HI,
My son is admitted to all 3 school for his major, biomedical engineering with only UTD offering full ride scholarship. From our research, he was told that he would definitely need to pursue Master or even PhD degree since 4 years biomedical engineering is not favorable in the job market. He would prefer to go to the school that gives him the most opportunity for research. However, he couldnt really find any specific information regarding his major in each school except the usual ranking. He has a hard time making his decision since he couldn’t find enough information online regarding Biomedical engineering and the path it would follow, especially how college would factor into his prospects later on.
We would really appreciate any input, advice or person experience regarding biomedical engineer major in the listed school, or your college decision etc.
We debated between these 3 choices also but for Computer Science. My fear with Austin was it is very hard to change majors - say son decided he wanted engineering. If there any chance at all your son might decided a different engineering I’d pick Dallas or A&M. Also Dallas is very generous with AP credit and the other 2 not so much. The Dallas money is very hard to not take. Good luck to your son making his decision.
DallasTXmom, It’s good to know. A friend told us that UT won’t allow double major. I wonder about minor and fast track for master. I’'m still searching for info on that. Have you heard anything about it?
My son was accepted to those 3, as well, but only got a partial scholarship at UTD so that made the decision easier as the financial gap was not as big.
If your son will need to go to grad school, it might be best to take the full ride and save money for grad school.
Also, if you know what grad schools may interest him, maybe you can find out what undergrad schools they accept students from.
Primarily, is he instate for tuition at UT and TAMU?
If he wants to do a Ph. D, it should not cost money. You could try looking at comparing the rates of kids that do get into grad school. (not med school) from each program.
Look over the 4 yr plans to compare and contrast, there is a thread on UTD BME here on CC somewhere. Consider peer standard re grading curves even for a strong student. Look at what the HC options offers in UTD vs bigger more competitive classes in UT, and TAMU even. Also consider what happens should he change his major. That alone would probably create a preference. Many eng kids will switch out. I remember looking at BME in GTech threads where they call it "business major eventually".
I assume your kid is a very strong student/nmf so TAMUs ETAM should not present an issue? UT is direct admit to BME?
What money has he on offer from UT and TAMU?
Has he visited and talked to depts?
I can tell you that BME at UT is TOUGH. My son was a real scholar, but he found the curriculum incredibly difficult.
I will say, though, that he was doing research in the BME labs as a freshman, so that was a plus. (OP, I have shared often on this website that S fell ill with schizophrenia his freshman year, so he had to drop out of UT.)
Just something to look at: research opportunities.
How long have these schools had BME as a major? How much research is being done? Are undergrads encouraged/provided funds for their research projects? How many of their students go on to get PhDs and at what institutions?
I do not have any info on being able to double major at UT or fast track to masters there. I do suspect the fast track to masters would be way easier at Dallas. With Dallas making it easier to use the AP credits you can just get farther along on the 4 year scholarship. My son actually decided on Arkansas where he has some scholarship but not near what Dallas was offering. I’m OK with this because I kinda suspect he will change to Chemical Engineering like Dad and older brother and Dallas does not have Chemical. He got no money at UT or A&M.
Thank you everyone for your input. My son did not get any scholarship or fund from UT or Texas A&M, but he is the Texas resident, so tuition will be in state. He did got direct admission into engineering school of his major to all of them. We re thinking to contact admission office for an appt to meet with someone in the biomedical dept.
Jazzymomof17, We are thinking the same thing about taking the money to finish undergrad since some would argue that if you choose to go to grad school, then where you went to for your first four year was not that important. However, other said that if you went to UT Austin undergrad, you could get to a better grad school than you would UTD. For me, what you do at certain school to make you stand out would be more important. We just have a hard time finding out the opportunities each school offers.
Sybylla, I was not a frequent reader in CC, so don’t understand most abbreviation on here. What is HC option at UT D?
Sciencenerd, I agree and would like to do that too. However, the problem we’re having is that all the info we found online was rather general. Do you have any tips or links that can point us in the right direction to look into what you suggested?
MaineLonghorn, I m sorry to hear that your son has to drop out of UT. I hope he s doing better now.
@TMBConfidential Call UTD’s BME department and ask about research opportunities, grad school acceptances, acceptance rates, etc. so you can see if they have the types of opportunities you are looking for.