AH! Good to see you Lazarus!
Good question too.
First though, I don't know if you mean grad school or undergrad, so I assume the undergrad (shrug).
Now Caltech has an undergraduate course plan for Chemical Engineering and this means that you will take 3 years of normal chem engineering classes but on the fourth you then get to diversify into particular sections, which in this case you would go with the Biomolecular part. (
Bottom of first page) So its not too bad.
Now the MIT has a Nice spread of grad concentrations (
Here) but when you go to the undergraduate section you will see that the degree you can get is a Biomedical Engineering
minor.
The BME minor is open to all undergraduate majors at MIT, but is best when combined with a science or engineering major. Some departments are also developing tracks that emphasize the interface of engineering with biology or medicine.
Why only a minor?So you would need to tie it to a bio degree major or something science-like. You may not want to do this.
But supposedly this will happen:
The Biological Engineering Division is submitting a proposal for a new BE SB degree to the Institute in the 2004-2005 AY. The curriculum for the new SB comprises nine new core subjects that define Biological Engineering as a discipline at the undergraduate level. Our goal is for the proposal to be officially approved by the end of Spring 2005; this would enable students who enter MIT in Fall 2005 to major in BE.
Don't know either if you would like to be a "test" group for when this comes out.
GA Tech has a powerpoint slide show, and that was fun to flip through (
Click on the Undergrad program). Here is a list of reqs for the Biomolecular Engineering (
Its a pdf Here you also have the choice of combining a BS/MS degree (5 year course, start working on MS in the 4th year while finishing the BS and the 5th year you get a MS) interesting option.
Established in 1901, Georgia Tech's School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering has a distinguished history of educating students who become leaders in industrial organizations and universities. Today, the School enrolls more than 800 students, and graduated 147 students from summer 2001 through spring 2002, awarding 126 bachelor's degrees, 6 master's degrees, and 15 doctoral degrees.
In the list of reqs I find that you get a core of biochem I&II which in Caltech only does intro to biochem the fourth year...and if your going to be altering, say, the huge topic of proteins (!) you need to understand the business end of prots which is to catalyze (rates in which). You also do take a kinetics course here, that will help to drive home good points like the Michaelis-Menten Kinetics equations etc...
Overall I like the GA Tech with its classes and they just sound a lot easier to work with, which is great for such a busy subject.
Tell me if that didn't help and we can go from there.
Edited by Bates, 06 November 2004 - 07:33 PM.