I have gotten into the University of Minnesota’s Biomedical Engineering program and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Bioengineering program. I understand that Illinois is the better engineering school, but I’m also concerned about price and value. If UIUC is more expensive than Minnesota, is their Bioengineering program so prestigious that I should just go there regardless? I guess what I’m asking is if a UIUC Bioengineering degree is much more prestigious than a Minnesota Biomedical Engineering degree.
Both schools are well respected. @ucbalumnus has the details on all of this, but I believe Illinois is a direct admit to major where as Minnesota requires a certain GPA to get your major of choice. Changing majors might be harder at Illinois as they don’t have excess capacity to move students around.
Before you consider any of that though, you need to consider the impact of the financial difference. What is the price difference and how will you cover it? Will you need loans?
I receive financial aid packages for both schools by the end of February, but as of now Minnesota is less expansive as they have informed me about scholarships I received. So no I’m not really sure about price or loans. It is also worth mentioning that I live in Illinois and I live an hour away from UIUC as opposed to 7 hours from UM. Would the travel costs overshadow any benefit of cost if U of M is less expensive?
@macrcocontreras. Congratulations on getting accepted to two fine programs. I am from Chicago and get the insane instate expense for Illinois engineering. My son goes out of state for engineering.
Saying that the game is to try to get through college with no to little loans. Illinois is supposed to offer better financial aid and scholarships this year. They also have a initiative to offer free tuition if your family makes less then $65,000/year or something like that. It’s worth checking into all of this.
Saying that, no one can help till you provide more information like what your parents earn and what your expected costs will be. Run the net price calculator on the schools website to figure out how much you might get from the colleges. February will be here soon and you should have real numbers to work with.
Also what school do you think is a better fit /culture for you?
I think you can fly from Midway to Minnesota but not sure if there is a closer airport for you to get to. But southwest is not too expensive.
My son is 5 hours away and takes Amtrack to get home. It’s pretty inexpensive so again check into all of this and see what makes sense for you and your family.
I wouldn’t worry about prestige. Unless someone else has a reason.
http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/ describes Minnesota CS&E secondary admission to major process. 3.2 college GPA in technical courses automatically admits to major; lower GPAs face competitive admission to major.
http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics indicates that biomedical engineering one of the four CS&E majors that was not able to accommodate all interested applicants.
If you are admitted to bioengineering at UIUC, you just need to maintain a 2.25 college GPA in technical courses to continue to the third year of the curriculum, and maintain a 2.0 college GPA in technical courses to graduate: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising/curriculum-course-credit.html . However, if you want to change to a different engineering major, it may be difficult, because they have been filled up with direct admission of frosh.
I wouldn’t worry about which program is more “prestigious”. Both have strong, well thought of programs. UM-TC’s Biomedical program is larger (#faculty/#students/research funding), but both are well recruited.
In terms of education and job opportunities, you are in great shape either way. Choose the one that is the better personal and financial fit for you.