Hello fellow parents, My D is interested in Biomedical engineering. Her top choices at this point are 1) Rutgers University at New Brunswick NJ (Rutgers); 2) Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio (Case); 3) University of California, SantaCruz (UCSC).
Rutgers is her top choice - big school, location close to industries (NY, PA), social aspect
Case Western - small school, Cleveland Ohio so not a major city, lack of social aspect.
UCSC is a state school for us - close to home and in-state fees. However D is not interested as it does not have a good reputation.
D has a scholarship from Case so fees for Rutgers and Case are the same and will manage the fees.
Would love your perspective on a) Quality of education; b) Professional prospects / internships / research opportunities; c) College life - social, extra curricular
UCSC’s biomolecular engineering and bioinformatics major seems to cover only biomolecular and bioinformatics subareas; if the student’s interests are in other areas of biomedical engineering, then it may not be that suitable.
Do you mean ~$44k for UCSC and ~$62k for Rutgers and CWRU? All comfortably affordable?
Yes UCSC curriculum is suitable - combination of Bio + Computer Science + Engineering.
And yes, you are right - UCSC $44K and Rutgers/Case $62K are affordable without debt.
UCSC is a great school but if the student isn’t interested, reason enough to leave it off.
Obviously the schools are different. One is a large flagship and the other a more focused, smaller school - with frankly, more immediate access to a big city than Rutgers (you’re a short drive to a bustling downtown vs. taking a train to NYC).
Unless the student has 100% made a choice, I might ask each school for career outcomes so you can see how they’ve performed career wise.
I’d imagine CWRU will fare very well here but only one way to find out - ask each for a detailed report - companies, job titles, locations and aggregate salaries.
The Rutgers report is hard to use and has engineering but doesn’t appear to allow filtering by major. But again, call the career office. I’m sure they will have a detailed report to provide.
I clicked on the last two years (22/23) at CWRU and Biomedical engineering. It shows 50% employed, 44% continuing education, 3% doing something else and 3% still looking. Of course, any survey is only as good as the info the acquire (not everyone responds).
Here is a list of companies (I put below the links). Good luck whatever your student decides.
