I am having a really hard time deciding between the two. I got a 45k scholarship from VCU which includes the Honors College and its Honors dorm. However, I got nothing at Tech. I would be majoring in Biomedical Engineering (ranked 48th) at VCU, whereas if I went to Tech, I would be majoring in Industrial&Systems Engineering (ranked 6th in the country). My main goal is to attend medical school and I feel like I would be getting the same opportunities at both school. I would be taking med school reqs over the summer and as my electives if I was going to Tech. I have heard that having an unique major will help you a lot with med school admissions so ISE would be a great option at Tech. With BME, I’ll start to have classes and such in the hospital starting Freshman year which is a huge advantage. I love everything about Tech besides the fact I am not getting any money from them. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could provide me with input on both these majors and what a good decision to make would be.
It depends on if you are 100% committed to doing pre-med and if you have an idea of where you want to go to med school. It’s generally encouraged to take on no debt or minimal debt from undergrad since med school costs so much. Thinking about this makes VCU the obvious choice.
If there’s a chance you might want to pursue engineering rather than pre-med at some point, I would lean slightly toward Tech. If you are 100% set on med school and you’re aiming for places like VCU or EVMS, I would go for VCU. Many friends that I had at both Tech and VCU ended up at those two schools. As far as majors go, most people I know ended up at med school with typical majors - bio, chem, biochem, HNFE, etc, so I’m unsure how much of an effect doing biomedical engineering or ISE would have.
As a side note, Tech releases a post graduation report. Aside from VCU and EVMS, a few students have ended up at Wake Forest, Drexel, Johns Hopkins, Penn State, UNC, UVA, and Vanderbilt over the past 3 years. If you can find out where VCU students end up for med school, that could possibly help make a definitive decision, especially if the results are similar.
ISE is really not going to prepare you very well for med school/MCATS. ChemE or MechE might be better choices.