if I accidentally messed up program names in my SOP? I have all of the University XXX and YYYs straight, but I put BioE for some BME programs and vice versa, and I wasn't always consistent throughout the SOP. I just noticed that there are a few where I would get the program right the first time I mentioned it but wrong the second time and vice versa. Thoughts?

[pali123]

20 hours ago, Extra Espresso said:

Other BME/BioE applicants, how screwed am I if I accidentally messed up program names in my SOP? I have all of the University XXX and YYYs straight, but I put BioE for some BME programs and vice versa, and I wasn't always consistent throughout the SOP. I just noticed that there are a few where I would get the program right the first time I mentioned it but wrong the second time and vice versa. Thoughts?

Honestly some people think of them as the same thing. BioE and BME are kind of the same. Don't worry about it! I had a friend mess up a university name when applying to BME UT Austin and they got in lol.

 

[Extra Espresso]

@pali123 Thanks for the reassurance! At second glance, the problem wasn't as widespread as I feared. I only messed it up in 5/11, and in three of those I said I wanted a PhD in biomedical engineering when their program was bioengineering, but I got their program names correct when I referenced them specifically. The two I completely screwed up I emailed in new copies of my SOP, so maybe they'll update my application, maybe not. 

[TTTYYY]

@pali123 thanks. Besides my low GRE verbal, I feel that my GPA (cumulative 3.73, major 3.88) is not even closely comparable to most of the applicants in the states lol I did not do well in the first year apparently because I went to too many parties , and I did not even know  US schools take 4 years' GPA instead of the last two years which Canadian schools consider. Anyway, do you know how important the first year GPA is for the application, and when will they send out interviews ? Thanks a lot 

Edited December 19, 2015 by TTTYYY

[gearhead]

Not apply to BME programs, but wondering if I should think about it for next cycle. My career path is headed down a different direction right now. I am also not sure about the career outlook for BME Masters or PhD programs. What do you guys think?

 

Undergrad Institution: Top 30
Major(s): BME
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.5
Overall GPA: 3.3
Position in Class: No idea
Type of Student: Asian Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 165 (90%)
V: 157 (74%)


Research Experience: 3 years in one lab (newly hired professor), summer internship at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, a lab tech position during my freshman year to learn basic lab skills. Diverse research skill set with project focus on drug delivery

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Dean's list, some school awards

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

TA in Electrical Engineering for two semesters, tutoring, science outreach, strong leadership positions

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: 3 manuscript publications (2nd author, 2x 3rd author), 1 on-going project which has led to a NSF grant for my lab (manuscript should be published in the next 2 years as we are still collecting data), provisional patent for drug delivery work, several poster presentations at BMES conferences and one oral talk at BMES, 

Special Bonus Points: Strong letter from my PI

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Started my own business (not related to science)
Applying to Where:
Not this cycle

Edited December 20, 2015 by gearhead

[pali123]

On 12/19/2015 at 5:43 PM, TTTYYY said:

@pali123 thanks. Besides my low GRE verbal, I feel that my GPA (cumulative 3.73, major 3.88) is not even closely comparable to most of the applicants in the states lol I did not do well in the first year apparently because I went to too many parties , and I did not even know  US schools take 4 years' GPA instead of the last two years which Canadian schools consider. Anyway, do you know how important the first year GPA is for the application, and when will they send out interviews ? Thanks a lot 

I know that they start to send out interviews in early January and sometimes go up to late February. I think you should be fine your GPA is really good! I know a lot of people who have gotten into really good schools with lower GPA than yours! I think the most important aspect of your transcript honestly is that they want to see a trend in which you do better and not worse. I also think your major classes in terms of GPA and grade wise are probably more important than for other classes. 

[mrs176]

Has anyone heard back from any schools about interviews yet? In particular, the schools with applications due Dec. 1?

[hjp932]

2 hours ago, mrs176 said:

Has anyone heard back from any schools about interviews yet? In particular, the schools with applications due Dec. 1?

I heard back from Stanford BioE yesterday, they invited me for an interview. Excited!!