My daughter is having a difficult time choosing between Minnesota and Wisconsin for Biomedical Engineering. She is a direct admit to both engineering schools and tuition is basically the same at both. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Has she visited both? What were her impressions?
Does she prefer badgers or gophers? 
They are both wonderful universities and so similar, but I would imagine that the feel and culture of each place is distinct. I assume your daughter visited both. If she still doesn’t have a preference, then how about looking up information on things like the following to help with the decision:
- housing differences
- job and internship opportunities (and where she thinks she might want to live upon graduating)
- curriculum and any special programs or perks affiliated with the major or department/college
- student clubs and organizations, and on-campus event calendar
- activities available on and off campus (anything from sports like skiing and climbing and boating to annual events and festivals to music and theater and museums, etc.)
- anything else that is important to her (research opportunities with a professor, e.g.)
- honors college differences (if that is an interest or goal)
- distance from home, transportation issues, and her preferences
- availability of groups/resources for any religious affiliation, language/culture group, etc.
Wisconsin is in a smaller city but may feel more urban because of its location. I think there is more to walk to from campus at Wisconsin. However, Minnesota has easy access to downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul with the light rail stopping right on campus, and those cities will have more to offer in general.
I disagree that Wisconsin will feel more urban than Minneapolis, unless she is at the St. Paul campus, which I don’t think she will be? Wisconsin is very good, but I know some kids shy away from it because of it’s reputation as a"party school". Other kids, of course, go there for precisely that reason!
She has visited both and has grown up knowing the Madison campus and supporting the badgers. (Dad is an alumni) We feel we have exposed her to everything we can at both schools but I think it really comes down to which program is better. As parents, we feel the programs are similar but neither of us are familiar with the post-graduation engineering world. I appreciate all the responses. Would welcome any other thoughts!
For Minnesota, CS&E students must earn a 3.2 GPA in major prerequisites for assured admission to their desired major. Otherwise, it is competitive admission, though only some majors have space limitations that require the GPA threshold to be higher than 2.0. Biomedical engineering appears to be one of them, according to http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics .
Wisconsin admits directly to majors, but has progression requirements that include GPAs higher than 2.0 to avoid being weeded out (presumably to keep enrollment within capacity limitations). For the last two years, the progression GPA for biomedical engineering was 3.5 core and 3.0 overall to avoid being weeded out. See https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/ .