Accepted for Biomedical Engineering at UNC and Purdue both.
Future goal is to go to graduate school but leaning towards Medical school. Taking this BS Biomedical as fallback option.
I am OOS for both college. Which school would be good for me ? I see Purdue has almost 300 Biomedical engineering student intake each year so will be large school but not sure about UNC. Googling gives me conflicting for UNC ABET accreditation but that may not be big issue as my goal is to go to medical school.
Go with whichever school will cost you less money; unless you are independently wealthy or like carrying around lots of debt for years, you need to think about the ultimate cost of your education.
Also, where you get into medical school does not depend on the brand name of your undergraduate school; your grades, MCAT scores, and LORs will be much more important.
One other thing: as I recall, the OOS cost for Purdue is slightly less than the OOS cost for UNC-CH, maybe around $5-6K assuming no scholarships or financial aid from either school. If you feel that the cost differential is not that great, perhaps you could do “admitted student days” at each school; that might help you decide, also.
The only engineering program at UNC is Biomedical Engineering. You will not have no options to switch to a different engineering program if that is important. It is very common for people to switch majors. If you want to switch to a non engineering STEM major then UNC will have plenty of options.
Take a look at the course requirements for each program. Are you okay with the general education requirements at each school.
If you are considering medical school, look at what each school offers in terms of shadowing oportunies, research, access to working/volunteering in the medical field, etc… UNC has an large medical hospital complex on site and a medical school. Comapre that to what Purdue offers.
Look at what sort of guidance each school has to offer to perpare students for medical school. I am not talking about the academics. I am talking about assistance in navigating the process of appling to medical school.
Take a look at what engineering research and projects are being down on campus. Look into co-op opportunies.
Bottom line. How serious are you about being an engineer? If your interest in Biomedical Engineering is mainly as a path to medical school then UNC could be a great fit. If you are really are interest in engineering and see that as a serious career option then you need to consider the limitations of engineering at UNC.
I have not received financial aid $ packet from any school so have no idea as of now how much my number would be. But I know for sure that UNC is having around $5-6k higher fee for OOS.
I have signed both places for “admitted student days” and hoping to get more info during those visits. I have not visited both campus so far and all these are based upon my google finding and research.
I am more towards Biochem and Biology/Molecular Biology than core Engineering and only reason I had chosen for Biomedical as its more close towards professional degree than pure natural science degree AND I can carry MS/PhD as backup fallback option/plan in Biomedical, if I could not able to make it to Medical School for some reason.
As of now what I am learning that Purdue will have almost 200-300 Biomedical Engineering students intake in batch so may end up large and feel I may get lost. UNC will have only 80 Biomedical Eng. batch students which will help me to get noticed across department (with my hard work and performance) and help to get good LOR. Because of close to medical school/hospital vicinity and have good Biology program/researching environment at UNC, I believe I may able to get good internship, research opportunity and volunteer hours there which Purdue may not able to offer being that large department and also as core engineering school. I am more towards Engineering medical research and its application than making medical device itself. In that sense, I feel UNC may be lot better fit for me. If I decide to change the major then I would be probably going to other Biology related majors as none of other Purdue Engineering majors (EE, Mech, Civil or CS etc.) I like or interested of.
One of the doubt, I have in my mind that how hard it would be to make GPA of at least 3.7 at UNC with Biomedical Engineering as that will be one of the main criteria along with MCAT score for medical school application? May be someone from Biomedical Eng. will able to help me on understanding on that front?
Currently I am in college preparatory public residential high school and already taking Undergrad level concurrent courses from University as part of my high school curriculum and have unweighted GPA of around 3.75. If I go to in-state university for Biomedical Engineering (where I have already been accepted as well) then they are ready to give me around 3 semesters of credit so basically I can start undergrad in Biomedical Engineering as Junior as long as I can get few related engineering course from 1st two years done which I can able to do easily. In that way I can able to get my Undergrad in Biomedical from In-state university done in around 2.5 years but my In-state university is not very recognized and have national ranking around 130 whiile UNC and Purdue both are well recognized in name and brand both for longer run.
Don’t overly worry about undergraduate “brand name” if you want to go to graduate school; it’s more about your grades and your recommendations, along with your scored in the appropriate entrance test (GRE or other). I went to a third-rate public university for my undergraduate degree, but got admitted to UNC-CH for graduate school based on my grades, LORs, and GRE scores. Most of my classmates in graduate school, as I recall, did not attend “brand name” universities for their respective undergraduate degrees, either.
If money is going to be an object, then get your degree from your in-state university, and aim higher for graduate school – your graduate degree will be the more important degree for you professionally.
UNC is not easy sledding for grades, given the high level of academic competence among the undergraduate population. A 3.7 is doable, but is not a cake walk by any means.
I have a family member who graduated from UNC with a BME degree. He had several research positions on and off campus and was employed by December of senior year. That being said… I agree with gandalf78 and find him/her to be quite knowledgeable and to provide good advice.
I cannot speak for the science courses since my daughter is an Economics major. I can tell you she work hard to earn her grades and she is a top student. You will have stiff competetion in your science courses (or any course for that matter). However, I suspect Purdue will be no different.
As for getting recognize and getting to know to your professor will depend more on you the the size of your classes. My daughter has had some large classes but got to know her professor well by going to office hours and speaking up in class.
Hello! When you first go to Purdue, you aren’t in any engineering specifically. Every freshman starts out as what is called “First Year Engineering” or FYE. At some point in the second semester you apply to what engineering field of study you are interested in; first choice, second choice, third choice. BME only admits approx 75 students per year - not 300! Purdue has great opportunity for internships/co-ops. My DD has been doing a 3 semester co-op (like an internship but guaranteed same job for 3 semesters). They don’t have enough interested students to fill all the companies who come to Purdue looking to fill slots. She knows her advisor by name and he knows her. 75 in her BME graduating "class’ makes a large university seem small…