Safety Schools for BME/Bioengineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm going to be a senior this fall, and I've pretty much decided on majoring in BME/Bioengineering and then attending med school afterwards. I'm trying to determine which schools have fairly strong programs but would be safety schools for me. </p>

<p>Grades/Academics:
-35 on the ACT
-2290 on the SAT (770 CR, 750 M, 770 W)
-800 on SAT Math II, 770 on SAT Physics, 750 on US History
-5.0 W GPA, 4.0 UW
-Class Rank: school doesn't release actual rank, but counselor said top 1%
-10 APs by graduation: US Govt. (5) , Euro (5) , US History (5), Physics B (5), Stats (5), English Lang (4), Chem, Bio, English Lit, and Calc BC. All other classes have been honors courses.</p>

<p>ECs:
-Cross Country and Track (by graduation, varsity for 3 years, 4 years in total)
-Competitive Irish dancer since age 5 - won national and international competitions numerous times (and I'm a guy which might make this more unique); I also teach/train younger dancers at my academy
-NHS
-Eco Club
-Spanish NHS
-Student Council freshmen and sophomore year (accepted junior year but there was a scheduling conflict; didn't apply fir senior year because there would've been a conflict again)
-Organizing a back-to-school drive for a elementary school in my town with ~80% of families that live below the poverty line
-Eucharistic minister at my parish
-Shadowing an orthopedic surgeon this summer/fall and (most likely) volunteering at my local hospital</p>

<p>I'm a white male, living with my mom, my dad who suffered a devastating stroke two years ago, two younger brothers, and a younger sister. I live in Illinois.</p>

<p>I know that Stanford, Duke, Penn, JHU, and the rest of the top BME schools are reach schools regardless, so any safety schools (or match schools for that matter) that you guys could suggest would be appreciated! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>UCSD is highly ranked for BME and would be a good match if you can afford the OOS tuition with little financial aid assistance.</p>

3

<p>When did UCSD become a safety school for engineers? If safety schools is what you want, UCR and UCSC have great bioeng programs despite having very low minimum standards. Problem is, Santa Cruz is a…well, even by Californian standards is different enviroment. UCR, is… well in the middle of nowhere. Riverside is pretty much a remote city with little to do, and there’s less to do in the adjacent cities. The only good thing about the local is its pretty much an hour- hour and a half to everything else. </p>

<p>Given your stats you have a chance at Cal Poly Slo, although that isn’t a safety school. </p>

4

<p>Have you considered Pitt?</p>

5

<p>Price limit? A safety must have a 100% chance of being affordable, as well as a 100% chance of admission.</p>

<p>Louisiana Tech has an automatic full ride for your stats, and has biomedical engineering.</p>

6

<p>This has been discussed before, but BME, or any other engineering for that matter, is a poor premed option. The rigor is generally harder than other options, you’ll take lots of classes you’ll never use again and fulfilling prereqs will add extra course work. Is there a particular reason you chose BME?</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the feedback so far guys. I’ve looked at UCSD (although it’s not a safety to be sure) and have been meaning to look at Pitt. I’ll have to look at the other Cali schools mentioned. </p>

<p>Price range really hasn’t been set yet so sorry I can’t really give that helpful info. </p>

<p>And regarding why I’m keen on BME: a teammate of mine’s dad is on the board of admissions for a med school, and in talking with him, he said that med students come from a variety of majors and what’s important is studying what seems interesting to you while completing the prereqs. And for me BME seems interesting despite the rigor involved (plus the overlap with some prereqs is nice).</p>

8

<p>As you already know, there are LOTS of routes into med school. BME is becoming a popular choice, but really isn’t ideal. Not much of what you learn will be applicable to medical school, it will be more difficult and thus grades could suffer and in the end if you don’t get in, an undergraduate BME degree is not very useful. There’s really no reward for all the extra risk associated with choosing BME as a premed route. With that said, if BME really speaks to you, you’ll do fine. Good luck!</p>