My daughter is a junior with 3.98 UW GPA, and will be taking a total of 9 AP classes by the en of her senior year. She wants to major in Biomedical engineering, and her first choice school is Georgia Tech. We live in the Seattle area, and UW I believe has very good BME program. I told her the only way for her to go to GT is if she gets scholarship to cover the difference between in-state and OOS costs. She probably would not get much need base scholarship, and I know there’s no garantie she’d be accepted in any of the two. My question is… How good is GT BME compares to UW’s. Inputs from parents
and students (or anyone for that matter) from both schools would be very welcome. Would love to know if I should start to prepare myself for some big financial sacrifices.
@Adalls18 For engineering Washington receives 11k applications and has a 50% admit rate. GT receives 32k eng applications and has a 20% admit rate.
The level of avg student at GT will be a notch above Washington. GT has A level students. Washington has A, B level students.
GT’s small school, high academic environment will be as close to a private school as she can get at public school prices.
For BME GT is always ranked near the top with JHU, MIT, and Stanford. BME internships will be easier at Tech. Additionally, GT has one of the top undergrad business programs. A joke, BME stands for “business major eventually”.
She will most likely not get a GT scholarship. Have her agree to pay you back the difference between GT and Washington. That way she has some skin in the decision process.
Washington changed its engineering admissions process last year, which is not reflected in the 2017 ASEE report. A more accurate comparison may be made when the 2018 reports are published next year. Regarding the new admissions process at Washington, see:
Your daughter might be a candidate for the Honors Program at Washington. Stats for enrolled students in 2018 were:
High school GPA (middle 50%): 3.83-4.00
SAT (middle 50%): 1370-1510
ACT (middle 50%): 31-35
Looks like bioengineering was the fifth most popular prospective major for students enrolling in the Honors Program in 2018 (and fourth most popular in 2017).
Both great. Pacific Northwest versus southeast us. Different vibes and of course the weather. I would go to gt as a regular student finances aside. UW. Very close. And if honors. UW. If one were more affordable that would tilt it for sure. Both great. Can’t lose.
I would go on your daughter’s fit - which school SHE likes better, not just which ranks better on paper.
I’d also consider regionality for internships and jobs. Isn’t Seattle some sort of BME hotbed? Is Atlanta?
Also, Atlanta is VERY FAR from Seattle…can she handle that? Be honest with yourself.I’m on another website where many kids that went 1000+ miles from home are homesick.
Don’t get too wrapped up in rankings, they can be misleading.
For example, UW-Seattle is one of the top 5 research (based on funding) universities in the country, with over $255 million a year in federal funding for biological and biomedical sciences. Biological/biomedical research isn’t a strength for GT, hence why it’s (very good) biomedical engineering program is done in partnership with Emory University. A bio-engineering student will find more than enough research opportunities (undergraduate research is important for bio engineering/biomedical students) at UW. UW is also better recruited for the health sciences.
IMHO, when it comes to a health related major, It really is hard to make the case for GT at full OOS tuition vs in-state at UW,
GT may not offer many merit based scholarships, but they do offer need based grants to some OOS students. Run the net price calculator to get a sense of what may be offered. It may be more affordable than you think (or not!).
GT’s OOS applications surged a few years ago, when they moved to the common app. It’s admissions looks very similar to UW-Seattle, back in 2012/2013 (50%+ acceptance rates). I don’t think GT engineering program was any “worse” in 2013 than it is today.
Umm…No. GT very much feels like a public university. That “private” school feel comes from the amount of attention given to each student. GT would feel very similar to UW, or any other large public university. Classes are about the same size; from Calculus, physics and chemistry, into your engineering major specific classes.
GT, having a much larger engineering program, does offer more choices in engineering electives, minors and certificates. You would have to do a deep dive into the curriculum at both schools to see if that’s could make a difference to a Bio-engineering/Biomedical student.
