Transfer advice BME major & premed?

Transfer Students
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Having back-of-the-enveloped this for a few schools, that seems like a broadly consistent pattern for this sort of college. Like, over half may not end up applying to med school, and it might be more like less than a third that actually get admitted.

And actually, even being close to a third probably counts as a good result, relatively speaking. I believe studies of selective undergrads in general put it more like a sixth. But again, being in a third at Hopkins might not be a lot less challenging than being in a sixth other places, it could even sometimes be more challenging.

I personally do think for some individuals, it would make no difference–they would end up in med school, or not, either way. But for others, it might make a difference.

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This is incorrect. Purdue, Pitt, and GA Tech are all accredited under the same ABET progam criteria, “Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering.” Some schools call this major BioE, some call it BME.

My daughter applied for BioE/BME at most schools (including Pitt and GA Tech), so we have a giant spreadsheet with curricula for all the schools under consideration. Generally, schools cover the same basic material, and then have either electives, or designated specializations, since this is a broad field with many sub areas.

Organic chemistry is required for some BME programs; GA Tech is an example of a school that requires it.

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I was going off the ABET website.

They categorize them differently. Same category if you go by classification but each school labels it differently. No doubt there are similarities but also potentially differences - so I wanted to bring up the differences for OP to see.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter as OP is not truly interested or able to accept an offer from many of the schools they’ve applied to. It sounds like Purdue is the most “prestigious” of offers and that’s where will start - while taking a transfer crack at others next year in order to meet the needs of relatives.

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Expand each of these entries, and you will see they are accredited under the same program criteria. The only difference is what the university calls the major.

Screenshot 2026-04-01 at 8.55.20 AM

Again, since this is my daughter’s field, we have spent countless hours looking over the curricula in detail… and although of course there are differences between universities, it is 100% a non-issue whether the university calls it BioE or BME.

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65

Thanks for sharing this. Not sure what EY2019 means here. Also 421 students here are all senior class students without the said gap year? Previous slides showed “More than 80% of our applicants take at least one bridge year.“

On the other hand, even 18 students with >3.8 GPA and 46 students with >3.5GPA did not have medical school acceptance.

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At a guess, that might mean “Enrollment Year”, and that might include everyone who applied/was accepted in that cycle regardless of when they graduated Hopkins.

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This is what I assumed it meant too.

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Some of these schools don’t take sophomore transfers.

The schools you intend to transfer to are going to look at your high school record.

Your letters of recommendation are supposed to be current, so you’ll have to establish good relationships with new professors. I have several friends that are phenomenal professors and they can tell right away a when a student intends to transfer.

Part of the problem with that is you don’t know how you will perform with your professors in their classrooms.

I think students make a huge mistake in assuming that the grades that they received in high school, will be the same exact grades they’ll receive in college. It doesn’t work that way.

The rapid pace at the University level is faster and much more intense squeezed into a semester or quarter. Plus remember that these peer students are used to being top performers at their high schools.

Most of your year, you’ll spend putting together application packages for transfer, and if you don’t perform well in your classes, you’re stuck.

Trying to transfer into reaches when they are obligated to students who are within articulation agreements and freshman students will be difficult at those “prestigious” schools.

Full pay, at Berkeley will be $90K per year. That’s $180,000 for two years. The UCs take Junior level transfers.

If you, in some way, get past that and happen to get into medical school, then you’re adding another $400K on top of the original amount for the undergrad. So you’re looking at nearly $600k for your education after transfer, minimum.
That’s a lot of money and wasted time for prestige.

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They would allow me to do so. However, the belittling I would get further down the line would be worse than Purdue.

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I am a bit confused about this. How would BME not be the correct major for a biomedical engineer?

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So they are placing your personal worth/value on the perceived measure of the school.

Sad you have to go through that.

I hope you find a school where you can succeed - it doesn’t matter if its Purdue or Pitt or for that matter U of Pacific in CA (another P with bio med).

Or Rochester or Rhode Island.

I’m sure you’ll do great. Be the best you that you can be and if that’s not good enough for your family, then shame on them - not you.

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I think we have a “We will make it work” mindset. However, it is clear that the cheaper the undergraduate degree the better it is down the line in terms of debt. I know that Purdue is relatively cheap(50k) whereas Rochester is quite expensive(90k).

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General summarizing question: Given that I’m not sure whether I want to do BME or premed, what school do you think will give me the best value regardless of which direction I take? Considering the costs as well, some are significantly more expensive than others and would cause me a lot of debt if I end up going to medical school. The choices I have settled on are Purdue, URochester, UPitt, and Rutgers. Please let me know what you think!

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One of the top engineering schools in the country, and if not the world. People choose it (in part due to price) over those few higher ranked. And some choose a no name over it (my kid).

But I’ve never heard anyone embarrassed to attend Purdue.

The entire premise of transfer seems silly - because you got in there….not to others?

And you might not even get BME. Then what will they think?

The attitude (not yours but the family) of you are better than that makes zero sense.

I feel sorry for you - but their perspective is very off base (IMHO).

Kids from high level schools (Purdue) work for kids from low level schools. There’s no hierarchy of all the Michigan kids are the bosses, the Purdue kids are mid level, and URI is at the bottom. That’s not life.

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Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to share this perspective. I completely understand what you’re saying, and I’ve heard similar things from others as well, that the way my family is viewing this might be a bit skewed.

At the same time, even though I recognize that, it’s still a factor in my decision-making right now, especially with everything tied together (including cost and long-term plans). I’m trying to be realistic about all of it rather than ignore those concerns entirely.

I think at this point, I’m less focused on changing that perspective and more just trying to figure out which school would be the best fit for me given my situation. So I really value hearing advice specifically about the colleges themselves and how they might support my goals.

Thank you again!

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Your goals can happen anywhere.

I know what @momofboiler1 describes about her daughter’s Purdue experience sets a high bar for most any other school as far as I can tell. I’ve been on this website for years, have read a lot of stories/feedback and I’m not sure any engineering school comes close to the thoroughness of Purdue - not just academically, but in career search, etc.

So if you told me you got into Purdue, Wash U, Emory, Ga Tech, JHU, Michigan, Berkeley, Cornell, Brown and Northwestern - and all cost the same - and you chose Purdue - I wouldn’t bat an eye. I’d think it was a perfectly reasonable choice.

I think your family is missing a lot in that conversation.

It’s right there with them - and I’ve never heard the positive stories and actual activities (like steps to finding a job) that Purdue takes on - at any of the other. They may exist but aren’t written about here.

I mean, UCB reports 17% (more than 1/6) can’t even find a job and at Ga Tech 39% can’t of those who report - which is only 35% (for the school, not major) - those not reporting likely do worse. Purdue was 7% couldn’t find jobs (7 of 101).

Wash U - by the way - was also 7% seeking - and it’s $69.6K salary for biomedical engineering is below the $73,466 of Purdue.

In short, I think your family is basing its perceptions on a US News ranking - which I’ve shown before - is just a popularity contest amongst academics. It doesn’t take data into account - selectivity, placement rates, salaries, etc.

But I don’t see Purdue any different than the rest of the list - so even if they are ranking snobs, I think they’re missing the full story here.

Seriously, of all you mentioned wanting to transfer to, I’m not sure a single one would be better. I didn’t look at all - but certainly not Wash U or Ga Tech. Maybe your experience would be better. Both are smaller…and one is compact and contained. But outcome wise - nope.

Good luck.

So you can show them - this is a really dumb way for a student to pick a school - based on what they say - in my opinion!!

Good luck - but I hope you can see that Purdue is an absolute home run!!!

The U.S. News rankings for undergraduate programs in business, computer science, economics, engineering, nursing and psychology are based on peer assessment surveys of deans and senior faculty from accredited U.S. institutions.

How Programs Are Assessed and Ranked

In spring and summer of 2025, deans and senior faculty rated the academic quality of peer programs they were familiar with on a 5-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2) or marginal (1). Individuals who were unfamiliar with a particular program were asked to select “don’t know.”

Each qualifying school or program was sent two peer assessment surveys.

An average peer assessment score was calculated for each program using a trimmed mean, which removes the two highest and two lowest scores to reduce the impact of outliers. Programs with at least 10 ratings after trimming were then ranked in descending order based on this score.

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What are your costs for each of those options?

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By the way, I understand you are (unfairly but regrettably understandably) struggling with family perceptions. So while I normally wouldn’t advise putting too much weight on this sort of thing, it may be helpful to at least arm yourself rhetorically with these rankings courtesy of EduRank. EduRank uses a purely empirical, publication-based method to rank institutions globally in various academic areas. That is far from the only consideration when choosing an undergrad, indeed it systematically is going to exclude some great undergrad programs not part of research universities. But still, in your context it is something you can at least point to.

OK, so here are their BME/BE ranking:

Pitt is 5th in the world in this ranking (after Harvard, MIT, Michigan, and Stanford, and just ahead of UCL, NUS, Penn, and Toronto).

On your list, Purdue is #57, Rutgers #92, Rochester #184 (this is world, they are higher in just the US of course).

OK, then medical, understanding this includes graduate medical schools:

Pitt is #14 in the world. Again some of the institutions above are only graduate-level. Of the other top BME departments EduRank identified as noted above, only Harvard, Michigan, and Stanford ranked about Pitt on both lists, although UCL, Toronto, and Penn were ahead on the medical list after being just behind on the BME/BE list.

The University of Washington and Hopkins are the last two schools that were ranked at least top 14 for BME/BE, and higher than Pitt for medicine.

On your list, Rutgers is #73, Purdue #76, and Rochester #113.

OK, so you can sorta see why if someone says they are possibly interested in medicine or BME/BE, Pitt stands out to me from your list. In fact, it really stands out in general. There is only a rather short list of institutions in the world I would consider to be comparable academically when you combine both those areas.

Again, I understand a lot more can and indeed should go into undergrad choice. I understand how your family sees thing in particular may not reflect all this. But if you are going to be forced to “defend” a decision, this is at least one thing you could point to, should you decide to choose Pitt.

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79

Are you planning on taking out Federal student loans? If so, are you aware that they are capped at $5500, $6500, $7500 and $7500 for years 1-4, respectively?

And that almost any other loans you would take would need to be consigned by a parent ?

I’m only asking because many students aren’t aware of these limitations and it can affect their planning once they find out.

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Also be aware that there is a new cap on loans for post-graduate education, including loans that can be used to pay for medical school.

While many (most?) medical school are now close to $100K/year for COA, med students can only borrow a maximum of of $200K in federal student loans over a lifetime. This amount includes any undergrad fed student loans you take out. And they can borrow only a maximum of $50K/year.

Because med student are now limited to borrowing no more than $50K/year, you will need to be able to borrow private loans to pay for med school. Any private loans you or your parents take out to pay for medical school will be impacted be any undergrad loan you have.