<p>Hi! I'm currently a senior in public high school in California, and I'm interested in applying to Case for the Biomedical Engineering major. I might apply Early Action, but am still unsure. </p>
<p>SAT: 1980 (will retake)
SAT IIs: Spanish (720), Biology (680 --> will retake), Math (760)
ACT: 31
UW GPA: 3.75
W GPA: 4.25 - 4.3 </p>
<h1>of AP/IB/H, special courses, etc: AP Comp Sci AB, AP Bio, Honors Chem, Honors Spanish, Honors Precalc, community college courses (Business, Psychology, Jazz Dance)</h1>
<p>ECs: Carnatic Vocal Music, Taekwondo, Science Club, Speech and Debate Club, MATHCOUNTS Assistant Coach, Teacher Assistant for 4th grade Balavihar students, American Cancer Society Youth Council Chair</p>
<p>School Type: Public (very competitive - 30-50 to UCLA, Berk, UCSD)
Ethnicity: South Indian
Gender: F</p>
<p>Note: I will be joining a program in which I will take all of my senior year classes at a community college instead of at my high school. </p>
<p>I appreciate all comments and feedback on my chances at Case. Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback, CaseSpartan10! I thought that they'd require applicants to choose a major (like Johns Hopkins), since Case is very well known for BME. I'm thinking of applying to PPSP, so that's why I'm thinking of giving the SAT another shot. I've heard that it's ridiculously hard to get into PPSP, but I'd like to give it a try. :)</p>
<p>As of right now, Case doesn't restrict entrance into the BME major, but they have been talking about capping the size of the class in the future (within the next 5 years or so if current enrollment trends continue). I agree with CaseSpartan that you should be fine as far as admissions go - definitely apply Early Action if you can. It's non-binding and it seems there is usually a little more money to go around for early action students...</p>
<p>It is entirely possible to get above a 3.0 (or even the 3.5 required for PPSP) in BME. The coursework is hard, but grading is fair or even slightly inflated. I don't recommend the combination of BME and Pre-med - at Case there is not much overlap between the BME curriculum and recommended pre-med courses. I know of many students who have gone on to med school from BME, and they have been well-prepared, but it was a long, hard struggle for most of them.</p>
<p>I graduated with my bachelors in BME from Case this past May - I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have about the program!</p>
<p>It's "single door" admissions, not "open door" admissions. No matter what program you are entering, there is just one single door to go through. It's not always "open" if you don't have the right grades and test scores :)</p>
<p>SRG09 - As a general rule, I don't answer "chances" questions. I don't know exactly what the admissions committees are looking for, particularly for competitive programs like PPSP. Admissions and scholarship decisions are extremely multi-faceted, and I can't begin to predict the factors that would make you a strong or weak candidate. After the first few weeks of freshman year (4 years ago for me), nobody mentions their high school stats, so I don't have any stick to compare prospective students against.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I am happy to answer questions about the school, BME, social atmosphere, etc that would help prospective students determine if the school is a good fit for them.</p>
<p>Thanks Ctheflute! Everything I know so far about Case is from the Internet, so it's get a perspective from someone who's actually been there. If you don't mind, I have some questions. </p>
<p>1) How did Case stand out from the other colleges you got accepted from? </p>
<p>2) What are your tentative post-Case plans? (sorry if I sound nosy...it's OK if you don't want to reveal anything :P)</p>
<p>1) I visited 5 colleges during the spring break of my junior year of high school. Case wasn't originally on the list, but my mom convinced me to stop there because it was on the way home. It ended up being the school that just felt the most like home to me. Several of the other schools I visited were more uppity / image-conscious and that was not something I was looking for.
I also knew from the beginning that I was interested in cardiac and neural aspects of BME, so I really liked that Case had separate specialty sequences for these. Many other BME programs I looked at required everyone to take courses on tissue engineering, biomaterials, and imaging (these are covered in the core BME classes at Case, but you also take a great number of classes that are tailored to your specific area of interest). I took the bioelectricity sequence and that gave me to background to get involved in some incredible research.</p>
<p>2) I just started in the Bioengineering PhD program at Arizona State University, so there is nothing tentative about my plans for the next 5 or so years :-) I work in the development of prosthetics that are controlled directly by the brain.</p>
<p>Here, I'll chime in. (If you search in this forum, you'll realize that I was like you guys last year. Now a fish at Case)
1) How did Case stand out from the other colleges you got accepted from?
Well, last year I applied to Rice, Case, Texas, Haverford, Pomona, and Washington university. I got accepted from case texas and haverford. waitlisted on all the rest and denied at Rice. Case offered me the most scholarship money out of all of them. Case also has a smaller class size than Texxas (my state school) and has a better "community" atmosphere (I guess... though I'm sure some others would disagree). You walk by the students everyday and most often times you would like see the same students every time.... which is quite unlike the huge atmosphere at Texas. safety isn't that bad here.... got notices of two robberies through the email system here, but I've taken both the bus and the rapid systems by myself (and even brwosed through campus at night) and it seems fine to me. Of course, don't do outside during the nights (i.e. common sense)</p>
<p>Another area that Case stands out from the other colleges is that Case's biochemistry program is directly administered by the Med School at Case Western Reserve University. So that in the higher up years (you don't start biochem courses until like your junior year unless you got a slew of AP courses), you get "taught" by the medical school professors.</p>
<p>Also, there's free student to student tutoring here (whereas other schools charge you some bucks for tutoring). even though sometimes the students aren't that helpful. </p>
<p>2) What are your tentative post-Case plans? (sorry if I sound nosy...it's OK if you don't want to reveal anything :P)</p>
<p>I want to be a doctor. dunno about anything else for now since I'm still a freshman</p>
<p>and as far as OP doing all community college courses in senior year, My two cents is that I kind of "oppose" doing that. because in my experience, the community college courses aren't as rigourous as the AP courses (which, in some cases, are like the level Case teaches at). like I came in with AP Chem credit and basically know most of the concepts they cover in first semester chem 105 (which is the chem class for pre-meds)</p>
<p>as a further suggestion, I suggest that you guys who are interested in the colleges you are applying to read the student's newspapers for a view of the school that often the administration tries to "cover up" when you go to the undergrad admissions website. </p>
<p>One example at Case Western Reserve is that we don't have adequate space for music dept. to reserve orchestra and band and a capella and choir ....etc. And if you read the newspaper, you'll find out that the music department has about like 10 years before they'll get a new facility. and so now we practice in the back of the Wade commons areas. So the music facilities are definitely are not as good as what you guys may even see in the high schools you guys are from. </p>
<p>administration at Case Western Reserve still has some problems of and on with the students.</p>
<p>Thanks xtra! So far, I like Case because of its strong ties with places like the Cleveland Clinic and Rainbow Babies, the internship opportunities for undergrads, and its smaller class size. I'll definitely take a look at Case's newspaper! =)</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree that some of the community college courses aren't as rigorous as AP courses. But I'm taking my courses in series so that they correlate with AP courses and so that the credits are transferable to UCs (since I'm a Californian). I'll post my schedule here. In addition to courses below, I'll most likely take electives like Psychobiology, Philosophy, Sociology, Marine Biology, etc. along the way. The courses below are worth 4-6 credits (quarter system), and the Physics courses comes with the three-hour lab component.</p>
<p>Fall</p>
<p>Calculus 1A
Physics 4A (Mechanics)
English 1A
Politics 1</p>
<p>Winter</p>
<p>Calculus 1B
Physics 4B (Electricity and Magnetism)
English 1B
Principles of Macroeconomics</p>
<p>Spring</p>
<p>Calculus 1C
Physics 4C (Fluids, Waves, Optics, and Thermodynamics)
English 1C
Principles of Microeconomics</p>