The cost breakdown certainly helps. For engineering degrees, the payback is solid, so you really can’t go wrong. I agree with your counselor that a USC degree isn’t worth the extra $140k vs something like Purdue.
Is the program at Imperial College London a 3 year or 4 year duration?
I don’t know enough to help with weighing Imperial and Toronto vs. the US options, but I think your ranking of US schools makes sense given both the reputational factors and your personal preferences. If this is truly your preference ranking, then I don’t know why you’d devote any more energy to USC, Tulane, or Union. They cost more and you like them less, and they’re not better for your field of interest by any measure. They come off the list. Purdue is the next cut - yes, it’s cheaper and has a strong reputation, but it’s not that much cheaper and it’s not stronger than GT, and you like GT better (and GT is also tops for biomed). Case vs. GT is worth pondering - CWRU does offer a smaller-university experience, unrivaled flexibility to explore/change programs, and lots of great biomed stuff going on. But again, you prefer the cheaper school with the higher-profile reputation (especially internationally which could end up being important for you) so, why question it? Sounds to me like GT should be your US front-runner and you should move on to the GT vs. Imperial vs. Toronto decision.
University of Toronto’s St. George campus is 180 acres, about the size of USC and half the acreage of Georgia Tech.
My son is finishing up his first year at GT and has really enjoyed it overall. He is doing a double major in cs/math. Re a few of your concerns:
He has not had an issue with crime and has taken MARTA quite a bit. As long as you are aware of your surroundings Atlanta is pretty much like any large city, but on campus is very safe.
He is a pretty decent soccer player and has really enjoyed intramurals. His friend group has primarily come from this group.
Accommodation is fine. Food is not amazing, but ok. Counselling has been less than impressive, and you have to figure out some things yourself.
Once you get into your major, I would think if you make the effort your professors will know you. Presumably the same at most colleges.
One issue GT could do better on is assessing your skill level and placing you in courses based on your abilities. GT is very rigid and the ability to test out of courses is very limited. This may/may not be an issue given how your courses transfer over to the US?
Good luck!
Imperial is a 3 year program currently, but I have the option to do 4 and come out with a bachelor’s and master’s
The reason I’m not instantly eliminating Tulane is because I think it’s a good fit. I doubt very much I’ll enrol at Union, though. Still weighing USC but there is the price.
I think there are two more campuses as well? Either way I’m more concerned with the number of students, I think 65,000 + undergrads (acc to Fiske 2021)
Thank you! That does alleviate a few concerns.
You mean the academic counselling? What exactly did your son have to do himself?
I know I get credits for my A Levels but I’m not entirely sure how they translate just yet
Elaborating on the shady practices, I am going from memory here, but there is probably a lot more on Tulane threads.
Tulane has a nonbinding early action option. I have read that Tulane bombards HS seniors with invitations to apply (even more than other schools) and has no application fee and no custom essay requirements, so it is easy for students to check a box on the common app to apply.
If you are competitive in early action, they frequently pressure the students to convert to early decision (so they can accept without hurting yield). If you don’t convert to early decision, then they are likely to reject you (lack of “interest”). The percentage of the class filled by ED is very high, so they can then reject most RD applicants to keep the acceptance rate low.
Again, a lot of schools do things to juice their stats, but Tulane appears to be more aggressive than most. Therefore the low acceptance rate is not really a meaningful indicator.
Congrats on your excellent acceptances. It sounds like you are being thoughtful about your choices and starting to eliminate some which is a good first step.
Any of these schools will allow you to achieve your goals, and the BME curriculum is ABET accredited at all the US schools you are considering.
If you think that Tulane is a good fit, you should seriously consider it. It is a very different vibe than GTech. Both USC and Tulane are more social, more work hard play hard.
I disagree with those who are slamming Tulane’s admissions practices…Tulane BME is the real deal, again it’s ABET accredited and the curriculum rigorous.
Who cares what the admissions practices are, or that they have implemented strategies to increase their USNWR ranking? You will never have contact with admissions once you are on campus. Yes, Tulane fills much of it’s class in EDI/II and aggressively markets, but they are relatively more transparent about their admission practices than many schools.
Regarding walking on for your sport, that will be relatively more difficult at Div 1 schools (Tulane, Ga Tech, USC), than D3 schools like Case. Sounds like you have spoken with some coaches, which is exactly what you have to do.
Good luck as you make your choice, keep us updated!
ETA: I agree USC is not worth the extra money. Not sure if Purdue is still in the running, but do note that you will do FYE (the first year general engineering program) and then transfer to your desired major. BME is competitive, although most students do get their choice of major if they satisfy the entry criteria…so research that if Purdue is still in the mix. Transition to Major - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University
Why is this relevant to OP’s decision of where to attend? And yes, Tulane does have two supplemental essays, 800 words max. They label them as optional, but they aren’t…the vast majority of students accepted completed these and did a great job on them (Tulane provides a great deal of direction on what they are looking for in the essays, unlike some schools).
The two other campuses are separate - similar to the UC’s which have hundreds of thousands of students. There are 45000 undergrads at the St. George campus, about 5000 of which are engineering students.
Tulane’s acceptance rate is relevant because the OP cited it as evidence of Tulane’s prestige. Better, as you say, to weigh the prestige of the BME programs themselves against each other than to use an indicator that is flawed, particularly in Tulane’s case.
How big is the BME program at Tulane? It’s a small school overall, so I imagine there aren’t many in the BME program. I would want a larger cohort of engineers like GTech. Does diversity matter to you? How many Indians are there at Tulane vs the other schools?
What do you want to do with your BME degree?
If you want a Phd I’d recommend GT, but if it’s med school I’d stay away from GT because the grading is tough.
I don’t think it’s easy to answer that, because:
Anyway, if it’s diversity in general that’s important to OP then GT and USC are more diverse campuses than Tulane.
Yes- that (diversity) was what I was trying to get at. These types of considerations might be important to him. I may be wrong, but Tulane didn’t appear very diverse to us when we toured a couple years ago.
I know they get a lot of applications since the application is free and the essay is optional, but personally I don’t think they asked me to change my EA to ED.
Thanks, I’ll check it out, didn’t know that.
I think this year it was changed to one 300 word essay (not counting any scholarship ones) but the point remains that it still isn’t really “optional”
Ah ok, that makes more sense, thank you
What I actually meant is that Tulane is slightly prestigious anyway(to the best of my knowledge), not particularly due to its acceptance rate (which is impressive at first glance whether manipulated or not)
I think it’s one of the bigger engineering degrees and was I told it pays really well in NOLA after just a Bachelor’s. The rep told me there are around 10 students from India admitted this year (if memory serves me right). I think GaTech has a fair amount of internationals. The number of Indians honestly isn’t the most important thing for me personally but the more diverse the better I suppose
I’m not sure what I want to do yet but I don’t think med school is one of them. Don’t know about a phD either. I’ll likely do a Master’s either way.
I wouldn’t consider Atlanta to be any more dangerous than any other US city. New Orleans (Tulane), Cleveland (Case Western) and LA (USC) ain’t too good either lol.
The Atlanta airport is massive and would be very convenient for you to return home.
I would go with 1)Georgia Tech 2)Purdue 3)USC
I don’t know enough about the UK universities to have an opinion about those.
Please do some research on Tulane’s recent reduction in acceptance rate. As others have alluded to, it is a bit of smoke and mirrors. Tulane and Northeastern are doing whatever they can to reduce acceptance rate and increase yield in an attempt to look more “prestigious” than they actually are.
I’m noticing a significant unintended backlash amongst student applicants … an almost embarrassment to be associated with this type of behavior. The first word that comes to mind when I think of Tulane is “false” or “fake”. This is certainly not how I felt about Tulane a couple years ago. And that is a shame, because it is a pretty good university.
This past year I’ve been in front of kids and when Tulane came up, they actually scowled or made other negative facial gestures. That ain’t good for yield long term.
I agree to some extent with another poster who said (paraphrasing) who cares about Tulane’s admissions practices, you won’t have any interaction with the admissions office after you are there. This is true, but very quickly I am seeing a definite negative backlash to Tulane and Northeastern in my community … Tulane’s admissions strategy is negatively impacting their reputation … there is no doubt about that. I can’t speak for other geographic locations obviously, but I definitely see it in my community.
Just the fact that one of the main points of discussion when you mentioned that you are considering Tulane is a negative opinion of their admissions is evidence enough that it is a real problem.
Tulane must be doing something right in attracting those who want to be there because its yield is the highest it has ever been and its students are consistently ranked as among the happiest and most engaged.
That’s called confirmation bias.
Anyway, Tulane’s admissions process - whether viewed as good or bad - is not the topic of this thread. Let’s focus on OP’s questions.
If you are really looking for the engineering powerhouse then I think it’s Purdue or GT. None of the other schools scream engineering to me.
U Toronto is a gorgeous place in an amazing international city. But you have to be very independent there. They don’t provide a lot of guidance or handholding.
As far as Tulane goes- I have no problem with their admissions tactics. In fact I applaud them. They are totally transparent and are basically saying we want kids who want us. It’s so blatantly obvious that if you want to go there you almost have to ED. So? That’s what I would do if I was a college too. They aren’t hiding it or using some “holistic” approach to craft their class however they want. I know some incredibly high stat kids who ended up at Yale and UVA honors etc who got rejected by Tulane- and guess what? They never visited or had any intention of going. Good for Tulane.
Again… OP has already been admitted by Tulane. Their admission policies are not relevant to this thread. Let’s stay on topic please.