Does your student want bioMEDICAL engineering or bioengineering without medical flavor? That distinction matters for entry into the major at Purdue.
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with medical flavor. But need to do more research to make sure we understand the differences.
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Okay, that helps. From my understanding, biomedical engineering is one of the majors that can be harder to get into at Purdue. @momofboiler1 might chime in about that. However, it doesnât sound like itâs as hard as getting into her desired major at UW.
I donât believe that the non-medical flavors of bioengineering are competitive for entry to major at Purdue.
As an aside, my son is interested in the possibility of studying biomedical engineering. Due to job prospects, we are going to advise him to NOT choose that as a major, and to choose a more bread-and-butter core engineering major instead depending on which branch he likes best (e.g., ChemE, MechE, EE). He would do biomedical as a concentration or a masterâs if he wants. But thatâs just our opinion. Obviously, biomedical engineering is a super popular major.
This is a great place to start that research!
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Thank you for sharing your insights, we are also thinking that we may need to be prepared to do masters going with Bioengineering/Biomedical engineering route to have good prospects after undergraduate program
Another voice of caution about Purdue BME. Itâs one of the engineering majors that is most competitive and even meeting the 3.2 engineering index threshold, they often have to look at secondary factors. I believe they cap the major at 150 seats (theyâve grown the program since my D as a freshman) so itâs fairly small.
If your student is looking for a sure way into BME, Iâd pick Pitt. They have a great program.
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This is easy - Purdue costs more and is potentially harder to get into the major 
Well anyone not named PItt is.
Easy to go from 3 to 2 choices!! And then decide between inexpensive but non guaranteed UW vs. still reasonable but guaranteed Pitt.
A family member of mine works for a major medical device engineering/manufacturing company and absolutely agrees with this advice. His path was through Mechanical, and he has never had trouble getting hired in the medical device sector. Actually, he says that almost none of his colleagues majored in âbiomedical engineeringâ, instead they have more general degrees in Mechanical, Electrical, etc.
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These are three very different campuses in different parts of the country. Have you, or do you plan to visit all of them before deciding? We live in Pittsburgh, and my son wouldnât even apply to Pitt given its city location and no real campus like he expects. Other kids might love it, but its way different than WashU (I assume, as I have only seen pictures) and Purdue (which I have seen, and weâre visiting admitted student day again for him on 3/20).
visited Purdue, UW. Not Pitt. Thanks for sharing about Pitt.
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