@Riversider That is definitely the hard truth. UMich, UW Seattle, UW Madison, and UT Austin are all around the $55k mark for me which is far too expensive for me as an OOS flagship. As an OOS student, they also do not offer very much in terms of need-based or merit-based aid since OOS is not seen as a priority for admission. However, the reason I’m wanting to go OOS is that my in-state options for Missouri are not very compelling. As an IS student my options are Mizzou (which has offered me a near-full ride based on GPA and ACT alone, National Merit grants a full-ride), UMKC (which does have a BA/MD program but is very competitive), MST Rolla (which I do not want to attend at all, strongly disliked campus and not a great place for pre-med at all), UMSL, and various other Missouri schools.
@atbha09 I would recommend Case Western and Rochester as good pre-med schools. Highly ranked and with excellent medical schools associated with them. And supposedly the environment is less stressful than Hopkins/WashU
Case is pretty generous with merit aid and your GPA/test scores will merit consideration. I know some kids doing pre-med there and there are plenty of research opportunities with the Cleveland Clinic and the med school hospital.
Emory is another good school but they don’t have a dedicated BME major. I believe students take classes at Georgia Tech.
I understand your concern about WashU. The school is actually very collaborative, but getting an acceptable GPA is hard. My son is a double major in Arts and Sciences with a CompSci minor and his GPA is ~3.78 (thinking about pre-med as well) and that 3.78 is not going to be enough for WashU Med. He claims that his GPA is a little above the mean for the typical pre-med there. But you are prepared well for the MCAT.
Biomedical engineering is indeed a great career option. But realize that as a premed, you will be expected to have a GPA > 3.8 to be competitive for medical school. Being an ORM will make it even more difficult for you. So being pre-med while BME is not a good combination.
But the upside is that if you drop out of BME, there will be plenty of jobs available for you. I personally would take the full ride at Mizzou and save money for medical school. Paying $40K per year to attend Johns Hopkins doesn’t seem worth it to me. You could save that money for med school.
SLU as a premed isn’t a bad alternative either.
@atbha09 feel free to PM me about WashU if you have questions. I can fill you in about my son’s experiences and what his buddies are going through as pre-meds.
@Hamurtle I think Case would definitely be a good option for me since I’ve been looking into their special BME program which helps students learn not only on campus but also with their local medical centers and hospitals to gain clinical experience. Would you believe BME to still be a good program for pursuing medicine? I know GT wouldn’t be a good decision since their GPAs are very low due to being so engineering-focused. SLU would also be nice since that’s nearby, one of the doctors whom I worked with during my internship is actually a SLU Med alum which is nice.
You have excellent academic credentials for any school, as you well know. If there were enough seats for all of you talented young people in these selective schools, you’d be guaranteed entry. But, these schools are selective because so many like you apply these very same schools and they have to pick those students that will make their communities vibrant and diverse.
That means students other majors than the ones crowding the doors. It means athletes for their teams. It means development admits to bring in money instead of costing money. Legacy to keep in touch with history and alumni giving. It means URMs so that there is that diversity. Also students in areas and walks of life to represent the differences we have in this country. So, you are in one of the most competitive lanes for admittance.
If JHU is your first choicevschool, go for it ED. Bear in mind your chances are not 30% going that route because BME is an exceptional program there. They get way too many applicants for that major even ED so they have a special exception for it. Please look at the JHU ED site and read up on this because it is most relevant to you.
Yes, it is often advised for premeds to get into a school where the grading curve is not so steep because a High gpa is essential for med school. Kids have tanked their med school prospects with a bad freshman year or taking challenging courses, usually STEM, where the profs don’t give a care that you need that A for med school admissions. However, looking st your courses and grades, I think you can handle that rigor. I’m not as concerned for you as I am with many other premeds looking at rigorous schools and majors with med school aspirations.
Cost is the other thing regarding pre med. Medical school is expensive. If your parents aren’t going to be able to foot that bill, you’ll have to take out loans for that even as your undergrad loans crank upward with interest. You’ve had enough math to understand the time effect on interest, and student loans capitalize the interest. Also as a student alone, you can take out a total of $27k in student loans for all 4 years without parental involvement. $5500 for freshman year. Private lenders aren’t going to lend to you without your parent
Co-signing , making it effectively their loan on their credit history that they have to repay if you die, get injured , have misfortunes and can’t repay. It can effect their finances until you can repay it and you aren’t going to be doing that for a very long time if you are going to medical school. And you’ll have med school loans coming due after you complete med school on top of those undergraduate loans. There is a good reason for the student loan crisis in this country.
JHU looks close to doable if NPCs are correct. Borrowing the Direct loan, and some summer and part time employment will likely close the gap easily.
I don’t think OOS schools, at least the ones you have mentioned are good picks because their costs are high to you and they don’t meet need for OOS applicants. Getting suffice merit at some of them is dubious as they are ultra selective when it comes to money. Look at schools like UAlabama, Mizzou, UNewMexico, UNebraska , Arizona with some sure merit for your stats . You can probably save your parents a lot of money going that route.
Overall, you have a good list for your numbers. If you get close tona full tuition or full ride from a major university, that would be something to consider. By applying ED to Hopkins and rolling or EA to done if your other schools, you can have your safeties in place if your Plan A doesn’t work. My only concern is not having a financial safety in place. I’m sure you’ll get into a number of these schools. I’m not so sure that their financial packages will be satisfactory. Nice to be able to weigh a strong low cost alternative along with them.
@sgopal2 Do you mean if I drop out of premed then I would still have job opportunities, or if I drop out of BME? I, unfortunately, do understand that GPA is the number one factor for med school admissions, and if BME is setting me up for failure then I may have to explore other options.
@momofsenior1 Would you suggest even applying to Purdue for BME then? I wouldn’t want to risk attending the school and then not even receiving my major of choice.
@atbha09 I would definitely apply to Case. The school is pretty flexible, gives decent merit aid, and is less stressful for premeds.
Sorry I typed incorrectly. I meant that if you drop out of pre-med, then a BME degree will be a guarantee for a good job. Lots of engineers go onto other fields (MBA, Law school, PhD, etc). So there are plenty of opportunities in case you change your mind.
@cptofthehouse Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply, I really appreciate it. I would be lying if I said this thread has not made me more confused than I was before, but I’d also be lying if I said this thread has not been immeasurably helpful and insightful to me.
I definitely understand the financial perspective, and it is something I’m wanting to explore more and more. I come from a normal family where we prioritize saving. Despite having a considerable amount that colleges consider ‘liquid assets’, my parents have always prioritized saving rather than reckless spending which in turn (ironically) hurts our need-based aid since colleges think we have a lot of money (even this is not a crazy amount as many other families). The reason I was considering JHU is their net price for me was $45k as opposed to the $55k-65k that UMich, UT Austin, UW Seattle, and various other OOS schools are citing through their NPCs. Private lenders would definitely provide us a loan based off my parents’ credit, however this is again an incredibly large sum that would be a large burden if not planned properly or avoided altogether.
At this point I’m trying to just find a strong school that offers me the right resources I need for medical school but also offers me strong aid for my hard work (be it a need-based grant or merit aid). It’s reassuring to hear your belief in me as a student, very refreshing actually.
I’d love to hear more of your thoughts and maybe if you have any colleges in mind? It wouldn’t hurt for me to look into UA who has strong merit aid. Mizzou has already offered near full-ride but will be full tuition with NM. Thank you!
@sgopal2 That makes more sense, thank you for the clarification! I originally wanted to do BME as a back-up, but at this point it’s just sheer interest. I would be willing to explore a major in chemistry however as I’ve really enjoyed chemistry courses in my school, though I haven’t had much exposure otherwise.
@Hamurtle Thank you! I’m going to look more into Case. I know they have their PPSP which would be really nice for conditional acceptance to their medical school, however this is also very competitive. Thoughts on Northwestern HPME? I’ll be requesting the application on October 1 though I believe I am in a strong academic standing to receive the application, I’m not so sure about acceptance though as this is also outrageously competitive.
@cptofthehouse Thank you for your insightful advice! The reason I was so attracted to ED JHU is the fact that their NP was $45k as opposed to the $55k-65k of schools such as UMich, GT, UT Austin, UW, etc. It’s very refreshing to hear your thoughts that I would be a strong student in undergrad, I’ve been very worried from everything I’ve been reading and it’s nice to hear some reassurance.
I’d love to hear some more of your thoughts as to some match schools with strong merit or need-based aid as you mentioned. Thanks again!
Actually, the reason that BME is so frequently a tightly capped major is because he Job prospects are NOT that great (compared to the other eng majors). Biomed companies often prefer ME and EE grads to BME grads. If it is your passion, excellent. But don’t pick it because you think it is an edge for med school. It is not that, either.
@cypresspat I’ve definitely heard about that issue. My sister did BME and struggled a bit to find a BME related job since the large biomedical companies wanted more core engineers. I do find it as a passion, however, since it combines the two things I’m really interested in through a rather unique (albeit difficult) manner.
Updated August 2019 College List:
Johns Hopkins (Considering ED), Northwestern University HPME, Vanderbilt University, Duke University, Rice/Baylor MSP, Georgia Tech, Purdue University,
UIUC, UMich, UT Austin, UW Seattle, UW Madison, SLU, WashU, Cornell,
Columbia, UPenn, BU, Mizzou, UMKC BA/MD
@atbha09 Well, a sincere interest in something trumps pretty much all else. There is always room at the top, as they say. And if that passion means you live and die your engineering courses and can maintain. A Super high GPA, fantastic. But if not…it conflicts with your med school goal.
You may need to choose, here.
Frankly, with your stats, I would be leveraging that to pay as little as possible in undergrad. If med school really is your goal, the undergrad years are just the first few laps around the marathon course of becoming a practicing physician. Undergrad, for a premed, is when nailing the core courses, rocking he MedCATs, impressing the premed committee and keeping that GPA very close to 4.0 matters. You will have LOTS of time to do research and explore your engineering interests throughout your later laps of this marathon. Right now, the goal is med school.
I am not suggesting you go somewhere you are miserable. Instead, pay as little as possible for a solid core education as your time to care about prestige and cutting edge research is not during the undergrad years.
Medical school costs are brutal. And if you have loans to pay off right away, your Options to do things like a research fellowship year will disappear. Avoid debt like the plague. It will limit you early. And then later, too. There are lots of specialists out there who are so because they had a huge debt service. They started out wanting to do research, or be a pediatrician, but are instead doing hip replacements every day.
Use your success in high school (well-done, by the way) to get on the right road to med school. You will be plenty challenged if you choose reasonably wisely.
If med school is not really the goal, then ignore what I said above. For BME, go for it. Attend the best program you can afford. Emphasis on the ‘you can afford’ part. You will be a great BME, I am sure!
Your list looks feasible. You have your in-state safety, some reasonable matches, and reaches. I would still take out MIT as the school will be death on your GPA as a potential premed. Add Case to it.
If you are planning to ED to Hopkins, make sure that the finances work out for you should you be accepted.
Run Hopkins’ Net Price Calculator to check if finances are likely to work out, but it’s not a problem if the actual financial aid awarded is insufficient to support attendance. From the ED agreement (https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/applications/ethics): “Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment.”