AllThatJazz

I had a sub 310 GRE and was accepted to a Ph.D program (with funding ). I had a very low quantitative score and it was the bioengineering department that I got into, I had only ever taken 1 quarter of calculus in my undergrad. But I had extensive undergraduate research experience (3 years) and 1 publication. I'm not sure how heavily schools weight your GRE scores but I know things like research experience and publication look better than a good GRE score.

The answer is: it depends. Some newly formed departments are bad (unorganized, little funding, etc.) While others are excellent. I am in a newly formed department Ph.D program (~5 years old) and it is still very unorganized. They still don't know what works the best for students and are basically "testing" different rules and regulations out each year. But more importantly, I would look into specific professors that you are interested in working with and contact them. Then based your decisions on that.

From what admission officers have told me, GRE is usually the last factor they look at. Also, it depends on the program you are applying.

Thanks free_radical, that was very insightful and helpful. I was looking towards more design and bench lab type of work. In the end I guess it won't really matter compared to what my skills are.

Thank you for your respond! I want to go into Bioengineering so I figured majoring in Bioengineering would be apporiate but I guess employers would rather have MechE or EE to fill bioeng. jobs.

I know Bioengineering is a fairly recent subcatergory of engineering but is it considered a "real" engineering field? Would I be better off going into MechE and then getting a Bioengineering job? It seems like most medical company would rather hire MechE.