transferring from UMD with a 3.1 to a better BME program possible?

<p>I'm at university of maryland-college park right now, finishing up my freshman year, and looking to transfer out for spring semester of my sophomore year. I'm a double major in finance and materials engineering, and have racked up extensive research experience (200+ hrs) in my time here in a biophysics lab and a nanomaterials lab, and that amount will have probably doubled by the end of my fall semester next year. I have also worked three jobs and served as editor for an undergrad research journal.</p>

<p>in high school, I had a 3.5 gpa, nothing particularly noteworthy about my extracurriculars, and very good SATs and APs.</p>

<p>I'm looking to transfer to a school with a good biomedical engineering program. I would also prefer a smaller, more liberal-minded school, but that's secondary to the quality of the BME program.</p>

<p>I'm also in-state for maryland schools. Any and all help is appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read my post!</p>

<p>Well I don’t know about all the other stuff, but coming from a fellow Maryland resident, Johns Hopkins in baltimore is probably one of the best out there for BME. UMD is second in maryland so Hopkins is really great for u since its one of the best in the country and its right in baltimore so you get in-state. Not sure what you mean by liberal-minded though.</p>

<p>US News BME Rankings (to use as a starting point for further research)
1 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
2 Duke University Durham, NC
3 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
4 University of California–San Diego La Jolla, CA
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
6 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH
7 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
9 Boston University Boston, MA
10 Rice University Houston, TX</p>

<p>I would love to go to JHU, or any of the top schools in that list, I just don’t think my GPA will allow it. I guess I’m more asking for the level of schools I can expect to get into, as in say, at most the 30th school in the rankings and below, or something along those lines. Thanks!</p>

<p>I think that you have a shot at transferring into Case Western Reserve University or Boston University. May I ask why you are thinking of transferring from UMD because that is a great engineering school!</p>

<p>Other engineering schools that shouldn’t be too hard to transfer too that have great BME programs:</p>

<p>University of Washington
University of Pittsburgh
University of Utah
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN)
University of California–Davis
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)</p>

<p>It definitely is, but there isn’t a dedicated biomedical engineering undergraduate program, and its bioengineering program doesn’t actually rank as highly as I wish it did. I also just haven’t really developed any sort of fondness for the school itself, as it’s very large and I was not admitted to any special programs designed to help freshmen find their footing, so overall I just haven’t really had the experience I wanted. Thanks for your advice! i’ll definitely look into those schools!</p>