University of Michigan Engineering: How good is it in perspective?

Hi!

I just got into UMich the College of Engineering, and I’m interested in studying biomedical engineering. I’m from California, with 1550 SAT, 3.93 UW GPA and about 4.4 W GPA (My school doesn’t do ranks or W GPA). I have descent ECs and some local awards, but nothing like nationals or internationals.

I just want to know: how good is this acceptance in perspective? I know UMich engineering is pretty well regarded, but what about in comparison to other strong engineering programs, especially for BME? Do I have good chances of getting into other competitive BME programs based on my stats? I’m still waiting on some other schools, like Duke, Northwestern, and Georgia Tech, to all of which I applied for BME.

I also applied to a bunch of schools for biology in L&S, because I’m possibly considering pre-med, but also don’t want to limit my paths to traditional science majors in undergrad.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

You applied to all excellent programs. Anyone will get you to where you want to go with jobs available. But… For biomedical engineering usually you want a masters. Michigan does have a 5 year bs/ms for biomedical engineering. 5 years to get both degrees. Michigan is excellent, period. So are your other choices. It comes down to fit. Forget about rank. They are basically all there.

Now the bad… Michigan is a very tough school. Can’t imagine NW or GT, Duke is easy either. The opportunities at Michigan are excellent if you go explore and go get them.

Using biomedical engineering to go to medical school is a VERY tough path. You need a 3.8 GPA or higher to be looked at for medical school. This is very tough to do at NW, GT, Duke or Michigan.

Saying that. Michigan is a national brand. Jobs will be there for you. Alumni is very proud, very helpful and plentiful.

As a pre-med, how does out-of-state cost at Michigan compare to that of other colleges you have applied or been admitted to?

Michigan is an excellent school and the CoE is excellent as well. But you have cheaper alternatives with the UC’s. The one big plus for Michigan is that switching majors and schools is relatively easy and double majors and minors aren’t difficult to add either. The only tough switch would be into Ross Business School.

@ucbalumnus I haven’t received information about financial aid for UMich or my other schools yet. Still waiting. For Northeastern, I got in for Biology with a Dean’s Scholarship of $26K per year, but most likely I won’t commit there.

Thanks to everyone else for your responses. They’re very helpful!

What do you guys know about BME for pre-med and the UMich BME program?

Great idea to investigate your options. Search for threads here about pre-med (and premed.) As stated above, Engineering is a tough path to medical school.

If med school is your likely preference, then big considerations are cost (the conventional wisdom is to minimize undergrad costs), ability to keep a high gpa, and medical school prep/advising (hopefully somebody here will be able to answer your above question).

Think both were answered. Michigan’s program is great for bme. BME is a very tough program for premed. Period. For BME you most likely want a masters. https://bme.umich.edu/academics/graduate/graduate-admissions/

Need a 3.5 for the masters and I think a 3. 7 for the 5 year masters combined. But it’s tough.

BME would be great for medical school or as a backup in case medical school doesn’t work out for some reason. All the schools mentioned are excellent schools. But any engineering discipline will be tough route to med school, especially since med schools want your GPA too be high.

Did you apply to any CA state schools?

@eyemgh I did apply to the UCs.

Jumping in here because my kid is considering several of these schools for engineering as well (computer though.)

How would you compare the culture at the above named programs in regards to competitiveness for resources (internships, classes, research, etc) and overall environment (collaborative vs competitive)?

@curiousme2. Your stealing a thread from someone else… Start a new one for yourself. My son’s at Michigan engineering and you can pm me with specific questions also

Sorry! Thought since same schools, also engineering, also asking to compare them, was right place. I’ll pm.

My first suggestion would be to decide whether or not you want to go to medical school. If you do, pick a major where you can keep your GPA high. College is a different game, especially engineering. You will be surrounded by many bright, hard working people. The hardest classes in any other major, physical chemistry for example, will be on par with lots of the required upper engineering classes. There won’t be just one or two classes to “get through.” BME

I medical school is the end game, keep your debt low and look at grading and medical school placement statistics. This can be a little murky. Some schools post the success rates of grads while others report the success rate of first time freshmen entering as pre-meds. The latter is a better metric because it reflects attrition. The road is littered with pre-meds who switched majors or who didn’t ultimately get accepted.

If you want to be an engineer, then by all means, go for it. If you stick with BME, as others have already said, you’ll likely need an advanced degree. BME as a back up though just increases the likelihood of not getting into medical school.

Choose your desired destination and stick with it.

Good luck!

Its a great name but if you applied to UCLA or Cal for engineering they are arguably just as good if not better in certain fields (especially Cal). If you want to work in california though, UCLA and Cal have stronger networking and opportunities. Don’t discount the value of on campus recruiting and alot of those positions are recruited locally due to convenience.

I am pretty sure you will get accepted to GT as well with those stats but it’s never a given. All the school you listed has great BME reputation but as other stated, you need at least masters for BME. Did you apply to JHU?

Congrats on your U Mich acceptance.