If she is looking for a career path in the event med school does not pan out- biostats has been recommended as a major - if she likes it.
Keep in mind she may change her mind about medical school for a variety of reasons (ie new interests).
Also- she may pivot after she graduates - she might decide on a different path completely.
@amyor
First pick a major she likes, she will likely get better grades.
Then, what other careers would she be interested in, should med school not work out, for whatever reason. Would she still want to be a healthcare provider? Researcher? Financial analyst?
The good news is at some schools she doesnāt have to choose a major at first (although if it stays engineering she should apply directly to those programs/majors.)
I wouldnāt hesitate to choose some majors that some may tell you donāt have good career prospects. For example, I know many bio majors who are working in the pharmaceutical industry, making a good living with a bachelors degree. Bio major outcomes immediately post grad might show a lower than average salary, but thatās because there are lots of bio majors working for a couple of years after college as scribes or EMTs or CNAs to get more clinical hours so they are more competitive med school applicants.
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Gonzaga has a great undergrad engineering program and feels a bit like a Washington Santa Clara. Would be a safety for your daughter.
I was able to calculated Weighted and Capped UC GPA = 4.35
Matches - you have some but depends what she wants.
Cheap and good - UAB, tied to a major academic hospital
Arizona
U Delaware
UMN will be sub $40k top school.
UNR is a WUE school so big discount. Colorado State too.
Oregon State of course.
All are accredited - thereās nearly 200 in the US - SCU is not one of them nor is Gonzaga.
For Catholic, Fairfield, Gannon and St Louis.
As a j Hopkins sub - Lehigh and RPI.
All I listed are ABET accredited in the major.
Good luck.
Exactly.
Leave some money in the bank for medical school. Your daughter does not want to graduate with an MD degree and $400,000 in debt from medical school. There are a LOT of universities that are very good for premed students, including your in-state public schools and some WUE/WICHE schools.
Here I have mixed reaction. Perhaps most important, the large majority of students who start off thinking āpremedā end up doing something else. Biomedical engineering is a very good example of āsomething elseā. It seems unlikely to me that any form of engineering is the easiest way to maintain a medical-school-worthy GPA. However, I have to admit that one daughter was taking extra math and physics classes to offset a B- in organic chemistry. What one student thinks of as a brutally difficult class might be what another student thinks of as a likely A or even A+.
And whether to focus on engineering or premed is something that a student can decide when they are part way through university.
And it is not clear to me why you have so many expensive out of state schools on your list. Neither premed nor engineering is an area where āprestigeā matters. What you do as an undergraduate student is going to matter a lot more than where you do it. Both engineering and premed classes will include quite a few classes which are very academically demanding, and that are full of very strong students at any of a very wide range of universities.
I have asked two doctors who I know where the other students in their MD program had gotten their bachelorās degree. An exact quote from one of them is: āall over the placeā. We found the same thing listening into a daughterās opening ceremony for her DVM program. It was rare to hear the same school mentioned twice. We see the same thing in both my wifeās medical-related masterās program and our other daughterās PhD program in a biomedical field. The students in highly ranked graduate programs, including MD and biomedical engineering programs, come from a wide range of undergraduate universities. You donāt have to spend the big bucks for a bachelorās degree.
Which also brings up the thought that there are a variety of biomedical fields which are possibilities, but where some graduate schools is likely. PhD programs are usually funded. Masterās degrees are usually not funded (unless obtained by a PhD student who drops out part way through). I might add that admissions to top PhD programs appears to be very, very competitive.
I think that this is something that each student needs to figure out over time. It is very common to figure this out while in university.
As one example, our younger daughter briefly thought of medical school. Due to a change in major she needed to take four lab courses at the same time. She discovered that she loved lab work, and was good at it. She ended up as a biology major. Normally a bachelorās degree in biology leads to limited job opportunities. However, she had spent so much time in the lab and had so much lab experience that she got a good job pretty quickly after graduating. Her first job to me sounded like almost exactly the same thing that she had already been doing in university.
In terms of biomedical engineering, it might depend upon how your daughter takes to it. Some students do get Aās in those courses.
I think that OSU should be on your list. I would also look at the WUE school finder and see what it recommends. I am pretty sure that UC Merced is a WUE school, but I am also pretty sure that there are restrictions on what major a student chooses to get a WUE discount, and I do not know which majors this would apply to.
Thanks so much for detailed information. My daughter wants to move out of Oregon, that is the main reason OSU is low on list.
I sent you a message. Look for the green dot in the upper corner.
Statistics or data science* may be of interest if you like math and statistics. Note that many medical research papers do a lot of statistical analysis. But it also can lead to careers in many areas.
*The usual difference between the majors is that data science tends to have less in advanced topics in statistics, replacing it with a bit more CS and course work in some application area like biology or economics.
There are many jobs out there other than engineering or being a doctor. It sounds like she doesnāt know what she wants to do (or may be afraid to say it out loud).
Keep undergrad as cheap as possible!
For other jobs related to health care, check out this site:
There are so many healthcare jobs - people doing the real work - as I recently learned. For example thereās a job called Radiation Therapist (they all have degrees). Iām in awe of what they do for a living. They r doing the day to day work as are the nurses.
Iām sure thereās so many peripheral jobs that impact.
MD is great, of course, but thatās just the tip of the medical career.
Yes, and thatās exactly why I posted the explore health careers link.
Thanks everyone for good insight. My daughter really wants to be physician as of now and as everyone say I need to minimize cost for undergrad but I donāt find many options if she wants to not stay in Oregon. All UCs are ~$80K. She could apply Arizona state but other than that what options do I have.
Many above.
UNR and Colorado Stare and more are WUE. There are CA schools WUE.
Lots of merit money. You can go to Alabama for $20k with merit and join McCullough medical scholars.
UMN under $40k. Schools like SUNYs ? Florida State for somewhere between $25-40k. Kansas under $30k.
Really lots of options depending on how open you are.
Lots of options suggested in the thread.
Utah, Colorado? Plus some Southern universities as cited above.
Youād probably get merit at Whitman making it cheaper than UCs.
If she wants to be a Physician rather than an Engineer, she needs an environment that is supportive for premeds and offers an alternate major (biostatistics, data scienceā¦)
Case Western would be a match.
Juniata (small, PA) also has a reputation for being very supportive of premeds and itād be a safety with lots of merit.
Pitt Honors (large, urban) and St Olaf (small/medium, south of Twin Cities) would be matches or even likelies if she applies soon&expresses interest.
(Some of these may be repeatsā¦ I didnāt go back through all the posts.)
These are some schools often on the application lists of full pay families seeking merit. These do not all offer engineering, but they are all good choices for premed. This list is by no means exhaustive but an example of the many options your D has.
IMPORTANT: Some schools require earlier due dates to be considered for merit so that needs to be looked at asap.
If your student has preferences in size, urban/suburban/rural, Greek life, sports, etc., we can help with a more targeted list. I hope I havenāt missed that information in my quick skim of your posts. 
LACs - Rhodes, Wooster, Macalaster, Denison, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Furman, Trinity, Whitman, Kalamazoo, Juniata, Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette
Mid - Case Western, SMU, Miami-OH, Rochester, UAlabama-Birmingham
Large - Pitt, UAlabama-Tuscaloosa, UMN, SUNYs
Those are all very realistic for admissions and getting merit (or have a lower COA for OOS). For more competitive merit options, if your D is interested in the extra work involved and early due dates, look at:
Vandy, WashU, Davidson, Wash & Lee, UMD, Miami (FL)
Many families must consider their studentās post grad goals and choose to save on undergrad. There are many posters here who can help with suggestions. Best of luck!
OSU Honors, then OHSU. Done
For premed take the direct, highest chance, and lowest cost. If she decides that medicine is not for her, can go engineering.
Perhaps I am a bit slow to respond.
However, employers and graduate programs (including MD programs) in other states will recognize a degree from OSU. Both of my daughters for example after graduating university got a job in a different state compared to where they got their degree (in one case in a different country, since one daughter got her bachelorās degree āslightly abroadā in Canada but then returned to the US for her first professional full time job).
Frequently the finances work out better if you get a degree at your in-state public university and then move after getting the degree. Your daughter might however find an affordable good fit outside of Oregon, and you do for example have quite a few WUE schools to consider. Of course it is also possible, and may be more financially wise, to get an MD in-state and then move to a different state for residency and practice.
For success in becoming a doctor, a studentās determination that they want to do it and their drive to do it may be one of the most important criteria. I think for example that a total commitment to do it and a strong level of determination is a major factor in my daughterās path to become a DVM (she is still on track to graduate in May). This has seen her through some long nights of either studying or dealing with sick animals (who sometimes have the lack of consideration to become sick at inconvenient times) or some situations assisting a veterinarian who was annoying. The path to get any of an MD, DO, or DVM is a long one and a student has to be driven to get there.
I quickly ran the WUE school finder for biomedical engineering a few days ago and there are quite a few options. I did not of course look closely into any of them, but you and your daughter might want to.