Good Matches/Safeties for Bio/Biomed/Chem Engineering

College Search & Selection
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I’ve been researching schools as much as I can, but I’m getting worried about my college list. I need more matches/safeties, both financial and acceptance wise. I really want to study biomedical engineering with a concentration in drug development/delivery or biomolecular engineering.

I’d prefer a college campus that’s urban or close to a bigger city. I love the northeast and northwest (maybe midwest, but I don’t really want to stay in the midwest). I don’t really enjoy heat, probably because of my acclimation to Chicago winters.

I have a 3.95 UW/5.1 W (I think it’s a 4.7 ish when converted to a 5.0 scale)
6 APs so far; 3 more senior year
Senior year courses are all STEM, except English (Calc 3 is honors, not AP, but still advanced)
33 ACT; 34 supercore
Possibly National Merit Semifinalist (we’ll see in less than a month)
College courses for Bioethics, Molecular Foundations of Medicine, and Chemistry (all through top universities)
Pretty good ECs; definitely a very unique EC background (writing my essay about it. I know writing about ECs is generally bad, but it will be very unique because I’m sure that no one else will have the same story)

Does anyonye know of any colleges that would be financial safeties and good fits for what I want to do? Maybe some schools offer merit aid for my stats, but I can’t find any that I like. I would really appreciate anyone’s help if they know of good matches/safeties for me because there is a big chance that I get rejected from all of the schools on my list right now.

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Also, if you have any information on academic pathways that may be better (e.g. double major in computer engineering for a better job; double major in biochemistry to focus more on drug delivery; try to get a master’s; etc.), please let me know.

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Chemical engineering may have better job prospects, although that may be due to having options outside the biomolecular/biomedical field as well as those in that field.

Regarding costs, what is your price limit? Getting NMSF and then advancing to NMF will significantly increase your options.

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@ucbalumnus I’d like to keep my family contribution at a MAX of $20,000 a year, but for matches/safeties, I’d prefer more around $10,000 a year or less. Money has always been a struggle for my family, and I don’t think they’re as stressed as they should be about my college admissions because they don’t know how much the cost is actually going to affect them. We plan on sitting down and having a full conversation soon, so I can assess how much they know about admissions and make a more effective plan when it comes to the college process.

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You may need to broaden your criteria if you need big merit money.

Have you run the NPC for schools on your list yet?

If you are a NMF, look at Alabama and Arizona. Iowa too. Are you within commuting distance of any school?

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@momofsenior1 I don’t really want to be in commuting distance of any school. I would prefer to go to a college far from my home (Chicago). I don’t really need big merit money, but I do need to add ~2 matches/safeties that would be pretty easy on me financially.

I have run the NPC for my schools, and they all have my family contributing around $20,000 a year. This is a decent amount, but I think it’s worth it because these schools are really great and I think I’d benefit a lot from going to these universities (great fit, great research opportunities, great starting salaries, etc.).

By “broaden your criteria,” do you mean get rid of my preferences? Is this because not a lot of schools in the northwest and northeast provide good money? I also don’t want to sacrifice a good engineering education just to go to a school for little to no money.

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I think you are going to have a hard time getting schools below $10K/year, especially on the coasts.

Typically speaking it’s the southern and midwest schools where there is more $ unless you have a big financial need.

I’m also curious why BME if you are interested in pharmacology development. My D is a chem E at Purdue and the pharmacology concentration in chem e, not bio e or BME.

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@momofsenior1 I’m mainly just interested in biomedical engineering because it’s so broad. I know I want to be involved in the medical industry somehow, and biomedical engineering puts me in a decent place. I’d be able to figure out whether I really want to focus on the pharmacological aspect of medicine or the machinery aspect of the health care sector. I might want to pursue a master’s or PhD, and I feel as though a degree in biomedical engineering would help me remain very versatile. I definitely wouldn’t be on par in the pharmacology industry when paired against a chemical engineer, but I’ll have a solid enough foundation so that I’m still able to compete. I’d also be able to switch my interests and still be well-prepared for a job in my new industry of choice. Overall, I’m a very indecisive person, and I think a degree in biomedical engineering would be best suited for me.

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The problem with Biomedical Engineering is that it is so broad (interdisciplinary) is that it often requires an advanced degree to develop enough expertise to get access to the more desirable jobs.

I would recommend that you consider a degree that includes computer assisted data analysis - as applied to the biomedical field. Drug development generates huge amounts of data that needs to be analyzed and the underlying skill set is in high demand across all industries. Possibilities include: Bioinformatics, Data Science with a biomedical focus, a double/second major or trying to integrate the core skill set into a Biomedical Engineering degree.

Tufts has one of the top undergraduate interdisciplinary/applied CS departments in the country.

https://engineering.tufts.edu/cs/current-students/ba-and-bs/focus-area-
bioinformatics
https://engineering.tufts.edu/cs/bachelor-science-data-science

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If you will be a National Merit Semi-Finalist, you will receive a full-ride/COA scholarship at any state Florida school through the Benacquisto Scholarship Program. The University of Florida in particular has an extremely strong Honors program and is #34 ranked.

However, note that the program depends on the funding capabilities of the Florida state legislature. For the University of Florida in particular, I’ve read on the NM threads on CC that the school has stated that they will not honor the scholarship if funding is lost, but, the University of Central Florida and Florida State University will. However, I still highly recommend that you apply to UF, as its application deadline is November 1st and its honors program is far from a guaranteed admission (~13% acceptance rate,) and assess the funding situation & contact the university after admissions decisions release in the Spring.

For a National Merit full ride school w/guaranteed admission, the University of Central Florida provides NMSF with an automatic fee waiver, however, you have to submit official SAT/ACT and AP test scores (check the admissions website for updates.)

Texas A & M University provides full-tuition merit scholarships to OOS National Merit Scholars, and offers competitive full-tuition scholarships for engineering students. This school has earlier scholarship & application deadlines than most RD schools, so check the admissions website for specifics.

USC is definitely a reach school, but the Viterbi School of Engineering is extremely strong, and the school offers automatic half-tuition Presidential merit scholarships to all admitted National Merit Scholars. Definitely apply by the earlier scholarship deadline of January 1st, as there is the possibility of being interviewed for the full-tuition scholarship.

Now I’m obviously biased b/c I go here, but Brown is an amazing place if you have interests other than Engineering b/c of the Open Curriculum, as it gives students the freedom to explore other interests due to virtually no requirements (except for 2 Writing designated courses, which are offered in multiple fields like Bio,) and you can S/NC (Pass/Fail) any course, without the fear of a bad grade stopping you. Brown offers an extremely strong financial aid program (the Brown Promise) that meets full demonstrated aid w/o loans, so I highly recommend that you and your family run the financial aid calculators available at financialaid.brown.edu .

For low-income applicants reading this thread, I highly recommend you to look into the Questbridge College Match and Posse Scholar programs, as these programs can make it extremely affordable to attend a school like Brown with a high sticker price.

Hope this helps! Good luck with admissions!

11

Agree with the recommendation about southern universities.

And a few of these STEM universities have a history of providing decent financial aid (or are relatively low cost to begin with) and therefore may be a financial match for you (and Chemical Engineering).

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
U Tennessee-Knoxville
Clarkson U
U of Rochester
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
Mississippi State U

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Regarding the BME option:

See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22895736#Comment_22895736