CWRU BME vs UW Madison BME vs UIUC BioEng (Premed)

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Hello. I’m looking for your valuable insights comparing these colleges for studying biomedical engineering/bioengineering on a premed track: CWRU BME vs UW Madison BME vs UIUC Bioengineering.

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Is there a particular reason why you want to do engineering as a pre-med? It is not usually the most obvious option for maximizing your grades.

Of course if the answer is you might want to change tracks and be an engineer instead.
And that’s fine but then it might be helpful to tell us a little more about what you would be hoping for, and in fact whether you have considered possibly switching to something completely different (neither pre-med nor engineering).

Finally, it would be helpful for you to explain where you are on costs, and also if anything else is important to you in a college (size, location, setting, etc.).

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I want to become a physician. If for some reason, that doesn’t work out, BME is my next career choice. I enjoy studying BME and feel that it would give me a strong background for the technology I would be using as a future physician to have that knowledge. I know it would be a rigorous workload to combine BME and Premed. However, when I asked at UIUC, they made it sound like there was a lot of overlap, but Case Western sounded like there wasn’t much of an overlap. Cost is not a factor as I received scholarships so all the schools’ tuitions would be about the same. I visited all three and they all had nice campuses. I don’t think I have a preference in terms of size. I don’t know if one of the schools has more a cut throat atmosphere or if it’s easier to get clinical/resarch opportunities at one school.

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Any thoughts on how the schools compare in general? Specifically for premed and acceptance to med schools? For BME? Other majors to consider to be competitive for med school applications?

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http://catalog.illinois.edu/undergraduate/engineering/bioengineering-bs/#samplesequencetext

For UIUC, I did not see much of over lap with pre med prereq , for pre med any degree is fine as long as the prereq are done and GPA is good and MCAT score is great. Apart from these EC’s take a major role…

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Another option at CWRU is the Engineering Physics major with BME as the concentration. I am not sure whether this would work any better for premed than straight-BME, but it might be worth doing the comparison. (It could also mean a more seamless offramp into a non-engineering physics major, if you decided along the way to focus on premed and not go for a full ABET engineering degree.)

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Seems to me UIUC would be out if you want BME since it’s not.

Both are fine - but different experiences - Madison vs. CWRU.

Which can you afford and which environment suits you best?

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UIUC’s bioengineering program is the same as BME. Net tuition would all be the same as I received scholarships. Any insight to the environment for all three would be appreciated. Campus tours and admitted student days didn’t draw me to one university over the other.

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Well all right, since you asked… I’ll talk a bit about some of UW’s highlights. I attended in the late '90s:

  • If you are into sports, being a Badger fan is fun. The games – especially the football games at Camp Randall, IMO – are a joy to behold. Traditions like Jump Around, Buttercup, and the 5th Quarter – we don’t go home at the end of the game; that’s when the party starts! – make a Badger game the best ticket in town. The stadium reverberates with our singing and swaying as teary-eyed Badgers young and old observe the time-honored tradition of “Varsity”. The emotion cannot be explained – you just have to experience it. “Praise to thee, our alma mater. U-rah-rah Wisconsin.”

  • If you are not into sports, there’s still a lot going on. Kids have small parties in their rooms, or larger ones in houses. Non-party activities include hanging out on State Street or at Union Terrace, feeding the ducks on Lake Monona at the south end of campus, taking a boat out onto Lake Mendota, hiking out to Picnic Point, etc. Kids who are particularly into outdoor activities join Hoofers.

  • Studying is not just done in the libraries or in one’s room: in the fall and spring, you will see Bascom Hill peppered with studying Badgers. In the winter… I suppose you could do it in a tent.

Going off campus, there are two malls and many arts events and culinary options. Madison (the school and the city) has something for everyone.

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Case has excellent engineering programs. For the premed piece, there is a hospital right on campus (University Hospitals) and one down the road (Cleveland Clinic).

My kid was a bioengineering major in undergrad, and is now a doctor. She uses not much of her engineering coursework in her daily practice. She actually picked up a double major in biology.

But my kid was not premed as an undergrad. That decision came a few years after undergrad graduation.

Of these three, im sort of partial to CWRU…I love the location, and I think it’s a great school.

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Note that Wisconsin BME requires a 3.3 technical and 3.0 overall GPA in college to stay in the major.

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