Madison vs. Minnesota vs. Michigan vs. Northwestern

Big10Padre
Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:05:45 +0000

Twins127 - We too are from MN and our S is a jr in mech. engineering at Madison. Sindar makes many excellent points. To be clear, I have a strong Bucky bias and will note that while Michigan’s program may be stronger, it’s not twice as good as UW Madison. Given the tuition reciprocity, UW Madison for MN kids can’t be beat. It’s just flat-out an extraordinary value in education.

One other item to consider for UW Madison. During your freshmen year, you have to apply and be admitted into any engineering discipline there including bio-med. Per our son, admissions into the bio-med program at UW is very, very competitive and, in fact, (again per our S) it is the toughest engineering program to gain admission at UW.

I can’t speak to U of MN, Northwestern’s or U Mich’s biomedical eng. programs other than to say that they are all outstanding, particularly U Mich’s. I would assume that the admissions process for each would be similar to UW and that you’d have to apply for admission during your freshmen year. The University of Illinois also has a very highly regarded program. Admission there is tough as well.

Good luck.