I’m a junior in high school and putting together my college list. I go to a STEM-focused school where 2 years of engineering classes are required to graduate. I’m really passionate about biology and thought biomed engineering would be a great fit for me.
My top picks right now are University of Washington and Cal Poly SLO (just visited over spring break and loved it!). However, both schools are OOS for me. Only one university in my state (Utah) has a BME program, and U of U is not really one of my top choices… I toured the campus and just didn’t really feel a connection to it, and I didn’t like that it was a commuter school.
What are some other schools with a good BME program? I’m open to any location, but I’m looking more at the West.
Do you know about the Western Undergraduate Exchange? You can get reduced OOS tuition at lots of western universities. Note that WUE spots are often limited, so it’s important to APPLY EARLY.
Some midwestern options where you could get financial aid with strong stats: Kansas State University and Iowa State University. I don’t know about ISU (just not very familiar) but KSU is in a great college town. Both schools are very strong in STEM.
An out-of-the-box Eastern option: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA. It has a notably projects-oriented, hands-on curriculum, if that appeals, or doesn’t. Nice campus in a nice part of the city. Great vibe, great students. It has a high sticker price, but can be fairly generous with aid, especially, I think, for female accepted students (if that applies to you). It has relative gender balance for a STEM school. Starting salaries are very high, and rankings are higher than you might expect, somewhat similar to Cal Poly. You can look that up. It does have competitive admissions.
Are your HS engineering classes DE college level classes? Are you hoping to transfer these and use them for credit? Or are something more HS level like PLTW?
SAT?ACT?PSAT?
Budget? This is the first question you need answered. Speak to your parents.
WRT WUE, there probably are no better options than the U of U for engineering in the WUE open options.
Do you live close to SLC?
My engineering classes are concurrent enrollment through the local university - I took DET 1010 (intro to engineering design, we worked with Autodesk Inventor) as a sophomore and I’m currently taking ENGR 1000 (principles of engineering) as a junior.
My ACT is a 32, 1360 PSAT, 4.0 UW GPA, white female and daughter of a US Air Force veteran.
Do you get special benefits from your dad’s service? Does that open more schools to you $$ wise? Again, do you have an idea of budget? I assume you are resitting your ACT, increasing that a bit would open more options for merit $$ even at the U (which is hard to get max $ at even for instate kids) Engineering naturally sets the bar higher for admissions and merit $$ at desirable schools, biomed shifting that even higher because of the premeds.
Are your other classes rigorous? AP physics, calc, chem, bio etc?
If you are interested in BME I would recommend you not major in it in undergrad. Major in electrical, mechanical or computer engineering and then do a master’s in BME.
There isn’t much of a job market with a bachelor’s degree and those jobs can be done by electrical, mechanical and computer engineers.
If you are interested in BME, you might want to know more about the actual opportunities. As BME borrows from mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering as well the the life sciences, the old answer is to take a less specializes field as an undergraduate and go for an MS in BME or just find employment in ME or EE.
The BME field is exploding in some parts of the US. I know that the Boston and MD areas are very busy with rapid growth of this field. Try looking at some real, current data.
Using the latest available actual data directly from Duke and WPI you can see the BME BS income results and get some idea of employment prospects if you do not go directly to graduate school.
I could not find actual data on the JHU website, but did learn that about 1/3 of graduates go on to med schools, 1/3 to graduate school and 1/3 take jobs with no salary data is given.
WPI offers the most complete data sets. See the long list of different employers andl average BS level salaries. Go to the address below. For the latest data select 2018 and page down to 13 of the downloaded PDF to read results. Massachusetts has invested a lot in Biomedical research parks, hospitals and WPI in this area of study. They work in conjunction with the U of MA hospital in the same city.
For 2018, the starting BS salary listed by Duke was $70,000 and is cited as one of the highest. At WPI the average salary for a BS was $61,466 and for an MS $79,250.
Other universities to look at in this field include Case Western Reserve.
FWIW, My daughter will be majoring in biomedical engineering next year. We are from the midwest. She applied and was accepted to University of Illinois, UW Madison, Purdue, University of Iowa, Boston University, UMass Amherst, and University of Delaware. Be careful of schools that don’t have direct admission into your preferred major. University of Washington is notorious for screwing kids after their freshman year. Other schools have very strict GPA and progression requirements that you have to meet to be able to apply for biomedical after your freshman year. In the end, this is why she decided against UW Madison, Purdue, and Illinois. Don’t get me wrong- they are FANTASTIC schools, but she just preferred direct admission. Boston University was probably her top pick, but it was way too expensive. She ended up choosing University of Delaware and is very happy with her decision. On a side note, University of Utah kept popping up in her searches as a very good biomed school. And be aware that you will likely have to have a Masters degree to work in this field. It’s certainly possible to get a job in biomedical engineering with a bachelors, but not as easy as it would be for an ME or an EE. Good luck with your journey!