<p>Pending all acceptances, which is not in the slight bit guaranteed (except for UNC which I have already been accepted to), which would be best for me? I am looking to go into Biomedical Engineering or Business Administration. In terms of academics I believe it's Duke, UVa, UNC; however the cost is in the same order also.</p>
<p>If you’re lucky enough to get accepted to Duke, its the clear choice here by a very large margin. Duke has the second best BME program in the country behind JHU and is one of the top feeders schools in the country to the most elite business positions. If you decide to go into business instead of engineering, Duke has a giant advantage over JHU.</p>
<p>The thing with good state schools is that you don’t have much flexibility with regards to switching majors or career paths once you enroll like you do at the top private schools. For instance, UVA has a great undergrad biz program but you have to decide by at least sophomore year that you want to pursue that path and sacrifice any dreams of being an engineer that you had in the process. If you stay the engineering route at UVA for all four years, on the other hand, then you sacrifice your opportunities to work for elite companies because the IBanks and consultancies who visit UVA will mostly hire kids from McIntire and not from Engineering.</p>
<p>At schools like Duke however, you can major in whatever you want and then get whatever job you want because companies recruit from all majors when they visit the school since it doesn’t have separate vocational programs like undergraduate business or nursing. In fact, the engineers are in the best position in the school job wise because they can either work in the industry, go to grad school, join the finance world, do a fellowship, enter a consulting firm, etc. etc. The world is your oyster if you major in BME at Duke and do even moderately well.</p>
<p>Yup, I was pretty much going to write the same thing as above. Duke clear choice to me.</p>
<p>les is completely wrong about the ability to switch majors. UNC encourages students to not select a major until Junior year. In fact, you can’t even apply to the business school until then.</p>
<p>First off, UNC is a “semi target” and if you want to have any shot of doing banking or consulting from there, you have to be enrolled in Kenan Flagler. So, you can’t really do both engineering and business and the opportunities that Duke has in both areas will be infinitely better. If you want major in BME in college and want to leave the widest set of options open to you after college, Duke should be your #1 choice college even above MIT and Princeton.</p>
<p>These are some of my top picks and i’m glad someone posted this thread.</p>
<p>Duke is clearly the best choice, but lesdiables can be very opinionated. He does not represent Duke in any way. Don’t listen to him. </p>
<p>You are better off getting out of this website and consulting your counselors and visit universities. Good luck!</p>
<p>Many Virginians and academicians in Virginia do not regard UNC-CH as an equal to UVA. Perhaps a few, but not many, Virginia high school applicants would prefer UNC-CH to Charlottesville.</p>
<p>
Most people in NC consider UNC one (exceedingly small) step below Harvard; local bias is to be expected. I’ve never really quite understood why UVA is considered superior to UNC. My best guess is that it’s because UVA brings in more OOS students and is more selective for in-state students, but who knows? Certainly in terms of quality UNC more than holds its own against UVA.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/11108075-post98.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/11108075-post98.html</a></p>
<p>As for the OP, I agree that Duke is the obvious choice, though they are all excellent schools. UNC does not have a BME program; it offers a BME track within an Applied Sciences major that is neither ABET certified nor very strong. Although the undergraduate business program is strong, students rarely place well outside of the Triangle, Charlotte, and Atlanta. Between Duke and UVA, Duke has the stronger BME program and better business placement.</p>
<p>Can’t really go wrong with either school. Have you had a chance to visit any of these places yet? What were your impressions? Academically, each can hold its own, so you would do well to consider other factors (cost, general vibe you get from being on campus, location, etc) as well.</p>
<p>Also, UNC’s B-school is pretty strong. My friends in the b-school who have graduated all landed strong positions before they were done with school, and one of my friends who is currently in the b-school just landed an internship with an investment firm in NYC over the summer. You certainly can do well for yourself here. I think the claim that UNC isn’t as good at producing NYC opportunities is misleading. Most UNC students come from in-state and love it down here, so very few want to leave “the Southern Part of Heaven” in order to head up north. If that is something that you want to do, however, it won’t be a problem for you.</p>
<p>I think you will have to dig up a lot of rocks to find a BME program in Chapel Hill. :)</p>
<p>If UNC accepted more out of state students, they would be flooded with out of state applicants. They don’t get more, because people are told it is so difficult to get in.</p>
<p>Duke would certainly offer smaller class sizes, particularly in the first 2 years. That is a major plus. Under pressure from the Governor and Legislature, UVa has agreed to increase undergrad enrollment in phases over the next several years. That will add to class sizes and crowding, etc., particularly because Va. keeps decreasing their funding to UVa every year. Something like only 5% of UVa’s budget now comes from the State, but it was an important component that is now shrunken.</p>
<p>If you are paying close to the same net price for UVa vs. Duke, I would choose Duke. </p>
<p>There is no guarantee of getting admitted into UVa’s McIntire business school. You are accepted at the end of second year. They are in a great new/expanded/renovated business complex.</p>
<p>Duke > UVa > UNC</p>
<p>Agree Duke is hands down the best. Duke’s alumni network is much better than UVA and UNC-CH.</p>