UNC vs NC State Honors for Biomedical Engineering

soosoo948
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 02:24:19 +0000

Hey everyone,
I posted this on the college selection thread but need more input so I’m trying here. I was accepted to both UNC and NCSU’s Biomedical Engineering Programs (I’m in-state). For UNC, I was offered a $5,000 Summer Study Abroad Fellowship through Excel@Carolina. For State, I was offered admission to their Summer Start program, Honors Program, and Scholars program.

I expect to qualify for equal amounts of aid from both schools, and even if not, the difference shouldn’t be enough to be an issue.

NC State has a better engineering program as a whole, and I really am in love with their Centennial Campus, and I like the overall STEM focus/feel at NC State. I also feel like I might achieve a better GPA there, which would work in my favor for medical/graduate school since I’m planning to go into either. Also, I prefer Raleigh to Chapel Hill, and I like that I have the option to live off campus freshman year at State. They have more BME concentrations and are accredited.

Chapel Hill has the prestige factor, along with an overall stronger student body, which I like. UNC also has Gillings for Biostatistics, something State doesn’t offer but I’m really interested in. The UNC campus is gorgeous, and is a bit smaller than State. Also, even if their Biomedical Engineering program isn’t the very best, I am planning to get a masters/PhD in engineering no matter where I go, so I could attend UNC for undergrad then State (or anywhere else with a better BME program) for grad school. UNC also assured me the Study Abroad fellowship.

Both school’s are great options and I have no idea how I’m going to turn down either. I’m tempted to choose UNC simply due to their high(er) retention rate and rankings, but NC State’s engineering and pre-health programs are also too great to turn down. Thoughts?