<p>I've been accepted into UC-Davis, UT-Austin (honors program as well), and Duke as a freshman biomedical engineering major. I'm stuck deciding between the three and was hoping to get as much information I can about each of the schools. I'm not entirely set on biomedical engineering, but I am certain I want to be an engineer. My future plans so far are to attend a graduate school and become a research scientist. I'm a very laid back person and do not want to get stuck into a very competitive environment that could burn me out. I am not to big into watching sports, but I would love to play intramural/club soccer. I've always been a very social person and I enjoy partying and a good music scene as well. Financially, all the schools are about the same (all are OOS), although UC-Davis has given me a scholarship which would cut my total cost of tuition by about $10,000 a year. Although, the financial situation doesn't impact my decision as much as my happiness and the quality of my education.</p>
<p>With the little information you know about me, why do you think I should attend UT-Austin over the other schools? I know most of the facts about each of the schools so I guess I'm looking for more personal experiences and school vibes, as well as information about future careers and outlook.</p>
<p>Since you are looking for a personal experience, I have lived in Austin and I love it. I think it’s easily one of the best cities in the U.S. to live in. Also, living around UT campus is awesome -at least to me. Whenever you go out, you never feel it’s ‘empty’ if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>I’m not saying this is enough to choose UT. Actually, I would say: this shouldn’t be the only reason for your choice. However, I’m just describing my personal experience.</p>
<p>BME is one of the smallest majors on campus (~100 students/class) so time and again each class dependably forms a tight-knit groups among themselves (100 is likely smaller than your HS class; imagine how many courses you’ll have together). You’ll also find that students in BME are among the creme of the crop at UT as a direct result of the admissions process among other things. Despite this, competition is low, though stress might not be. The curriculum -as BME naturally demands- is rigorous and workloads can get pretty heavy. Nevertheless, this is attributable to the breadth of BME and isn’t unique to UT. </p>
<p>I am not in BME myself, but judging by your description, I believe that UT has a good chance of “fitting” you well. If you listed laid back, great rec sports program, party scene and music scene to random students here, I’d bet that 10 out of 10 students would say that describes UT/the city of Austin well.</p>
<p>However, recognizing that you plan on attending graduate school and pursuing research, I would urge you to be frugal in making this decision. As unfortunate as it may be, research is not a high-paying field and 8+ years of tuition can become quite a burden.</p>
<p>One last, positive note: I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Hertz Fellowship, but 2 UT engineers (1 BME, the other a BME to EE transfer) were awarded with it this year. It’s a very prestigious fellowship and grants the student $250,000 for their graduate studies and research. It’s awarded to only 15 graduating seniors a year so it’s relatively rare for 2 to come from the same university, yet they both passed through UT’s BME program. Interestingly enough, the BME student won the IM soccer tournament recently.</p>
<p>What type of weather do you like? Austin and NC have similar weather, while UC Davis is somewhat cooler near the ocean, mild inland. Although I like the four season’s, four years of CA weather is very sweet. Don’t care about national rankings, but Duke has a bunch of preppy rich kids, while Davis has more hard working smart kids.</p>
<p>Interesting Idea though, What do graduate schools look for in applicants? Does the undergraduate school matter any? I would assume a kid with a 3.0 from a top notch school is looked at more than a kid with a 3.5 from a local state school. Although for engineering I’m not sure about this between Austin and Duke. Austin is ranked higher than Duke for most areas of engineering right? Besides BME</p>
<p>You should choose UT because that’s the most logical choice. There would be no reason to pay more money to go to Duke when UT is actually the higher-ranked engineering program. Plus being in the honors program adds a little more prestige.</p>
<p>UC-Davis will probably afford you some good opportunites as well, but UCD is not quite as nationally recognized as UT or Duke.</p>
<p>Duke…The national reverence for Duke is amazing. A top 20 school. It is a modern Ivy. I think a duke degree is worth more. Plus it is a stunning campus. No brainer for me, and I am a proud longhorn parent…</p>
<p>People are consistently saying UT is ranked higher than Duke, and although that is true for Engineering it is not true for BME. Now I am not saying one is better than the other, in fact I am trying to decide between ut austin and illinois for EE right now. From what I have heard from other with their experience with grad school, with all three of your schools being strong academically - it will not make a major difference for graduate school admissions. Though I do think you may get more research opportunities out of Duke since it is a smaller school - whose engineering school focuses its funding into BME.
From a friend planning to attend Duke and from a couple others considering Duke the impression they got about the BME program is that a good number of the students plan on going into medicine and the BME program is setup to support that path. If that is something that interests you, you should consider that.</p>
<p>In terms of national prestige, that is a hard thing to judge. But in terms of straight BME, Duke may have more respect, but it is pretty obvious the Texas brand is big throughout the entire country. You cannot really go wrong in any of the ones you choose. I would personally pick UC Davis because of the 10k per year savings. Although not considering finances I would probably pick Duke because it has pretty good weather, its supposed to be absolutely beautiful, and its supposed to have an incredible environment for BME students. (By the way this is coming from someone considering UT and UIUC so I am probably more biased towards UT. I love hating on Duke because of my friend going there haha)</p>
<p>Why 30 more? He is OOS for UT and that is (cost of attendance) 48 thousand, duke is 59 thousand. So its an 11 thousand difference. UC-Davis is 54 thousand - 10 thousand for scholarship so 44 thousand.</p>
According to OP posts here he chose UT Austin (discussed roommates and summer orientation).
About Davis. I have a friend living in California, and she complains that UC campuses are so packed it is very difficult to graduate in 4 years. It is probably something you need to ask UC-Davis students.