<p>My son faces options between UMich and Case for engineering schools, probably BME major.
Umich no any money, but Case awards him $15.7K/year.</p>
<p>Could any one, who knows both, especially insiders, give him any comment and suggestion ?</p>
<p>The reasons he prefers Case now:
1). more chances to get a lab job (78% unders in research, 2:1 graduates to unders)
2). smaller classes, and easier processor accessibility
3). easier to select courses in other schools (he likes to select some business classes.)
4). SAGES program focuses on critical thinking and communication trainings.</p>
<p>For BME, Case is excellent...arguably better than Michigan. But the main thing you need to answer is this; what does your son want in a college experience. If your son only cares for academics and research, then I'd say that Case and Michigan would be equal. But if he also wants a fun time and a good alumni network to fall back on, he would probably do better going to Michigan.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your insight. We highly appreciate your consistent advice to help the young minds to pursue their goals. </p>
<p>Actually my son seems a more diversfied boy than a ambitious young scholar with a firm goal. He needs sports (got a lot of ping-pong champions and a basketball captain), music (piano and big fun of America idol), and other activities...</p>
<p>He is also very interested in business and economics. He is a loyal audience of "Apprentice", and he recorded and watched every episode over and over again while talking about every detail of each person's merits and demeris in the show, including the analysis upon Trump's lapse. His most favor class is economics, and often got exceptional good score without enough preparation...The best comment in his score report is from his economics teacher. One of his dream schools is Ross.</p>
<p>However, he still has a lot of passion in life science, and especially BME. He has done some research prejects about sleep and obesity issues, his team won the #1 place in a Oregon Brain Bowl contest... He has a consistent and strong desire to dig out something from Chinese tranditional medical practices with eyes of mordern medical theory. That is why he wants to start from an engineering major. </p>
<p>Is Umich a good school for him to fully develop most of his desires and hobbies ? </p>
<p>Gli, your son sounds like a Michigan fit. He is dedicated and responsible, self-motivated and versatile. At the same time, he likes to participate in and watch sports and he seems to like to kick back and relax when the time permits. Plus, he has a keen interest in Economics/Business. I'd say Michigan is a good fit for him. But Case can also fit his needs. I really like Case too. The only problem with Case its campus and surrounding areas. They aren't bad, they do not match the Michigan/Ann Arbor 1-2 punch.</p>
<p>Actually, my son has 3 other options too, business school of UT Austin, engineering school of UW (Washington) and U of Rochester. We just narrowed it down to UMich and Case. We would be happy to listen to your comment about them too.</p>
<p>We also considered to start from Case and let him to find his passion, because it seems easier to select courses in different schools there. If he determined to study business during this time, he may try to transfer to the better business schools in freshmen or sophormore years. But we found out later it seems too risky, Entering the top business schools as a transfer student may not be as easy as we imaged. </p>
<p>Then, another plan going to Case is to get BME major and a couple of business minors (Case provides 6 business minors) during his under study, then try to apply better business schools, or other engineering schools depending on the goal and passion he has in that time. Going to Case may save us $60k total during under (could be even more considering Case's suffient opportunities to work in labs.) , which may allow him to get more higher education without worring about too much money. We know some top MBAs do not provide any scholarship, and he is not qualified for any need-based aid.</p>
<p>I know those plans are personal, but your frank comment are welcome (actually are badly needed).</p>
<p>Case BME program is better then the one at UMich. Case business undergrad is also reputable (though does not compare to Ross). He can go to Case and save 60K. If he hates the social life there (a possibility) or wants to switch a major, he can always transfer to UMich (or another school), as long as he maintains a decent GPA (Case has tough grading).</p>
<p>I am not so sure about that DTan. All the rankings I have seen rank Case #6-#9 in BME and Michigan between #8 and #12. I'd say they are pretty even, with a slight edge going to Case. </p>
<p>However, I cannot argue with saving $60,000. If Case is indeed $60,000 cheaper than Michigan, and if your son likes what Case has to offer in terms of overall education, then he should go there.</p>
<p>I have a nephew going to Case next year. While he is interested in BME (Case's reputation in that field makes it at least worth a look), he knows that this essentially multi-disciplinary field is not for everyone (and he is an engineer's engineer type of kid) and looked carefully at Case's other engineering programs, particularly mechanical. A piece of advice is to do the same with both schools.</p>
<p>Several people have given us similar advice, that BME covers so broad topics that you will often feel you are too shallow to do research in any topic.</p>
<p>A better approach is to start from a traditional engineering, or re-build a traditional engineering base once you found your passion and focus in one of BME direction.</p>
<p>My son has different goal for BME, he wants to study business eventually but would like to start from an engineering. Then the diversifed topics in BME may help him know more about medical technologies. </p>