My son is a senior ISyE. Graduating in 6 semesters hopefully. I never said it was an easy road but the numbers don’t lie. They’re directly from GT. Look at their website.
Average GPA for all undergraduate BME is a 3.7 give or take. Look at the trend the past 10 years for all majors. Grade inflation.
Not to offend anybody but ISyE is not BME (for the record I have ISyE MS from GaTech and took some ISyE classes while I did BS there, I know what I am talking about). Statistics is average. I know these links. I also know that my DD is not stupid, OOS student (and they are kept to high standards at admissions) and came from highly selective technical magnets (in middle and high school.) You cannot have expectations to get 3.6 GPA based on the link for some time period with the AVERAGE. Also you need to understand that BME students are all very smart. There are no stupid ones in that major. So you are talking about 3.6 among very very smart, very very hard working students. This is not your average 3.6. I would say it is close to normal 3.9. You cannot expect to be smartest among very smart. And there is no grade inflation there. You have to see what these kids study. It is not in any books. Many things are based on real-life situations. There is no help anywhere with these problems (and TA took the class with another professor and has no idea what this one is looking for). You can higher qualified tutors that will be clueless how to help…
Did you bother to look at the public data that GT publishes for grade distributions? I’ll take their word for it.
OP, is GT challenging? Yes. But you can go to med school if you attend.
Sure you can. And also you may not. I have a family member who never became a doctor because of grade deflation at GaTech in BIO not in BME… So it is very risky.
BTW you can become a doctor after getting GPA 3.6 in Cornell (I know person who did it) and John Hopkins too. Those schools are also very famous for grade deflation.
GaTech is great for engineers. I do not recommend GaTech to anybody no matter the major for premed. I strongly do not recommend to be a BME as premed. Yes there are some kids who do it but this is a very very difficult marathon. You can get much more guaranteed pass to medical school by avoiding GaTech.
I am looking at that data every semester when helping DD with the schedule for next semester. Yes, I know these links. They can give you some idea, but they cannot guarantee that next professor will be as good as the last one. They change all the time.
I think the two best options are UGA and USF.
What is the difference in cost between UGA and USF, and is that important to you, OP?
In my opinion, this is the wrong reason to not go to UGA. However, UGA does have a specific environment and it is not for all types of students. So if you don’t like it and USF or Ga Tech feel more like the schools you want to attend, then that’s great.
could you elaborate on UGA’s “specific environment?”
I know my daughter has some of the same reservations as the OP but we have only gotten positive vibes from UGA and Athens so far. My daughter is a pretty strong student but pretty outgoing and not into being academic 100% of the time.
like the OP, my daughter likewise will be turning down some more selective admissions (although nothing in the Ivy or WashU realm) if she chooses UGA. Her boyfriend’s dad already hijacked a FaceTime call and said she would be crazy for turning down UT Austin for UGA. this kind of outward pressure is unfortunate and makes it hard. He got quiet when she said UGA would be half the price.
Like other replies here, I can’t justify the cost of full-pay Emory or WashU for a pre-med if it involves loans.
It’s not a guaranteed admission. There is a 516 MCAT score and an interview required. Then admission is determined. If you don’t make the MCAT cutoff…then you don’t move on.
A 516 is a decent MCAT score which could make this student a decent applicant for a bunch of MD and DO schools if they go the traditional route. I’d at least explore that option…with attending one of the affordable GA public universities.
I disagree with your daughter’s boyfriend’s father. I consider Georgia and Texas to be the same, prestige wise. In our area, Georgia is actually more of a “hot” school, likely because if the football team’s success but it is considered a hard admit and an academically rigorous school.
I’d agree with this and say moreso, for kids that are pre-law or don’t know where they’ll end up, there’s no advantage to UT over UGA because of the name…and I’d say the same with most every school.
There’s no prestige difference at most state schools.
People seem to think there is - but for 95% of people - I don’t think so, especially folks thinking law school.
I imagine if someone is econ at a UVA or UMich, it’d be a difference if they were interested in banking - but not for the far majority of kids going in with an unknown, but saying pre-law.
Your daughter needs to go where she feels best - you keep trying to see ( @billythegoldfish ) if one is better - and it’s just not. Maybe she’ll be in the right place at the right time and land an internship etc, but that’s as likely to happen at URI as it is at UGA or UT.
I know kids at UGA and may be able to link you up with one - it’s a big sprawling school. I think Honors dorm is in campus but you said your student doesn’t want that.- I know people seem to like it a lot but they do at many schools, including UF, where you’re also in.
I’d say in your daughter’s case - all these schools are interchangeable. UGA gave you Honors though and if the curriculum meets her needs, it’s a big win…in part for the dorm so you don’t have to take the bus. oops 
Honors dorm is not any closer to North campus then the freshman high-rises along Baxter, or the Hill community on Baxter which is right behind the dining hall. The East campus dorms are far away but most freshmen don’t live there. There are a lot of honor students that decide not to live in Meyers, the honors dorm.
Thx!! Billy thanks you !!
Only a tiny fraction of “premeds” coming out of high school actually go to medical school. Take Premed out of the decision. Chances are, you’ll end majoring in something else by finding your real hidden passions. That makes BSMD programs a really bad idea. You’re choosing a college based solely on going to medical school, and if you choose something else, it can really mess things up for you.
You can’t go wrong with GA Tech. If you get top grades and high MCAT scores, you have an excellent setup to getting in to medical school. In-state medical schools generally favor in-state applicants. If you choose another major, it’s still a top school with plenty of job prospects, and you would have very little debt.
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