Bio-Medical engineering

[Joe Ross]

Have you thought about UC San Diego? Its ranked second in the nation in biomed by USNEWS and its relatively cheap (15k for out-of-state students). You also can't beat the weather

When you asked about classes and grades, did you mean for highschool, or to get into med school?

For high school, you should get as good of grades as possible and take as much biology and math as possible.

For undergrad, you should get as good of grades as possible and complete the program. You should also get to know a few professors well, so that when it is time to get into med school, you have a few people who can write really good recommendations.

I would not be concerned with whether the college gives out academic scholarships or not. The way that college financial aid is set up, it doesn't really matter. After you fill out the FAFSA, the student-aid commision decides how much of your college expenses you and your parents are able to pay. When you subtract that amount from cost of the college, you get you "Need". Most colleges will attempt to give you enough money to cover this need, but not much more using a combination of academic scholarships, need-based grants and loans. At RIT, I have a academic scholarship for several thousand. I also have a need-based grant that makes up the difference between my academic scholarship and my need. If a college does not give out academic scholarships, they will still try to meet your need, it will just be with more need-based grants. There are only a few colleges in the country that don't care about the amount of academic scholarships that you have recieved when figuring out how much of a need-based grant to give. USC (University of Southern California) is one of them, but there are others.

To make it even worse, you are required to report the outside academic scholarships that you have received. For example, if you are a National Merit Finalist and get that scholarship, the college has the option of reducing your need-based aid by that amount.

Hope all of that helps