Match help needed - Junior, Biomedical Eng Interest, OR resident, 4.0uw, 1470 SAT [likely NMSF, <$30k, no need based financial aid]

Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: Oregon - but open if the right school is across US
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Its a small option school, Project Lead the Way with pathways in Biomedical and Computer Science
  • Other special factors:

Cost Constraints / Budget
~$30K all in COA. Do not qualify for any aid.

Intended Major(s) Biomedical Engineering (more the Bio part than the devices part… Interested in Bio Materials, Drug delivery, cell level of Biomedical engineering)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.2
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: n/a schools doesn’t rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1470

List your HS coursework

  • English: Dual Enrollment English 121 this year, Taking 122 of the Dual Enrollment Sr. year
  • Math: preCal this year. Signed up for AP Calc Sr. year
  • Science: Physics in 9th grade. No further Physics yet offered (school lost the AP teacher); Taking AP Bio this year. Taken many Science/Bioemedical classes w/ pathway (this year is Medical Interventions.) Plan on taking AP Chem Sr. year.
  • History and social studies: regular World history class
  • Language other than English: Trilingual Spanish and Mandarin. STAMP tested on both. Scores for all 4 sections were between 6 and 9. In the transcript will show as P, no letter grade but some schools ask/get the test results.
  • Visual or performing arts: Art2
  • Other academic courses: Doing double pathways Biomedical and Computer Science (most at the school are single pathways) Take one class one ach each year to complete pathway.

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work:

Awards

  • Likely National Merit SF/F - Did well in the PSAT/NMSQ test in Oct’24 for Oregon (index is 218)
  • PBS News Hour Internship - it snot pay to play (they covered flight, room/board.) Video produced chosen and shared in the national PBS news hour. Need to figure out how to summarize this better, but it was a great experience.
  • HOSA Medical Debate (2yrs) and HOSA Technical Paper (1yr) state qualified for international ISLC HOSA competitions. This year’s international comp has not yet happened, but have not yet placed at the international level.

Extracurriculars

  • HOSA-Future Health Professionals 3yrs
  • Biotech Club 1yr (new club)
  • Creative writing club - Leadership
  • Theater club - Leadership
  • Mandarin Studies
  • Spanish Studies

Essays/LORs/Other
Essay should be strong but I guess we will see this summer
Should get good LORs - teachers seem to care and appreciate contributions in class

Schools
Current focus has been on NMS Full Ride Schools + few others near by. Looking for help in rounding out the list given the budget limitations. looking for schools where merit scholarships will get in/below budget.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely (due to full ride): U. of Tulsa, UTDallas, Alabama, USF, FIU,
  • Likely (could afford): Oregon State U.
  • Toss-up : Washington State University (unclear what the total COA would be w/ NMS)
  • Lower Probability:
  • Low Probability:

Congratulations on your accomplishments in high school and on likely earning NMSF status!

For each of the subjects (English, math, science, history and social studies, and language other than English) can you indicate how many years/credits you have? i.e. 4 years of English, 4 years of math, etc? I’m particularly curious about history and social studies because you only mention one class.

It is a full tuition waiver, which according to their site, it approximately $27,500. It doesn’t cover fees or room & board, but those should still be below $20k total (probably closer to $15k). This should be an extremely likely admit for you, and extremely likely for affordability (i.e. if you become NMSF).

I’m going to give your situation some thought and will be back. Are you hoping to continue your studies in Spanish or Mandarin? Is there anything else about your future college that you’d hope to find beyond one that fits the budget? Size of school, size of classes, athletic spirit, Greek life, climate, regions, etc?

Your list is a bit long - but I’ll say this -for the Florida schools I believe they are limited - like first come first serve. So you might not want to let a decision languish.

Obviously Tulsa is a very different school - it isn’t ABET for Biomedical and perhaps doesn’t have - but at the price point, close enough.

I think, of ABET schools, if you’re willing to pay - but are you given the freebies?? In other words, are you going to pay for x school $20K when why school is free?

UAB
Ga Tech - this would be a Hail Mary for Stamps - so only worth in that sense.

U Houston - free tuition NMF

Kansas State - you get $17,346 off a year…COA is $44,040

WVU

So the question is - not all on your list (Alabama) are biomedical accredited. Nor does it have the major, etc.

But then you see free…if this is the case, is a W&L Johnson Scholarship worth a flyer - but they aren’t ABET accredited.

I think your list is ok if you seek low cost. Sure you can add a Marshall U, but do you really want to, etc.

So yes, you’ll go for under $30K…even if the NMF doesn’t come through.

Good luck.

Since I’m not sure what kind of a college experience you’re hoping for, I tried to add some schools that offered something a bit different from what you already have and/or that I think are particularly well-suited to your interests. @Tsbna44 already mentioned two of them, UAB and Houston.

  • Duquesne (PA ): About 5200 undergrads and NMFs can earn a full tuition scholarship here, though it’s not guaranteed (source).

  • U. of Alabama – Birmingham: About 12k undergrads, and this is the health and bio focused campus (very well-known nationally for these areas). You would qualify for the Presidential Elite scholarship of $28,500 and $4k for NMF for a total of $32,500, and you could compete for departmental and other scholarships at the school (source). Since the sticker price is about $36k, this should definitely fall within budget.

  • U. of Houston (TX): About 38k undergrads here. NMFs get a scholarship covering tuition and fees plus a research stipend and a study abroad stipend (source). The city of Houston has a lot of medical science going on in the area.

  • U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: About 40k undergrads here. There are no guarantees, but you could get up to $11k/year for NMF (source) and could be eligible for other scholarships (source). If you run the NPC here, it should tell you the minimum amount of merit aid you’d receive (I’m guessing $15k or so) and combined with up to $11k in NMF would be about $26k or so in scholarships, leaving costs around $23-24k, so within budget.

If you’re looking for an option closer to home:

  • U. of Idaho: About 9300 undergrads and offers pretty much a full ride here (tuition and most fees plus room and board, source).

I eliminated a few schools like U. of Nevada-Reno and U. of Nebraska as they had very high GPAs to maintain the scholarship (3.5, if I recall correctly). Especially when going into engineering, you don’t need that kind of pressure to continue to afford a school.

FSU might be an option. They offer Biomedical engineering and it’s ABET accredited. NMF gets honors program and research opportunities.

The engineering school is shared with FAMU but I don’t think it’s a huge deal. They also have one of the top film schools so there’s a fair number of creative types on-campus. S21 graduates soon and loves it. Lots of happy kids.

I am sorry, I misunderstood the prompt. I though it was to say the last/highest class you taken in each core area. Yes, when I graduate, I will have 4yrs of English, 4yrs of math, 4yrs (or more) of science, 4yrs of social science. 1 full year of Art. hoping to have another next year but it is an elective, not guaranteed.

If I understood WSU correctly, It would cost me ~24,500/yr, right? Only thing I can deduct is the tuition.

Thank you for putting some thought into my situation… from the visits I had, I really liked the ‘quad’ feel at some of the universities (Alabama and Tulsa had this), I loved being outside (although it happen to be a very nice spring day, doubt I will feel like this when the heat starts :slight_smile: I think Alabama is a bit too big for my preference but I did like all the engineering clubs and research opportunities. i prefer smaller classes. Not interested in Greek life. I would prefer a cooler climate, with lots of outdoor things (I love hiking, beach/lake/river, biking, etc)

Are you open to schools, like Bama, that don’t offer your major ?

I guess I should have added more info… Yes, for Tulsa (and Alabama) I would do ChemE+. At Tulsa it would be ChemE + minor in BME. At Alabama it would be ChemE w/ concentration in Bio and by the time I am a junior, they assured me they would have their MSBME running, and I could do an accelerated ChemE + MSBME since they pay for 5yrs of tuition.

Thank you so much. I had not heard at all of Duquesne nor had I looked into U. of Minnesota. I will be looking them up. PA is interesting to me (geographically) and Minnesota definitely meets the ‘cooler’ climate wish I had :slight_smile:

Yeah, I am drawing a line at 3.0 as the highest GPA requirement to renew scholarships. Ideally, it would be lower

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Yes, I just visited them last week. There, I would do ChemE and do concentration in Bio, and they said by the time I get to Junior year, their MSBME should be up and running and I could do their accelerated masters (so ChemE + MSBME in 5yrs)

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Are you sure? I don’t see this on the website

Ole miss has a four year full ride with a 3.0 renewal requirement and and bioengineering track within biomedical engineering: Undergraduate Curriculum 2020-21 On – Biomedical Engineering

UT Dallas seems to be the same

You could also consider applying to some more selective schools that meet full need, like the schools in categories 1 and 2 listed here: All 115 Need-Blind Colleges in the US: A Complete Guide · PrepScholar

Lafayette college and Tulane are in category 1 (full need, no loans). If you like what Tulane’s net price calculator predicts, and it’s your first choice, I recommend ED as Tulane accepts a lot from ED and you can break the agreement if the financial aid does not match what the NPC.

My direct experience is that “full need” includes the expectation of taking the standard limits on federal loans. And I’ll say only because it’s come up on other threads - “Full Need” is not what the applicant feels they need. It’s based on the Federal SAI/EFC calculation, which often far exceeds an families ability/expectation. The Tulane NPC does seem to give a pretty accurate reflection of the expected cost.

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OP said they won’t qualify for need based financial aid, so for schools that don’t offer merit, they won’t come close to being affordable. Please note the list you linked to is highly inaccurate. Most US colleges are need blind, for example, nearly all state schools are need blind. Only a small subset of four year colleges are need blind and meet full need (which again won’t work for OP.)

The shared engineering division between FSU and FAMU does present an arbitrage opportunity – an engineering major can apply to both and see which one gives a better offer (admission / scholarship / net price).

But note that the shared engineering division campus is a separate campus a few miles away from both FSU and FAMU main campuses.

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Thank you for your comments. Yeah, my family wouldn’t qualify for any financial aid. At all.

Correct. We qualify for no need.

Thank you, I will looks into it. I need to calculate how much it would amount best case.

Then money drives the decision and that’s ok. You still have choice and you’re the envy of most in America!!

When you’re trying to compare costs across schools, I would suggest ignoring any Cost of Attendance figures and instead use the direct-billed costs of tuition and fees plus room and board. Why? Because some schools are much more generous than others in budgeting for personal expenses, books, transportation, etc…even those in the same city! So to make a more even comparison, I would eliminate those other “COA” factors.

So for WSU, it looks as though there’s about $1600 in fees plus about $18k for room & board, so a little under $20k here (source, though the costs are given per semester, I believe).

Since you like smaller classes, then that could be looking at smaller schools or looking at honors programs at bigger collegse.

If Alabama at 33k undergrads felt a bit too big, then UMN is probably too big for you as well (and UH too big and too hot).

I would give a serious look at Idaho, as it seems as though it might be hitting a ton of your preferences. UAB is much smaller and much less Greek than the Tuscaloosa campus, and you would miss the really hot times of the year (aka summer).

Two other options you may want to consider:

  • Missouri S&T (MO): I didn’t mention this school originally since it’s not ABET-accredited in biological or biomedical engineering. But since you’re open to ChemE, this is a great engineering school. There are about 5500 undergrads here and you would automatically qualify for a $20k scholarship (source) bringing the sticker price to $23,462, but then you’d also potentially be eligible for additional scholarships such as $1k for PLTW, $1k for Honors, $12k for NMSF (which has unclear messaging as to whether it can be stacked with the $20k auto scholarship).

  • U. of Louisville (KY): About 16k undergrads here and you’d get a $28k scholarship here (source) which covers almost all of your tuition and fees, leaving about $13k for the remainder and your room & board. The Speed School of Engineering modeled itself after Cal Poly and it’s learn-by-doing method, and I’ve heard very good things about the engineering program here.

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Just to clarify - I think you mean that you have 30K total to work with, for all four years - i.e. $7500/year. Is that correct, or do you mean 30K/year?

This program at Tulsa is ABET accredited and might work for OP’s stated interests: Program: Engineering Physics, Bioengineering Option, B.S.E.P. - University of Tulsa - Modern Campus Catalog™ In addition, OP, this dual-degree program, which includes a year of study and internship abroad, with the fifth year also funded, might be of interest, and your head start in language fluency could allow more time for electives and/or advanced coursework. International Engineering/Science & Language - The University of Tulsa

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I mean ~$30/year

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