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I’m not sure what this really means. Can your parents afford UCB or UCLA? That’s $50K/year with no aid being OOS.</p>
<p>Matchy schools with strong biomedical engineering, strong engineering generally, and strong across-the-board would include:
UCSD
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin</p>
<p>Case Western and Vanderbilt are also strong in biomedical engineering but may not be quite as strong in other engineering specialties. Among smaller schools, Rose-Hulman and Bucknell are strong in engineering (don’t know about biomedical), but Rose-Hulman wouldn’t offer a lot of non-engineering options.</p>
<p>I think the OP has a good shot at getting into one of the reachy schools currently on his list but is right to be looking for matches with higher admit rates. It’s not unheard of for applicants at this level to completely strike out at low-admit-rate schools for which their stats are a good match, and it’s a long fall from there to a place like the University of Arizona. And if he wants to consider engineering but isn’t sure, he should begin in engineering. It’s hard enough to jump through all the hoops to get an engineering degree in 4 years if you start as a freshman, and virtually impossible if you start elsewhere and transfer in later. Much easier to switch from engineering to something else than to go in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>Rice seems to be in the match/reach category as well as good biomed, urban and size.</p>