<p>My son has been admitted to various bioengineering programs at UCB, UCSD, UCLA, USC, CMU. He is particularly interested in computational biology area of BioE and is also interested in getting a minor in CS. As of now he is not committed to going to med school. I am listing below the pros and cons of various schools and we would appreciate any feedback on things we might have overlooked for any of these schools</p>
<p>UCB(BioEng-Computational Bio): Pros: Cost:$32K, Near home as we live in bay area, Rankings: 3rd in engineering, 10th for BioE, Very flexible program (minors possible), Possibility of changing to another major
Cons: Very Competitive school , No Regents-Enrollment issues</p>
<p>UCSD(BioEng-Bioinformatics): Pros: Cost $31K, In CA:$120 RT fare with southwest, Ranking: 5th in BioEng, overall ranking 20+,
Cons: Very inflexible program, no minors possible, quite competitive also, not a good option if one wants to pursue things other than BioE</p>
<p>UCLA(Computational & Systems Biology in L&S): Pros: Cost $31K, In CA:$120 RT fare with southwest, Ranking: ??, overall ranking 10+ high,
Cons: Premajor: Needs to qualify with 3.0 to continue with the program, difficult to change in engineering if one changes his mind.</p>
<p>USC (Biomedical engineering with EE emphasis, President Scholarship): Pros: Very flexible program, can create your own curriculum, any combination of major/minors possible, President half tuition scholarship
Cons: Cost $36K with half tuition, Academics might not be on par with UCB, UCSD, Safety, Image of party school</p>
<p>UCD (BioEng with Regent scholarship): Pros: Regent Scholarship Cost:$23K, Honors Program, Priority enrollment, Housing: Honors Dorm, 1hour away from home
Cons: Rankings: 20+, Academics not on par with UCB, UCSD</p>
<p>UIUC (BioEng-Computational Bio): Pros: Engineering +Achievement award worth $22k/year, Cost:$27K with scholarship, Rankings: 4th in engineering, 18th for BioE, Very flexible program (minors possible), Possibility of changing to another major
Cons: Very Competitive school, Far away from home: RT air ticket $500, Cold weather</p>
<p>CMU (Computational Bio): Pros: Admission to Comp Bio in MCS or any engineering in CIT, waitlisted for CS, Rankings 8th in engineering, 4th for CS, very flexible program
Cons: Cost:$54K with $9k scholarship, far away from home: RT $500, need to be accepted to Comp Bio program based on gpa, cold weather</p>
<p>My son is leaning towards UCB right now. We are yet to visit these UCs for their respective college day. We would appreciate any additional feedback on these colleges.</p>