Transferring as a Bioengineering major to UCB/UCLA/UCI

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

Hello,
I recently got admitted as a transfer student for a California Community College to UCB, UCLA, and UCI as a Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering major. I am having a tough time deciding where to go. I just found out Berkely’s program is not ABET accredited, is that important? Meanwhile, I cannot find much about UCLA’s program other than that it is disorganized (but apparently ABET accredited). UCI’s biomedical engineering is more geared towards pre-meds?

As someone who has gone to CC, I have not really been able to take engineering classes so I am not so sure how I will like it. The aspects of Bioengineering that I find interesting are drug-delivery methods, biomaterials, medical devices, tissue engineering, and medical imaging. My interests are very broad, I know. I haven’t got any research experience and plan on doing research asap after starting in the fall. I want to go into a program that would make it flexible for me afterward if I decide to go to graduate school in bioengineering or medical school.
I know I should visit the schools to get a better feel and talk to people, but given the current situation (covid-19), this isn’t an option.
Any help will be highly appreciated!
TIA

2

Do you plan to take the patent exam or get a Professional Engineer (PE) license (for signing off on designs of things used by the general public, mostly commonly by civil engineers, but sometimes for other engineers)? These are the things that ABET accreditation is specifically important for.

You may want to look at the courses contained in the major at each school to see which one matches your interests best. Also, check to see how many lower division “catch up” courses you need to take that were not available at your community college. If you need many “catch up” courses, it may take you an extra quarter or semester to graduate.

If you want to go to medical school, you want to have schedule space for upper division biochemistry, genetics, and whatever else medical schools want to see (if most of your pre-med science courses were taken at community colleges, many of them want to see upper division science courses at a four year school).

3

I will definitely look into the courses. Thank you for your help!