And So It Begins (again)

Tuesday was the first day of class at Tufts, and an exhausting day it was. Four two hour Biomedical Engineering (BME) classes (from noon to 8pm) and as many syllabi later I still haven't decided what classes to take this term. Generally schools consider three grad classes as full time, and two of my classes have been predetermined for me (Analytical Tools for BME and Intro to BME). So my question is, do I take the other class that is requited for the PhD students (I'm just masters) or do I take something else. Here are my options:

• BME – 0162 Molecular Biotechnology (the one the PhD students have to take)

• BME – 0100 Design of Medical Instrumentation

• BME – 0121 Engineering Challenges in Physiology I

Any of those sound like they'd be interesting? I think they all sound good, so I'm just going to the first few classes of each to decide based on professor/assignment/and schedule.

I think I'll let you know a little about the BME program here:

• There are about 40-50 grad students with ~10 of those being new this year (there is an undergrad program also)
• The faculty seems great, as do the other students
• We students have a wide variety of background (from purely biology to purely engineering, some with a masters already, some already working for engineering companies). I'm excited by this. Since BME is such an interdisciplinary field no one coming in (or perhaps ever) feels like they know everything they should. So I foresee quite a bit of (perhaps forced) interdependence and cooperation. We'll have to help each other along--that can only be good. Right?
• Research here is segmented into 2 areas: Tissue engineering and instrumentation/optics. I'll be more on the optics side (especially since I haven't had any real biology since high school), but there seems to be a good amount of cross over between the two. I couldn't ask for more appealing research areas as far as I'm concerned.
• We have a department retreat at Tufts Loj in New Hampshire this weekend--I'm very excited.

Well, I need to go grab some lunch before my next class. I'll try to update a little more regularly, but with grad school having started I make no promises. Shalom.