Tranfering to get into grad school?

[tdby560]

Hi, I am a junior at Florida Atlantic University majoring in electrical engineering, I want to get into a phd program for biomedical engineering.  I am worried that FAU is not a good enough school and that I wont get accepted into a good phd program.

I'm wondering if I should try and switch to a school like University of Florida, not talking about the Ivy Leagues, just a better school.

My GPA is 3.77/4.00 and ive been involve in ASCE (I used to be a CivE major) and am being inducted into the Tau Beta Pi honors society

Idk if it matters but I'm a florida resident, I pay in-state tuition

Does anyone think it would be a good idea to try and switch? assuming I could get in? or will the phd programs not care that much what school I went to?

Thank you for your answers

[rising_star]

If you transfer now, you'll likely have to spend extra time in undergrad. I'm not sure how that would help you. You would also need to make sure you got the most of your transfer by getting to know professors, working with them as a research assistant, etc. It might be easier for you to do those things where you are. Plenty of people go to FAU and schools like it and get into graduate programs. It's as much (or more) about your research experience than where you went to college.

[biotechie]

I'm in biomed, but what I'm going to tell you is the same everywhere. PhD programs care much more about what you have done than where you went to school. If you want to do research, they want to see that you've done some research (and working in a lab for 6 months at your school is better than an REU in my opinion). If you want to teach, they want to see you doing outreach, etc. They want to see that you're well-rounded and that you're passionate about what you're aspiring to do.

I went to a school that is far less well-known than FAU. I got into a biomedical sciences PhD program in my dream school my first round of applications (I did do a M.S. at my undergrad, but I was assured I wouldn't have needed it). If you have what it takes, you'll get in, whether you came from Harvard or a small liberal arts school.

As @rising_star said, you'll be starting all over if you go to a new school as well, and this could potentially weaken your application as these professors will have less time to get to know you. When it is time to help you prepare for grad school and write you letters, they won't know you as well as some of your professors now, will. I was able to go into applications with letters from professors that had known me and watched me develop as a scientist for over 4 years, and I know they wrote nice letters and they really know me. I also went in with extensive research experience... something I couldn't have gotten so easily at a "better" school. My education in many ways was much improved over these "better" schools you're speaking of; instead of fighting juniors and seniors for a few precious, coveted spots to research under a post-doc, I researched directly with professors starting as a freshman.

For grad school, residency won't matter; you become a resident wherever you move, usually as a requirement for your contract to get your stipend and tuition waiver.

I guess the end of this rant is that I think you shouldn't transfer. Instead, I think you should spend a lot of time getting involved in a bioengineering-type lab, though any research will help you. You also need to start thinking about where you want to go to grad school. Remember, while everyone makes a big deal out of rank, it really isn't that important. What matters the most is that you're a good fit for the program you ultimately join and that you can be happy there. A "good" program is not necessarily the same as one that is "highly ranked." That may mean interviewing at a "top 10" institution and choosing the "30-ranked" institution over it because you like it better or you feel more at home, and that is totally okay. You need to identify schools that have lots of professors you think you would be happy working under as not every one of them will take students every year. You need to study for and take the GRE early next summer so you have time to retake it if needed and start figuring out who you might ask for letters of recommendation, one day.

Good luck!