Transfer into Cockrell or UTSA engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
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I am posting for another family who has this dilemma.

Their S applied to UT Austin a year ago but was CAPped. He enrolled in a satellite campus and is doing well with a heavy load of math and science classes. He’s set to go into UT COLA under the CAP agreement. He had been a very unfocused kid in terms of academics because of a lot of family problems but senior year in high school found a passion for biomedical engineering and is now intent to major in it.

This is a kid who didn’t do Precalcus/Calculus or AP Bio/Chem/Physics in high school so there were major gaps in his education. After spending this year doing intense catch up in math and science, he applied to UTSA Biomedical engineering program and was accepted. The dilemma now is that he is thinking about going to UT Austin and trying to see about transferring into Cockrell after a year of classes. He thinks that he could graduate with a degree in BME at UT in the same time as UTSA BME (5 years total). I think it would be longer and that is if he gets accepted into Cockrell. I think he would get chewed up and spit out by the intensity of UT Austin.

My impression is that he misses his family in Austin and would like to live at their house and commute to UT. The UTSA BME program would mean more expenses for them.

I let him know that going into COLA then trying to do an internal transfer into Cockrell would be very risky. If he is OK with possibly graduating with a degree in COLA then it’s an OK plan but if he wants The BME degree then UTSA BME is a good plan for that. He let me know that he would not be OK with another degree. He really wants biomedical engineering.

The complicating issue is also that UTSA BME is not ABET accredited. Something that upon researching, I made them aware of only so that he and his mom would not be surprised should he get in and find out later. His mom is very worried about this. I told them to contact the dept for more info on this and how it impacts career goals /job prospects. In Tx, it looks like he would need to work 8 yrs under an engineer then could get his license.

I think that UTSA BME would be the way to go. But of course, he’s an adult now and will make the decision. His mom really wants him to decide but I think she really hopes he gets to go to UT Austin Cockrell. I think he’ll have a difficult time keeping up in the masses and fall behind, get discouraged and not complete his dreams. UTSA seems much more personable and use to dealing with a kid who is a late bloomer and graduates a lot of Hispanic engineers. His mom is a college grad (elem school teacher) but his dad is not- lower middle class. So he’s not really guided by his parents in terms of the bigger picture.

I’ve known this kid when he joined an SAT/ACT prep and college admissions prep that my H and I ran for minority’s kids. The group is free. He’s a good kid. He’s trying really really hard now. My H and I crafted a great LOR for him (for the UTSA BME program).

I’ve gone through some threads and the internal transfer rate to Cockrell does not look good- makes sense since they are concentrating on the freshman class coming in.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

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BME is VERY hard to get into - the young man would need a really high GPA. It’s also a very strenuous program. My son was a BME major at UT. He was an excellent student in high school but really struggled the one year he was a BME major (he ended up falling mentally ill, which is another story - when he switched to applied math, he did much better).

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I would check more to see if the ABET accreditation is a deal breaker. It WOULD be for engineers who produce drawings for buildings, because they have to stamp the drawings with their engineering seal. I don’t know if it’s as critical for biomedical engineers. Maybe other posters would know.

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I wouldn’t go anywhere not ABET accredited. How about Texas A&M or other TX schools. UT will likely be one of his toughest choices. Transferring into engineering is very hard.

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Thanks for the info. I agree about checking up on the accreditation- whether it’s a deal breaker or not. I also recommended that they check on when the dept is on track for accreditation because the degree may become accredited retroactively sometimes. I just think that he’s busy with school and mom is busy being the single breadwinner sometimes and dad doesn’t get involved with the education at all. He didn’t even think that his son had to go to college.

I hope that your son is better. Mental illness can be devastating for a family. But with treatment things can get much better- it sounds like you have provided that for your son. I’m a clinical therapist and have seen families go through this so my heart goes out to you.

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I don’t see him transferring into TAMU. He was never interested in that school even after I recommended it and he visited it. He would still have to be accepted into their engineering dept then apply to the specific BME program. That’s just as long and risky as the UT route I would think.

At first, I had the same reaction about not going to a non accredited BME program. But with BME, there are not a lot of accredited programs around anyway. And it might be different for BME than say civil engineering. IDK though.

If there are any more opinions or any other info, please comment.

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Thanks, @goingnutsmom. My son is 23 now. He has schizoaffective disorder. We are very fortunate that he doesn’t use substances. He’s also compliant and still a wonderful young man. He lives in an apartment with a roommate - there is staff onsite 24/7. He goes to the office twice a day to take meds, so somebody has eyes on him often. His apartment is right off main street in a small town, and he can walk to the grocery store, post office, bank, etc. Every other week, I go pick up him to see his psychiatrist, who is an angel (he doesn’t charge either of my kids to see them! I guess we’re his pro bono project.). He’s on Social Security and is managing to save a little money. So he’s really doing well, although it’s certainly not the life I envisioned for him.

Thanks for the work you do! Good therapists are so important. :slight_smile:

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Thank you! Wishing you and your family the best.