DS got into following colleges - all OOS and total COA is roughly same. Student is (currently) on pre-med track; if medical school does not work plan-B is to get into biotechnology industry as a researcher (possibly after a grad degree).
Acceptances so far:
UNC Chapel Hill with Carolina Honors and Accelerated Research - financial aid under consideration - based on their meets-full-need status, expecting a small award. Flexibility to opt for either biology or biomed as major after freshman year.
UIUC, UW-Madison: applied and accepted into Bio/Biomed engineering - based on freshman year classes, student may stay in engineering or transfer into biology. No merit or aid (and not expecting)
UMd-CP, Rutgers: no honors college. Not yet received merit aid, there is a possibility for some merit aid.
Does UNC-CH with honors provide better opportunities than others (all of which accepted with no honors). There is no info yet on merit/financial aid from any of above - but based on previous years experiences any aid would only be from UMd, Rutgers (merit) and UNC-CH (which meets the full-need). Expecting that any aid would be small and final COA will be in the same ball park at all colleges. In terms of location, student is fine with any of them and does not have a strong preference for one over other. So main consideration in deciding is:
which college provides the best opportunities to pursue pre-med track and
which college is more flexible in changing majors if student want to go into biotech side after first/second year.
PS: the in-state college is still under consideration; except for COA, dont have any other advantage of staying in-state (no in-state medical college). Waiting for a few other colleges but they are all reaches with <10% admit rates, so chances are low.
Rutgers doesn’t send honors college invitations until March. So you don’t know yet whether or not your son will get into honors. If he does, you’ll get some merit money as well.
I would pick Rutgers over the others given the profusion of pharma industry around the area for internships. Madison is cheese country. NC has the RTP but I don’t know what portion of it is in biotech
UW is strong in bio- and engineering-related things:
They’re top-25ish in biomedical engineering:
That being said, being in an Honors program can enhance the undergrad experience – if that is important, UW may be at a disadvantage. Here’s what I found on Honors at UW:
All these schools will be fine for pre-med track…they will all have ample opportunity for patient facing experience as well as research. It should be straightforward transferring to bio at UIUC and UWMadison from engineering (as opposed to the other way which would be difficult).
I am not extremely familiar with all of the benefits of UNC’s honors program, but it does seem to provide some excellent benefits. It is a great acceptance for an OOS student…and IMO bodes well for the rest of his reaches (no guarantees of course…but it tells me he put together a terrific application).
The only other point I want to make and you might be well aware, is that BME is a tough major for pre-med. I know pre-med isn’t certain, but BME students tend to have lower GPAs, and in med school admissions, applicants don’t get leeway for that.
Has he visited these schools? If not, attending some admitted student days might help with the decision. Good luck and keep us updated!
Assuming all are affordable I would:
–Try to visit/re-visit the top contenders and have your daughter focus on what she wants in her college life, what opportunities each college offers etc.
–I would have your D research the UNC honors program further and understand exactly what additional opportunities that program may offer.
FWIW I would not pick Rutgers solely for the location near pharma companies (which is Plan B)-- I would focus on all aspects of college life. And: 1) I think there is lots of pharma in NC and 2) one can get a job in locations other than where the college is located.
Off the top of my head I can think of Promega, Exact sciences, and EPIC, and I don’t even live in Madison (and have never lived there). I’m sure there are dozens and dozens more.
But if it costs less to go to Chapel Hill, that would be my recommendation.
I meant that the biomed research will be driven by the cheese industry to some extent. I don’t know about the other two, but epic is not a biomed research shop. They make medical software.
I would concentrate on the decision engineering versus non-engineering. That is a decision that really needs to be made by May 1st. As others have said, they are all peers for premed.
Here is the fall semester grades for BME students at Wisconsin.
I could be wrong. But it wouldn’t hurt the student to make sure.
As a different example, a friend went to Rice for a PhD in chemical engg. He was told that anything that touches petrochemicals is fair game. Anything else is not funded.
For people who go by pedigree, then UNC wins hands down.
If you go by pharma location and not sure the student is after that, then UNC and Rutgers both win.
Note UNC is smaller than the others - and perhaps that might be why it’s chosen. Also, the weather will be more moderate.
But each campus will be different. And should be visited.
UMD is near DC and that would be, to me, awesome.
There may be a campus they dislike. There’s one on here I really dislike - when I mentioned people get mad so i won’t mention. But another person might love that same campus.
Are there travel concerns - some are easier to get to.
Can you visit all?
I don’t think there’s a bad choice in the lot…
But UNC OOS is a really really really tough in - much moreso than the others - so getting Honors too - a big congrats.
right, as I understand it the Honors program for UWisc is not decided yet – applications didn’t even open until January, decisions are probably in March I think.
Maybe by USNews undergrad ranking, but UW and Illinois probably have a better academic rep in terms of overall strength, and certainly in grad/PhD rep. UNC OOS is the hardest to get into – if that’s what you meant, you’re right. There’s also a lot more money spent on research at those two than there is at UNC. UW has like the #3 or #4 research budget in the US.
Thank you all for great advices so far. A few clarifications:
Didn’t know earlier that honors decisions for Rutgers and UW are not out yet (DS doing all portal checks and letting me know decisions) - good know that there still is a chance.
We are really happy and excited about all decisions - know that some of them are tough to get into as OOS. We plan to visit all of them - especially UNC and UW madison (others we are bit more familiar and/or visited already)
About BME or engineering vs science major - student realizes that this is a decision that has to be made sooner or later. His hope or wishful thinking is that decision can be pushed to end of first year. DS did some research about the classes to be taken at all these universities (summarized them on a nice excel spreadsheet ) - he is under the impression that either for biology or biomed, the first year courses are same/similar except that biomed requires a first year engineering and an advanced math class. he completed AP Calculus BC in high school (with a 4) - but not very confident about further math classes and engineering classes. So the thinking is to take MVC class and an intro engr class in first year and get a sense of whether he can manage/like the biomed route. (PS: biomed was not even under the radar until his junior year when he started working with a local college prof, he liked the hands-on side of the project so much that he wanted to have that option open).
) - he is under the impression that either for biology or biomed, the first year courses are same/similar except that biomed requires a first year engineering and an advanced math class. he completed AP Calculus BC in high school (with a 4) - but not very confident about further math classes and engineering classes. So the thinking is to take MVC class and an intro engr class in first year and get a sense of whether he can manage/like the biomed route. (PS: biomed was not even under the radar until his junior year when he started working with a local college prof, he liked the hands-on side of the project so much that he wanted to have that option open).