<p>Hello all, I come from a PLTW HS program that has blessed me with some pretty rigorous classes and some near suicidal nights of hard work and deadlines.
Anyway, this Fall I will be attending UIC (illinois) as a part of their bioengineering program.</p>
<p>My orientation was a less than satisfactory experience as I did not like the type of people I saw, their general character and lack of worth ethic I feel would ruin me if I was exposed to it for the next 4 years. Due to my grades and financial standing, I am set to incur a less than average debt so money is not as terrible an issue as it normally is. I apologize for ranting but I feel this info is necessary for you all to better understand me.
From my HS program I learned EE definitely is not my forte, but to be honest, I didn’t really give it a fair shot. I would say I am very good at problem solving, working hard in general, and working under pressure, and I absolutely love science. For this reason I went into bioengineering, hoping to take advantage of this new field. UIC is a research university so I was hoping this environment would perfectly match my needs, but after orientation I am little bit skeptical. I will definitely give it a fair chance when the school year comes around, but for whatever reason if things aren’t going as I’d like, how likely is it that I could possibly transfer to a more competitive uni such as Madison, UofI, even Purdue (not sure how this would conflict with their underclassmen undeclared engineering major policy). I have been told either UIC is a great uni or a terrible one, never anything in between and I am sad to say my orientation has me on the path to vote ‘terrible.’
Overall, I have two main passions in life:
The ultimate dream would be to work my way through BioE and eventually design or research something that benefits the world so much so that it is deserving of a nobel prize.
But I also have a passion for cars, and so I could see myself also going into mechE and getting into the automotive industry.
(If you read this far I appreciate it as your response will be far more insightful, thank you).
Currently I am set to take just 14 credit hours, Calc I(5), Bio +lab(5), Intro to engineering(1), and intro to bioengineering (3) at UIC. Finally my question is, what can I do schedule-wise in the coming semesters to make it easier for me to switch majors if necessary or transfer my credits to a more competitive uni if necessary? And lastly–and the purpose for my wall of text–what other advice do you have for me based on my aforementioned goals and situation? The major change and school transfer are simple safeties, I guarantee that pursuing bioE is my #1 priority and failure didn’t even cross my mind until a little while ago hence the creation of this thread. I have heard I could major in Mech E and then go into bioE for graduate school so long as I took plenty of bio classes during my undergrad, is this true? If so, I would love this option as I wouldn’t be limited and could go the automotive or bioE route. I definitely don’t know enough about the college system as I’d like. Also, I feel as an important detail, so long as I have at least a B in Calc I (I got a B in Calc BC in HS) I am guaranteed a paid internship or research opportunity next summer. The only things keeping me at UIC is that guaranteed internship and the fact that it has an emphasis on research. I would much rather prefer a more competitive uni, but again I won’t officially judge UIC until my first semester there. As an absolutely final detail, I want to be involved with cell and tissue engineering rather than designing prosthetics and medical equipment. On another forum I asked about this issue and I got bashed for my ambitions towards a nobel prize so for my sake it would be nice if we could all just focus on helping me in a critical point in my life. Thank you again for reading and I thank you in advance for your responses :D</p>