I got rejected to a lot of universities: WUSTL, Rice, USC, Vanderbilt, and Tufts. Even with a 33 on the ACT and a 3.8+ GPA UW and college internships. 
I feel like I wasted so much time working harder than I needed to. I still have my Stanford rejection coming in tomorrow, yay. Now I’m deciding between UW (WA native) or Cal Poly or Case Western Reserve (I don’t know anything about these schools). I’ll probably end up majoring in biology, even though I initially applied for BioE/BME to all schools. Any insight into how these schools compare? I was offered $5000 at CalPoly and $20k/year at Case.
Also I didn’t get into honors or direct admission at UW.
Chin up! My daughter got into ucsd applied math, UCSB comp sci, and udub pre science. Right now udub is her top choice. My son also attends udub. As long you are a good student ( which it looks like you are) the risk of applying for biology won’t be too bad. Look up the baseline gpa for biology at Udub and I think it wasn’t bad at all. These colleges are all great. Are you doing bio because you are doing pre med?
@Jliu32472 Thanks for the reply. I’m looking to go for pre-med. The baseline looks pretty easy to achieve. I’m just not so psyched about going through all the general course requirements and the large class sizes/not being able to get into certain courses. Guess I better ace all my AP exams to get enough credits so I can sign up for classes earlier than other students.
My son hasn’t had a problem getting the classes he wants.
https://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/academic/biol.html indicates that admission to the biology major at Washington is competitive based on academic record and personal statement, with a minimum GPA of 2.50 in science prerequisites and 2.0 in each biology prerequisite.
Pre-med does not require any specific major (though keeping a pre-med-worthy GPA should greatly improve chances of getting into the biology major at Washington). Also, consider keeping undergraduate costs down, since medical school is expensive.
They compare in the direction of your inexpensive flagship that has been a leader in the biological sciences for decades. Also, you would be able to enjoy the new Life Sciences Complex starting in the fall of your sophomore year.
https://artsci.washington.edu/campaign/life-sciences-complex/documents
Virtual tour:
@ucbalumnus I know a lot of alums of my HS got into engineering majors at UW, so I have a feeling bio will be a little bit easier to get into than BioE. And UW would be the best option in terms of cost.
Also consider that next to the Life Science Complex are the UW Medical Center, one of the nation’s top academic medical centers, and the UW School of Medicine (US News #1 position in primary care for 22 of the last 23 years and perennially among the top 10-15 in research).
@UWfromCA Hopefully I have a chance of getting in, in the next four years. Not too sure how UW compares in preparing undergrads for med school.
UW instate for bio is great - as others have mentioned.
Not sure why you decided to go for bio instead of BME/BioE but if you are still considering engineering, Case is a great engineering school, good industry reputation, plus you got the scholarship. A solid option.
I’m always leery of not being directly admitted. No matter how you slice it and dice it, there’s risk. You have to compete against similarly strong candidates, so no matter how easy it seems now, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get your choice of major.
With $5k/year at Cal Poly, your net price will be just over $30k/year. That’s less than Case, even with the $20k. Classes, for the most part are all small there and are all taught by professors, even labs and discussions.
You should visit. Cleveland and Case were better than expected, but my son ended up at Cal Poly for Mechanical.
Good luck!
UW does not offer direct admission to the biology majors, but this applicant should have no difficulty satifying the entry requirements.
@insanedreamer I’m going for something similar to keep my GPA up for med school, but it’s also worrisome that BioE is such a small department. I feel like I can do well considering that I’ve been doing okay in school up until this point, but it’s just super competitive to get in.
I’m conflicted, I feel like getting into either bio, biochem, or BioE shouldn’t be too hard, but BioE has such little space. Then I’m conflicted about UW as a school for a premed student?
https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats
Looks like admitted bioengineering majors typically have 3.4-3.9 GPAs. You probably need higher than a 3.4 to get into a medical school anyway.
Remember, you do not need to major in biology or bioengineering to go to medical school. Any major is fine; just take the pre-med courses alongside (granted, a major with heavy non-overlapping requirements like engineering other than bioengineering could be difficult to do this with).