If she is prepared to consider going further afield, then she would be a strong candidate for the University of Utah’s full ride Eccles scholarship (https://honors.utah.edu/admissions/eccles-distinguished-scholarship/) and a full tuition scholarship would likely be a given. They have a good biomedical engineering program and department (which included the development of the first artificial heart).
^^Sorry meant can do BS in Engineering (General Engineering) or Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (also BME :), but different) at Cooper Union.
Thanks, privatebanker. You’ve got correct picture. I am not writing a check for $200K ($50 K a year) in 4 years for 70K starting salary. We do not have such money and it would take 30 years to pay such loan…
I will look at thread that you suggested.
A bet through it again. You’ll see some good options that offer merit CWRU. WPI ans Colorado college of mines And northeastern. Worth a look.
Also check out the merit thread. It’s much more in depth and detailed. Some schools you know going in based on stats what it will cost if admitted roughly. There’s a lot of options like asu and others too.
Northeastern seems to be interesting. They have relatively strong Mechanical Engineering. They also have minor in Biomedical engineering.
Does anyone have experience with Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-for-good-merit-aid.html#latest
I found it for you. Lol.
@momsearcheng - Our daughter will attend WPI in the fall and major in biotechnology. She received a 27K merit scholarship. Her stats -1450 SAT; ranked 4th in class; with a 4.47 weighted GPA. WPI has been granting attractive merit to female applicants in recent years. As another retiredfarmer mentioned, its Biomedical Engineering program outcomes are stellar.
A few clarifying points on the Ohio State recommendation…
OSU’s biomed has over 500 students enrolled, slightly bigger than UMD. Engineering college as a whole has 1460 SAT 75th percentile, with BME likely higher due to its competitiveness.
Columbus is a youthful, vibrant city with burgeoning tech industry, including biotech. UIUC and Purdue are in the middle of nowhere, and Ann Arbor is not very nice, not to mention that you aren’t likely to get much merit aid at any of those.
Sounds like you’re cost-sensitive from prior notes, so probably won’t beat free UMD.
RE RPI::
Great University, excellent BME Department. There has been a lot of discussion lately regarding the newly required ARCH program participation The following was taken from a recent RPI student newspaper editorial:
“On-campus housing is also required for the first two years students spend at RPI, as well as during the Arch—which is now a requirement for all incoming students. Students stay on campus and take classes the summer after their sophomore year, and are required to take a semester off in either the fall or spring of their junior year. Instead of having two successive summer internships, as might be typical of a college experience, one six-month time frame for an internship or co-op opportunity is required. Exemptions from Arch seem hard to get, even if major-specific classes aren’t offered during the summer. One student expressed that required aspects of the Arch make it seem more for money than students’ personal growth, and right now we’re inclined to agree.”
I don’t know all the details, but it does appear this is a new mandatory undergraduate program where you may want to check out the details.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a WPI alumnus.
RE WPI merit awards:
I have seen merit awards as high as $30,000, but I don’t want to bait you with these. They are very few and the average matriculating student in the last class admitted was in the straight “A” range. After careful review, if you identify with this unusual program it would make sense to apply.
See program outline @ https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan
FYI:
There are 489 BME undergraduate majors at WPI. This ranks them a the third most popular major.
Women represent on about 32% of the students University wide, but 65% of the BME majors. Only Biology and Biotechnology students have a higher concentration of women students. The last two admitted classes are running about 42% women.
Have no actual experience with Rose Hulman, but their reputation is for real. There are a number of STEM colleges and universities with very strong academic credentials and this is one of them. Any one of them can boast about the high ROI of their engineering majors as well as their low loan default rates.
Undergraduate is what Rose is about! They are not the massive university research factory… Many national rankings are based on the output of PhD graduates and are not a fair reflection of their undergraduate schools.
What are you looking for?
Thanks again. Big thanks to Privatebanker for links.
Interesting that there is no any link about Franklin Olin on College Confidential (or may be I missed it?)
It looks from reviews that Cooper Union even bigger pressure cooker than MIT… I know GaTech is pressure cooker, but there are way to make it balanced, if you choose classes smartly and do not overextend yourself.
I agree that living on campus requirement is usually = give me money, with very few benefits. Mandatory summers smell bad. Internship or coop are much better options. Hate anything forced.
Looks like we need to remove Cooper Union and RPI. I will research Ohio State and WPI more.
Daughter is suburban girl. Does not like huge cities for living, but she never lived in small places either. Needs some places to go. Used to options to spend time…So suburb of Boston is very attractive.
The advice that we were given when DS16 was looking for engineering was do not get caught up in the rankings. ABET accreditation is important. Opportunities for internships and/or co-op are important. Fit is very important since the curriculum can be very challenging to even excellent students (in your case, female friendly matters). Do not overpay for an UG Engineering degree because of a ranking—especially for BioEng since grad school is almost a given. These are schools where you can get to the price point you want (or better) through scholarships or co-ops:
https://www.valpo.edu/college-of-engineering/academics/undergraduate/bioengineering/. Suburban Chicago.
https://ceas.uc.edu/academics/departments/biomedical-engineering.html First to do co-op. Nationwide placement of co-ops.
Ohio State is also a good choice but is a massive school. Not mid-sized by any stretch of the imagination but honors would help it feel smaller.
UDayton has given some full tuition scholarships recently to try to recruit female engineering students. Do not be scared off by their initial price. It is more highly regarded than UMiami of OH for Engineering as are all the Ohio schools I have listed here.
James Madison has awesome new facilities and is trying to grow their engineering programs. There are STEM scholarships but not sure if enough to get to your desired price. They seem to keep that info pretty quiet. Great mid-sized campus with surrounding small city.
I graduated from JMU and never heard of anyone in their engineering department - I guess good to hear the department is up and coming.
But in Virginia when it comes to Engineering you have Virginia Tech and Virginia getting most of the discussion. I know VCU engineering has expanded a lot in recent years though. Being from Maryland area I’m surprised at least Virginia Tech isn’t on the list (since many companies in MD recruit heavily at VT).
Virginia Tech did not had BiomedicalEng. UVA did.
Virginia Tech starts it this year with limited enrollment (like 40 students). We would prefer established program. Yes I like Virginia Tech very much, just not for this major.
You had biomed as just one option
@momsearcheng Olin has been dropping the ‘Franklin W’ in recent years. It’s listed on CC under the’O’ colleges. I don’t remember if there is much info there, but a quick Google search should tell you a lot. There are quite a few Olin parents on CC too. Reach out if you have specific questions.
Maybe Stevens in Hoboken? They do offer merit but I presume the really high value awards are quite competitive (but your D’s stats are excellent). D has a good friend there in BME who will take five years to graduate due to several well paid internships that have helped finance her degree.
Here is modified list after some suggestions and more research (thanks everyone, you are great!)
- UMD CP (in state) - match/safety
- U Pitt -safety
- Olin
- Rice
- Case Western
- Ga Tech
- Boston U
- U of Michigan
- WPI
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- Vanderbuilt
- Washington St. Louis
- Rose - Hulman
The goal is the same - chasing merit money among roughly top 70 schools. Preferred degree Biomedical Engineering.
Close to East Cost. We do not need any more safeties (consider UMD given). We are not interested in top schools that do not give any merit money. We do not expect financial aid.
I think first 7 will stay.
What schools should we remove/add? Should we reduce to 10?
Do you think this list have a chance produce any money at all? (Except first 2 choices)
Do you think any school on the list is totally out of reach in terms of acceptance with her stats. ( I know it is crap shoot everywhere these days.)
Do we need to visit any of the above to “show interest” to increase chance of scholarship?
I would try not to go, and not to “fall in love” unless it may change outcome.
If no money will show up, she will just go to UMD or will consider guaranteed transfer to GaTech with coop and study abroad. We just feel that she needs to try to get to other good schools, since she worked so hard.