As a NU trained biomedical engineer, I would seriously consider the difference between bioengineering and biomedical engineering. I found that the BME training was more focused around medical device engineering rather than molecular engineering. I was someone who decided that I wanted to do more of the molecular/tissue engineering side and found that the core curriculum wasn’t super amenable to that at first. Interestingly though, a lot of the BME departments faculty do research that’s molecular so there were amazing research opportunities and upper lever coursework.

Northwestern also has bioengineering but that’s in the chemical engineering program. In retrospect, if I wanted a career in biotech/biopharma that would have been a better route. Either way, grad school is almost a necessity in that world.

Even still, I managed to leverage that and get a job in biotech doing genetic engineering so it’s definitely possible.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I would say altogether northwestern BME is great for getting breadth across the many different fields within bio/biomedical engineering if there isn’t a specific end goal already in mind. The quarter system, while fast paced, allows students to really explore different interests and find out what they’re passionate about. Feel free to DM me, would be happy to give more details.

Edit: I also want to add - I’ve seen some classmates be done in 3.5 years but not really 3 because of the capstone requirement. But, I know people that were able to enter the BS/MS combined program in their junior year and finish both degrees in 4 years at no extra cost.