My son has some difficult choices, I’m a UT grad and raised him a longhorn growing up. I’m trying to put my opinions aside, and have him take an unbiased approach to reviewing the schools. He seems set on BME and wants to do research for a career not medical school. UT is in our home town and thus instate rates, but I don’t want this to be solely a financial decision. Most of the other schools listed are ranked higher than Texas, especially Ga. Tech which ranks in the Top 5. He is a strong candidate for the Ga. Tech Honors program if that changes things. He has already been accepted into Texas and Georgia Tech and still waiting on Northwestern and Rice. Obviously, denials from the last two would simplify the decision.
Thanks
Gary
For what it’s worth, Rice is across the street from the largest medical center in the world. If your son is set on becoming a Biomedical engineer, Rice would seem like a logical decision. All of those schools are amazing though, and if he were to get accepted to all of them, it would be an incredibly tough decision depending on finances etc.
On another note, EXPLORE UT is this weekend, which would be an incredible opportunity to meet students and faculty from all engineering departments. I know I will be going! I was accepted into engineering at UT for Fall 2015, and will most likely matriculate there but I am still waiting on other schools(including Rice). Good Luck!
@Longhorngary Compare the BME curriculum from each school he is considering. Look at those four years of course. UT is also our home town and my D got into ChemE Honors. We are in the same boat - tough decisions and awaiting Rice. We had a great conversation with a local senior who is BME and we asked him some of those tough questions and he said BME has lots of EE classes. So just make sure it’s the type of program your son wants. Every engineering school is a bit different. The strongest students from our local high schools are going to UT for engineering which says something. This year UT took in top top students for engineering because they had the selection.
@Longhorngary - does your son have a particular concentration within BME he wants to concentrate on? If he is planning on research as a career, then he will be going on for a Masters/PhD. Having said that, where he gets his BS degree isn’t as important then. All of those schools are top 20 for undergrad BME. Can he check with contacts in each BME department to see what percentage of their BME students go straight to the job market vs med school vs advanced degree? And then what their acceptance percentage is and how they do at receiving funding.
The advice of looking at the curriculum is a good one. Also look to see how AP credits can be used.
Example - our son is looking at Case Western, VCU, Univ of Illinois-Chicago, Rice and Boston Univ for BME. VCU is not a top 20 program, but of their BME majors–half apply to med school with a 94% acceptance rate, and 25% go onto grad school with a 100% acceptance rate and 90% are full funded too.
@WaitinginCPA Great advice! I went to Case Western for undergrad Engineering school many years ago.
Also many students getting a Masters in engineering do so to specialize and make them more appealing for their job search. Getting an undergrad engineering degree doesn’t guarantee a job out of school. If you want a job out of undergrad you need to maintain a high GPA at the minimum.
The real key to any engineering program is surviving the four years of hard courses. Many transfer to other schools or change majors. So pick carefully and always consider what type of student your son/daughter is.
Best of luck to all as we await these next two weeks.