Georgia Tech Bioengineering

[bmehopeful]

Hey guys, I need some advice. I am interested in applying for the interdisciplinary PhD program at Georgia Tech and haven't really found any other similar programs (if anyone knows of one, please let me know...). The way the program is structured is that you apply to one of the participating schools, then choose the "bioengineering" option - this is really perfect for me since my background is mainly on the computer/electrical/computer science side (see below) and I hate anything that resembles a biology lab. If someone could evaluate my chances of getting in, and maybe suggest whether I should apply to the ECE department or Computer Science department that would be great. Also, I noticed the ECE department lists Spring as a possible entry term, and I want to start as soon as possible, so would it be prudent to apply for Spring (2011) or Fall 2011? Also, should I consider taking the GREs again to improve my math score?

I have a bit of a strange and mixed background, in terms of my education and work experiences:

I am a domestic, out of state applicant, white male.

Undergraduate: I have BS degrees in both computer engineering and computer science. One degree is from a big not particularly well regarded state school, and other is from a small public Technology University that is also not particularly well regarded (both are probably low tier 2 schools I guess). My final GPAs were in the 3.7-3.8 range and I was in the top 10% of my class (probably top 5% for my BS comp sci).

Undergraduate research: I did two summers in an NSF/NIH research program centering on microfabrication of medical devices.

After getting my BS degrees, I worked for a while in the IT industry and later in semiconductors (for IBM) while doing my MS part time for a few semesters, then full time to finish up.

Graduate: MS in biomedical engineering (from the same small technology university that I did some of my undergrad work at).

Graduate research: I have something like 5 conference publications, 3 as first author. I was a research assistant in a biomedical engineering research lab working on embedded systems/wearable computers for disabled persons. This basically is my main research interests - low cost wearable assistive technologies/rehabilitation technologies. I also worked in a computer science lab doing some work involving social network analysis. My final GPA was about 3.8 and I was in the top 10% of my class.

My GRE scores were:

Math: 720

Verbal:730

After getting my MS I found work as a software engineer within the research organization of a company working on projects involving embedded systems and databases (so I've gotten away from the biomedical engineering type stuff, much to my disappointment). I've been in this job about 2 years. All told I have about 5-6 years of industry experience spread across hardware, IT, and software engineering.

Any comments/opinions/advice are appreciated. Thanks.

Edited December 31, 2009 by bmehopeful