UT Engineering vs Texas A&M Engineering Honors

Hope someone will reply. number one was accepted at OU engineering and honors college and would get nearly a full ride. accepted at Tamu with some decent money and the honors college. UH honors college and engineering almost complete full ride. Texas Tech… almost full ride and honors and engineering. UT- Dallas, honors and engineering almost full ride. Today…UT Austin accepted him and for Biomed engineering. No news on money yet. He was not an automatic admit, so had to compete in the pool.

First any opinons on biomedical engineering and compared to say mechanical engineering???

We don’t expect much money from UT…but… I have a sense that a biomed eng degree there would take him along a lot of interesting paths and decent pay. he’s still waiting for Plan II Honors answers.

All inputs gladly accepted.

First, I can’t say a lot about biomedical vs mechanical engineering. I can say that mechanical is a very broad field with a lot of options (including things like biomechanics) and that there are a whole lot of companies that hire mechanical engineers.

My opinion on schools is this (full disclosure: I’m a chemical engineer and I’ve been involved with hiring for 20 years): Choose a school that is a good fit for your son and your wallet for undergraduate engineering. I know a lot of smart engineers from UH, Texas Tech, A&M and UT. Don’t get focused on ratings from US News or wherever. If your son goes to OU, Texas Tech, UH,or TAMU and does well in school and gets involved, he’ll be just fine. People get way too worked up about school prestige and rankings, particularly for undergraduate studies. Where you went to school may (and I emphasize may) help get a first job (e.g. Aggie Network, Longhorn Network) but after that, where you went to school has little to no impact on getting a job in engineering (again with a BS degree)…At that point what matters is what you learned on your previous jobs and your experience, as well as your “people” skills (i.e. do you work and play well with others). Don’t forget about that last one - you can be a certified genius but if you can’t work well as part of a team and are an overall difficult person, you’re worthless to a most, if not all, employers.

You don’t say if money is an issue or not, but if it is, you have great options. Don’t feel that you are somehow handicapping your son because you can’t or won’t pay to go to the highest “ranked” school on his list. All of your options will provide a quality engineering education. Get good grades and get involved in school activities (clubs, research, etc). Learn to work with others.

Thank you Cosmo for your detailed reply. OU has such an incredible support system for their students, including a huge study abroad program it is almost impossible to refuse. I have the sense that UT/TAMU, though surely they want their students to succeed, they have invested a lot less in the other part that makes student life successful… i.e. more sink or swim than, what can we do to get you where you want to go. I wrote to a Dean at OU on this very question including OU’s willingness to encourage study outside of engineering, and to my surprise received a detailed long response showing how students can study outside interests while still keeping to the core time line for graduation.

He has great choices for sure. But hard choices when you get to choose only once! He’s got the people skills thank goodness. Thanks again for your insights and comments!!!

My friend’s son got 48k over 4 years from UT engineering honor, he will turn down and go to Duke, that scholarship will be given to the next one in line, that is why student get scholarship as late as April, that letter said you have to make decision before April 15 so UT can award this to someone else. My another friend pay for his son at UT just the first year, his son get scholarship from UT the rest of years to cover almost everything. My son received 48k too, we will accept it.

@TexasFootball What made you choose Duke over UT for Engineering? UT honors w/ scholarship vs Duke is a $221k difference, which I feel is a bit much for my undergrad degree (although my family can afford it). I’m doing something between Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science and am facing the same dilemma.

My son will go to UT engineering honor with 48k, my friend’s son will not, I do not understand their logic, they may prefer private school which pay more attention to you, better brand name? I can only guess.

@TexasFootball Was this 48k in merit money?

Yes it is merit money, and you have to maintain 3.5 GPA to renew every year .

Duke and Johns Hopkins are the top schools for Biomedical Engineering. Still not sure its worth the price difference, but they do have great facilities. Duke is also right in RTP, which houses a lot of pharmaceutical companies. Having said all that I’m still not sure what the market is for Biomedical Engineering. Not too long ago it wasn’t that big. In fact in my day, Biomedical was a “track” under the Electrical Engineering department.

BME seems to be a “jack of all trades, master of none” type of degree to me. I’m now leaning more towards computational biology because I’m not extremely confident in job outlook with a BME degree; CS is much more employable with a bachelor’s degree … for now. Which means UT is a better school for me, but I honestly don’t know :-?

I’ve also gotten into Georgia Tech, which excels in both BME and CS at a price higher than UT but lower than Duke/JHU. So that’s looking like a good option, but my parents want something “prestigious” if they’re going to spend that much money.

For CS, which is a very good choice by the way especially computational sciences, UT and GT are both way better than Duke. I believe both are top 10 ranked.

My coworker has a son and a daughter , son went to Vendebelt without any scholarship so he pay 70k a year, then daughter went to UT BHP with a lot of scholarship. So people will try both routes! My cousin used to major in BME, now he worked in a hospital analyze blood . We are in state of Texas, if we chose between any public school out of state and private school , I will chose private school since the price is just a little bit higher.

DS graduated from A&M two years ago, not in engineering, but with many friends in engineering. Advising at A&M was terrible, and the extremely right-wing atmosphere became difficult for him tolerate. DD17 did not even apply because of these two things despite A&M being highly ranked in her planned engineering major.
I think UT has fewer engineers and treats them better with more support. Their Women in Engineering program is excellent, but may not benefit the original poster.
In terms of his decision, the large difference in price could be very important, and honors at A&M probably has better advising than regular classes. “Fit” is very important in choosing a college. I think the OP should try to spend some time at both places if possible or otherwise try to get a feel for the culture of each through social media and talking with current students and former students.