OP here. Thank you to all of the parents who have provided helpful comments. Your posts have been enormously helpful to me as someone who does not work in science at all trying to guide a STEM kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current senior BME at JHU (who also has 3 premed roommates). Absolutely loves JHU! Tons of study groups within BME and sounds like the kids are very supportive of one another. Is having a blast in Baltimore (sometimes I feel like too much). Not sure of her GPA, but she was never really a kid who stressed much. No problem getting research after freshman year and then an internship the next summer. Already has a job for after graduation. If your kid is someone who enjoys working with others, they will find their people at JHU. Of course there will always be outliers like a PP friend who is studying 12/day, but that has not been my DDs experience

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experience. Was it hard for your senior to get her internship since others in her class were all going for the same type of internship? Is the post-graduation job at the same place as the internship? People are saying that most BME majors need to get a master's in order to be employable - is your DD's plan to go back to grad school at some point?

PP. This 'jack of all trades - master of none' concern is valid since BME is a vast field and most undergrad BME programs require at least a class or two in various BME disciplines. For this reason, BME grads not going to med school typically takes an additional Master year to get the specialization desired. The alternative is to take a BME job and learn skillset needed at work. Many medical device or biotechnology employers pay for part-time Master degree. Note that often a strong EE or ME grad with a BME Master (or solid biology background) can be as effective (if not more) in BME fields. The point is that BME is a vast field and the skillset needed is often highly specialized and specific based on employer's need. Learning on the job is a given and expected.

+1. Would be better going Mechanical or Chemical

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current senior BME at JHU (who also has 3 premed roommates). Absolutely loves JHU! Tons of study groups within BME and sounds like the kids are very supportive of one another. Is having a blast in Baltimore (sometimes I feel like too much). Not sure of her GPA, but she was never really a kid who stressed much. No problem getting research after freshman year and then an internship the next summer. Already has a job for after graduation. If your kid is someone who enjoys working with others, they will find their people at JHU. Of course there will always be outliers like a PP friend who is studying 12/day, but that has not been my DDs experience

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experience. Was it hard for your senior to get her internship since others in her class were all going for the same type of internship? Is the post-graduation job at the same place as the internship? People are saying that most BME majors need to get a master's in order to be employable - is your DD's plan to go back to grad school at some point?

It didn't seem like there was much competition from classmates for the same internships. Many kids seem to do internships in their home states (or somewhere besides Baltimore) so pretty spread out. DD did get a job offer from her internship, but she turned it down for another offer in a different state. Loved the people who she worked with, but wanted the opportunity to live in a new place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current senior BME at JHU (who also has 3 premed roommates). Absolutely loves JHU! Tons of study groups within BME and sounds like the kids are very supportive of one another. Is having a blast in Baltimore (sometimes I feel like too much). Not sure of her GPA, but she was never really a kid who stressed much. No problem getting research after freshman year and then an internship the next summer. Already has a job for after graduation. If your kid is someone who enjoys working with others, they will find their people at JHU. Of course there will always be outliers like a PP friend who is studying 12/day, but that has not been my DDs experience

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experience. Was it hard for your senior to get her internship since others in her class were all going for the same type of internship? Is the post-graduation job at the same place as the internship? People are saying that most BME majors need to get a master's in order to be employable - is your DD's plan to go back to grad school at some point?

PP. This 'jack of all trades - master of none' concern is valid since BME is a vast field and most undergrad BME programs require at least a class or two in various BME disciplines. For this reason, BME grads not going to med school typically takes an additional Master year to get the specialization desired. The alternative is to take a BME job and learn skillset needed at work. Many medical device or biotechnology employers pay for part-time Master degree. Note that often a strong EE or ME grad with a BME Master (or solid biology background) can be as effective (if not more) in BME fields. The point is that BME is a vast field and the skillset needed is often highly specialized and specific based on employer's need. Learning on the job is a given and expected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.

OP - We visited both and we will try and visit both again, but unfortunately their admitted students days are on the same exact date so we need to pick one of them. Kid is interested in BME now, but has been interested in engineering for maybe one month now (they applied as a bio major to all other schools) and I'm concerned they will change their mind in a hot minute, especially if it's as rigorous as it seems.

It would be a good idea to probe kid's interest in BME further. I have a BME background and a DC that wanted to do BME since 10th grade. We had a lot of conversations and watching 'what is BME' videos to ascertain his interest is genuine. Initial interest was in Bioinformatics that continued through high school, including summer internship at a medical school, which brought the realization that DC is more interested in medical devices. DC was accepted at JHU and a dozen other top BME programs. Ultimately chose another private T-20 where he got a full ride.

BME is a vast field with arguably 3 main streams ar JHU: medical devices, biomolecular engineering and bioinformatics. Designing medical devices needs skills in ME, EE, CS, system design, biology. Engineering biomolecules needs skills in biotechnology, chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry. Bioinformatics needs skills in CS, Protein Design, Biochemistry, Genetics. JHU has Dept of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, separate from BME. Bioinformatics at JHU is within BME but with a lot of faculty from other departments, including medical school. There are a lot of cross-registration (required and elective classes) between BME, CBE and other engineering/science/med school departments at JHU. Aside from BME Senior Capstone, a Biomolecular Engineering student can take almost all of the classes that BME students take, if it fits their schedule.

DC was accepted at JHU but ultimately

DD just graduated BME from Jhu. It was challenging at times but not life altering or traumatic at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know for sure, but the BME departments often come from the ChemE departments (I believe this is true of Hopkins). ChemE is a punishment major. Meaning they have by far the lowest grad averages. So it's not a pleasant experience. That said, if your child is truly interested in it, go for it.

I worked for many year in interdisciplinary sciences (bio, chem, materials science, chem E, BME). It's possible to do the same work in different majors too.

2026 USNWR Top Undergraduate Schools for Chemical Engineering

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. Berkely

24. JHU

Not bad when most could have gone to Georgia Tech and Berkeley.

GT and Berkely both have single digit OOS acceptance rates.

not impressive when berkeley is test blind and gt is test optional while hopkins is test required with a lower acceptance rate and higher stats

First, GT has never been test optional and they have an overall 9% OOS Acceptance rate. So you are wrong there. Second, since you seem to keep posting nonsense let me give you some stats...because GT makes things public my friend. For this upcoming Fall Semester GT received 27, 893 OOS Applications specifically for Engineering. Of those, 1,950 were admitted. This is a 7% Acceptance rate this cycle for OOS Engineering for GT. If you want to toss International Applications in the mix for Engineering. They received 32,668 combined (OOS and International) applications for Engineering and admitted only 2,288 for a 7.1% Acceptance rate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.

OP - We visited both and we will try and visit both again, but unfortunately their admitted students days are on the same exact date so we need to pick one of them. Kid is interested in BME now, but has been interested in engineering for maybe one month now (they applied as a bio major to all other schools) and I'm concerned they will change their mind in a hot minute, especially if it's as rigorous as it seems.

I am curious why they applied to BME if they weren’t interested in engineering yet, and also what you think made their application stand out. Could you share a little about their profile?

I have a kid who is thinking about applying BME, even though he is undecided, because he knows you can transfer out but not in. He’s the opposite of yours though. He knows he wants engineering, but he’s not sure about the bio part. So, I am definitely curious rather than judgemental.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.

OP - We visited both and we will try and visit both again, but unfortunately their admitted students days are on the same exact date so we need to pick one of them. Kid is interested in BME now, but has been interested in engineering for maybe one month now (they applied as a bio major to all other schools) and I'm concerned they will change their mind in a hot minute, especially if it's as rigorous as it seems.

jhu is the more balanced school for stem. dartmouth has always been known as an slac university

Anonymous wrote:if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.

OP - We visited both and we will try and visit both again, but unfortunately their admitted students days are on the same exact date so we need to pick one of them. Kid is interested in BME now, but has been interested in engineering for maybe one month now (they applied as a bio major to all other schools) and I'm concerned they will change their mind in a hot minute, especially if it's as rigorous as it seems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know for sure, but the BME departments often come from the ChemE departments (I believe this is true of Hopkins). ChemE is a punishment major. Meaning they have by far the lowest grad averages. So it's not a pleasant experience. That said, if your child is truly interested in it, go for it.

I worked for many year in interdisciplinary sciences (bio, chem, materials science, chem E, BME). It's possible to do the same work in different majors too.

2026 USNWR Top Undergraduate Schools for Chemical Engineering

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. Berkely

24. JHU

Not bad when most could have gone to Georgia Tech and Berkeley.

GT and Berkely both have single digit OOS acceptance rates.

not impressive when berkeley is test blind and gt is test optional while hopkins is test required with a lower acceptance rate and higher stats

looks like gt is test required now - good on them

JHU has stronger BME. Dartmouth undergrad experience is one of the best. You should visit both schools because they are VERY different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know for sure, but the BME departments often come from the ChemE departments (I believe this is true of Hopkins). ChemE is a punishment major. Meaning they have by far the lowest grad averages. So it's not a pleasant experience. That said, if your child is truly interested in it, go for it.

I worked for many year in interdisciplinary sciences (bio, chem, materials science, chem E, BME). It's possible to do the same work in different majors too.

2026 USNWR Top Undergraduate Schools for Chemical Engineering

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. Berkely

24. JHU

Not bad when most could have gone to Georgia Tech and Berkeley.

GT and Berkely both have single digit OOS acceptance rates.

not impressive when berkeley is test blind and gt is test optional while hopkins is test required with a lower acceptance rate and higher stats

Anonymous wrote:if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.

yes, also some bad information from a particular poster about various IVY schools and their BME "programs" in this thread. They are not top or premier programs in this field. Doing your own research is definitely the bottom line here. I don't know if I would want to come here for advice as to which school and opinions as there are far too many posters with particular agendas directly related to where they or their kid may have gone to school. Good luck!

if your alternative is Dartmouth, BME at JHU for sure. But why not go visit and talk to real students instead of asking DCUM? You'll get good information that way.

BME at JHU is a genuinely great program. The school is rigorous but the story about everyone getting <B 's is completely ridiculous.