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View Full Version : Admittance into BME graduate program


engr21q
Oct30-09, 08:42 PM
Hello all,

I am currently a Biosystems engineering senior at a Research 1 university and I am in the process of applying to graduate schools. I just wanted some advice on my chances of getting into a good Biomedical engineering program.

My current GPA is sitting around a 3.1, and it will be most likely around a 3.2 at my time of application. This is due to the fact that I was a pre-med student and I did not do so well in some of the medical school pre-req courses (o chem, etc.) With the exception of one failed engineering course that I am retaking, my low GPA is all due to the medical school pre-requisites I took. I have not taken the GRE yet (that is happening in mid-November) but I expect that I will get good scores. As far as research experience, I have worked in a research lab on campus for about a year, working with nanoparticles, lanthanide-based fluoroscopy techniques, and other biomedical imaging methods.

My main concern at the moment is that my low GPA may bar be from getting into a good program. Most programs state that the average applicant GPA is a 3.5, which is significantly higher than my application GPA will be. I expect good GRE scores, great recommendation letters, etc. but I wanted to know if anyone had any insight into my chances of getting into good BME programs.

Currently the list of schools I want to apply to are:

University of Virginia
University of Michigan
Boston University
UCSD
UCSF
Case Western

I am toying with the idea of applying to MIT, Johns Hopkins, and some other top programs but as I stated before, my GPA concerns are putting me off from applying there.

If anyone has any advice it would be extremely helpful! Thanks!

Feldoh
Oct31-09, 04:19 AM
I can't speak for the others but Case Western is pretty much a 3.5 GPA for all engineering departments, including BME. The only two grad students I know in the BME department are for like 4.0 GPA undergrad students but I'm sure that's not the norm.

But it's worth a shot. Case has a lot of research opportunities and the collaborate with the Cleveland Clinic quite a lot so it's a lot of valuable experience.