Please help! My D is deciding between Boston University and UC San Diego. Her major is Biomedical Engineering. However, for UC San Diego, she got into the college but not necessarily the engineering program. It states on her acceptance letter that she would need to re-apply to get into the engineering program after a year or two. Does anyone know how hard applying to the engineering program would be at UCSD? Or would it be a wiser decision to choose Boston University since she is already admitted under the Biomedical Engineering program. UCSD would be closer to home and less expensive since she is a CA resident but she has always wanted to study back East. If anyone has any insight on either schools (pros or cons) please reply! Thank you in advance. 
Are these the only choices?
See requirements here for UCSD. It’s capped - it’s not going to be easy. If you truly want to study bioengineering, it’s a big risk.
BU is - pricey.
@thumper1 Thumper makes a great point. For example, I don’t know the undergrad GPA but you can still apply to U of Arizona, a fine school, and if you have a 3.75 UW GPA, it will be cheap. 3.9 really cheap. and 4.0 dirt cheap. And you can still apply - not sure if the major is capped.
ASU is also accepting apps - are listed in US News rankings - but won’t be as cheap.
You can go to UCSD - but you likely but not definitely will need to find an alternative major. I’m not sure about the career prospects - so not sure if BU is worth it from a financial POV.
I guess CC is an option in CA too although I know that’s not what you want for your daughter.
Good luck.
Below is the information to change into the Bioengineering major at UCSD. I personally recommend she go with the direct admit.
As an entering Freshman, if you either apply but are not accepted into the “capped” major directly from high school, OR if you didn’t initially apply to one of those majors, you will be able to apply “one time only” to one of the four “capped” majors in the first week of school in the subsequent fall quarter, as you begin your Sophomore year as a “Continuing” student.
- Bioengineering (BS)
- Bioengineering: Bioinformatics (BS)
- Bioengineering: Biosystems (BS)
- Bioengineering: Biotechnology (BS)
If applying to the Bioengineering (BS) or Bioengineering: Biotechnology (BS) majors you must have already completed the following 9 lower division courses obtaining a grade of “C-“or above, before the start of your fall quarter, Sophomore year.
- MATH 20ABC (20AB = 2 courses in Calculus for Science & Engineering & 20C = Calculus & Analytic Geometry for Science & Engineering);
- CHEM 6A (General Chemistry I) and CHEM 6B (General Chemistry II);
- PHYSICS 2A (Physics-Mechanics) & PHYSICS 2B (Physics-Electricity & Magnetism). PHYSICS 2AB are intended for physical science and engineering majors;
- MAE 8 (MATLAB Programming for Engineering Analysis)
- BILD 1 (Cell Biology).
If applying to the Bioengineering: Bioinformatics (BS) major, you must have already completed the following 9 or 10 courses, obtaining a grade of “C-” or above, before the start of your fall quarter, Sophomore year
- MATH 20ABC (20AB = 2 courses in Calculus for Science & Engineering & 20C = Calculus & Analytic Geometry for Science & Engineering)
- CHEM 6A (General Chemistry I) and CHEM 6B (General Chemistry II);
- PHYSICS 2A (Physics-Mechanics) & PHYSICS 2B (Physics-Electricity & Magnetism). PHYSICS 2AB are intended for physical science and engineering majors
- BILD 1 (Cell Biology)
- CSE 11 (Introduction to Computer Science and Object-Oriented Programming: Java) or CSE 8A (Java) and CSE 8B (Java B). CSE 8A/B are equivalent to CSE 11.
If applying to the Bioengineering: BioSystems (BS) major, you must have already completed the following 7 courses, obtaining a grade of “C-” or above, before the start of your fall quarter, Sophomore year
- MATH 20ABC (20AB = 2 courses in Calculus for Science & Engineering & 20C = Calculus & Analytic Geometry for Science & Engineering)
- CHEM 6A (General Chemistry I) and CHEM 6B (General Chemistry II)
- PHYSICS 2A (Physics-Mechanics) & PHYSICS 2B (Physics-Electricity & Magnetism). PHYSICS 2AB are intended for physical science and engineering majors.
If you have satisfied any of the required 9 courses by Advance Placement (“AP”) in high school, the relevant “requirement” is satisfied and your GPA will be based on the other required courses (e.g., if you have AP credit for MATH 20A, your GPA will be based on the remaining 8 required courses).
If you have met some of the courses by Advance Placement (“AP”) work, please be advised of the following:
A minimum of 3 courses listed must have been completed at UC San Diego. If students can not meet this 3-course minimum due to prior credit, students may offer grades for:
- MATH 20D (Differential Equations)
- MATH 18 (Linear Algebra) or MATH 20E (Vector Calculus) until the 3 course minimum has been met.
Each fall quarter, a certain number (determined on an annual basis) of “Continuing” Sophomore students who apply will be selected to enter the “impacted” Bioengineering (BS); Bioengineering: Biotechnology (BS); Bioengineering: Bioinformatics (BS); or Bioengineering: Biosystems (BS) major. The selection process is entirely based on students having the highest GPA obtained in the 8-10 screening courses
This can create an extremely stressful environment in already difficult courses. What does she want to do with BME? Is there another major at UCSD that would help her achieve those goals?
She could attend 4 years at UCSD for the price of one year at BU. For that savings, she can take a vacation or do a summer internship on the east coast. 
Well, she was deferred to Columbia (her dream school!) but was ultimately rejected at the end. She also got into UC Davis, Washington University, Cal Poly, University of Oregon, and a couple of other safety schools.
@tsbna44 - thanks for the reply! With the FA that my daughter got for BU, it makes it about the same price as what we would pay for UCSD so cost is not really going to be the tie breaker (though it would have been if she didn’t get any FA from BU). Just curious to see which school would be an overall better pick.
@Gumbymom - thank you so much for this information!! You are awesome!! Seems kind of stressful to go through Freshman year having to strive for the highest GPA to even have a chance at getting into the BME program. Direct admit is starting to look more appealing at this point. 
@lkg4answers - with BME, I think she wants to do something in neuro-imaging or 3D organ printing. Honestly, these are such new fields I don’t even know what her alternate major would be. So after her FA package, the cost would be about the same. So I was trying to figure out, in terms of engineering, which school would be a better option?