<p>Anyone studying or know anything about the biomedical engineering program at UIowa?</p>
<p>Are there internships/coops available?</p>
<p>Is it possible to be in the honors program and major in bme or is it too rigorous a curriculum?</p>
<p>Is the program ABET accredited?</p>
<p>Would you say it was an urban or a rural campus?</p>
<p>Is the river on campus, or is that another body of water that I'm seeing in pictures?</p>
<p>What about clubs, are there a variety of clubs for students with different interests, or is it just a sports and Greeks type school?</p>
<p>Thanks for any info!</p>
<p>i cant say anything about the BME program but i can address the campus questions.<br>
its definitely an urban setting (no cornfields on campus) and Iowa City is actually a fun place
and yes the iowa river does run through the campus</p>
<p>Montegut,</p>
<p>My son is starting this August in biomedical engineering at The University of Iowa. He had great stats and could have picked just about anywhere. Why he chose U of IA’s program is revealed in the questions you had asked.</p>
<p>There are internships and coops available - especially through the Honors Program (even as early as freshman year, if you ask) Both summertime and during-the-school-year programs are available.</p>
<p>My son is in the Honors Program and the bme program. It is as rigorous as you want to make it in that you decide if you want to take an honors section of a class, or designate one of your classes as “honors,” or perform and honors activity, or do honors research with a professor. It is very flexible. My son had the option of taking honors accelerated rhetoric this upcoming semester, but he chose not to (not his favorite subject) and that is OK. He may instead designate one of his other classes as “honors” or do some research. The Engineering College is very congenial and gives off a small college feel even within a large university. It has the resources without your son or daughter being just a number. </p>
<p>The program is ABET accredited. Iowa’s program has been for quite some time, I believe. Important I think. University of Illinois bioengineering program is not. My son was accepted there and chose not to attend.</p>
<p>U of IA is in the heart of Iowa City - a small urban area. The Coralville/Iowa City area has just about everything you’d need including a nice mall, lots of restaurants, a major teaching hospital, etc. Definitely not rural. Iowa River bisects campus.</p>
<p>Being a big ten school, and fairly large school, there are quite a large number of clubs and activities - I was impressed. Definitely not a huge Greek presence, but the Greeks are there if your son/daughter is interested. It just doesn’t seem to be as big a deal as, say, a U of IL. There are all the other types of interest clubs and organizations - honors, music, drama, political, social, etc. I think more than 400.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have more questions - I searched bme programs quite extensively.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your post. I ordered an info packet from them and hope to go through it with son.</p>
<p>Son really liked Chicago and hopes to maybe do a coop/internship in the Chicago area, or surrounding suburbs, during the summer, maybe even between freshmen and sophomore year.</p>
<p>How far is the university from Chicago or its suburbs, and does the university have any relationship with businesses in that area for kids to intern or coop in?</p>
<p>Son really does not want a big state school, but may find his niche in a small engineering program or even honors program. </p>
<p>Son also loves clubs, like movie critics club, fencing, video games, wide variety of interests, and loves meeting a diverse group of people. These may be more available to him at a larger school than he is focusing on now.</p>
<p>Another factor is that he’s gone to Catholic school all his life. He would like to attend a Catholic university, but we are limited in schools that offer the BME major. Is there a Catholic church near campus? That’s all he would really need. He’s not in the religious clubs at school, but he does attend weekly mass and would want to keep that up.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your post and your encouragement. We’re definitely giving it a look!</p>
<p>It takes us around 3 hrs. 20 minutes or so to get to campus from our house - not bad at all. </p>
<p>I did see some Chicago companies on the list - I remember Abbott and Accenture for internships, as well as the Rehabilitation Institute. There seemed to be a lot right there (Iowa City) at the teaching hospital. The hospital and medical school are really well known for being excellent. That is another reason that I liked this school, because biomedical engineering, while it is truly an engineering field with the engineering background and framework, there is some overlap with medical training.</p>
<p>Engineering College is purposely small - I think about 300ish in my son’s class, total, which includes all the engineering majors. About 1,300 undergrads, they told us, in the College of Engineering. It really is a small feel (but with the larger school resources and class variety). Also is very teamwork-oriented, which I liked. There also is a Men in Engineering living learning community for more small college feel.</p>
<p>There are 400-500 or so organizations and I remember seeing that there is a fencing club and a couple of video game groups (I remember seeing a video game olympics or something like that).</p>
<p>There is a Catholic campus ministry (they had a booth at the Orientation fair):</p>
<p>[Newman</a> Catholic Student Center at The University of Iowa](<a href=“http://www.newman-ic.org/]Newman”>http://www.newman-ic.org/)</p>
<p>Glad to help - I looked at College Confidential a lot when my son was making up his mind, which was very helpful, plus looked at several schools, some small, some large.</p>
<p>mominator, great having you on-board. Montegut and I have very similar searches (BME etc) and we’re both grateful for your input, I’m sure. You’ve confirmed many of my own observations (phew!) and told me some things I didn’t know esp. as regards the Honors Program, whose exact structure is a little vague from the brochure we’ve received.</p>
<p>Not that this says much about Chicago firms recruiting at IA, but I am fairly certain that Chicagoland residents are the largest group of non-resident IA students, correct?</p>
<p>I see your comparisons to Illinois – did you look at Wisconsin’s BME program?</p>
<p>I do believe that we were told that IL residents are the second largest group of students there. Likely, since the Chicago area is such a big group, population wise, as a % of IL residents, I would think that Chicago area students are very highly represented, and likely the largest group of non-residents there. That would be my impression - I don’t have actual statistics from my visits or orientation. </p>
<p>We did look at Wisconsin - I’ve always loved the city of Madison and U of WI is a great school. The engineering programs there though work a bit differently in that students must complete 24 credits before they are eligible to enter the College of Engineering. We did not like this as much as being accepted to the COE as a freshman.</p>
<p>Being accepted into the college of engineering as a freshman is a big factor in our liking this school. Since many schools require you to apply to the specific school, A&S, Eng, Biz, et al, if you are not competitive with the other applicants, you may not get into the program you’re going to that school for. This is a big concern for us as we’re sending our son hundreds of miles away at great expense for a specific program. Not willing to send him somewhere with the “hopes” that he’ll get into the engineering school after one year. He can stay home and go to school for free for that. We’re definitely going to apply to this school.</p>
<p>I am starting this fall, major: electrical engineering/piano performance, honor program. I know I am going to have my hands full.</p>
<p>It is urban i would say. You have downtown Iowa city right next to campus, but of course Iowa city isn’t huge.</p>
<p>The river runs right through the middle of campus.</p>
<p>There are well over 100 clubs, you can find a list of the clubs on the website.</p>