Virginia tech engineering

[Anonymous]

My child is a female and has applied to Virginia tech engineering. I noticed the female population is pretty low for engineering something like 25%. Anyone has daughters that attend in the engineering prgms? How is it? Is there toxic male energy there? Is there room for growth and support from the faculty itself?

[Anonymous]

if she uses phrases like toxic male energy then she won't like it. If she is normal, she will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Is there toxic male energy there?

[Anonymous]

My DD has also applied. We spoke with quite a few female engineering students during an open house last year. They all said that the ratio was fairly low. 25% is about correct. They mentioned that the atmosphere is generally fine. They have not experienced any blatant sexism and their classmates seem cooperative and receptive to their ideas. Of course, they were trying to sell the school, so who really knows. All of the female engineers we spoke with were on members of the various technical/robotics teams, so it was good to see that women were included and key members. We have a friend’s daughter who attended Ohio State. She said it could be a pretty brutal environment. At times she was one of one or two women in the class and the young men seemed to question their intelligence and abilities. She sometimes had trouble finding study groups. She did soldier on and graduate, and is now gainfully employed. Does make me a little worried.

[Anonymous]

It varies, some have worse experiences and some have better, but I would not blindly believe ANY university's marketing on gender equality or fair treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a female and has applied to Virginia tech engineering. I noticed the female population is pretty low for engineering something like 25%. Anyone has daughters that attend in the engineering prgms? How is it? Is there toxic male energy there? Is there room for growth and support from the faculty itself?

More of a nerdy vibe and a lot of Asian students that are far from "toxic" male energy.

[Anonymous]

I'd say the prevalence of toxic female energy is quite similar to toxic male energy so it balances out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a female and has applied to Virginia tech engineering. I noticed the female population is pretty low for engineering something like 25%. Anyone has daughters that attend in the engineering prgms? How is it? Is there toxic male energy there? Is there room for growth and support from the faculty itself?

More of a nerdy vibe and a lot of Asian students that are far from "toxic" male energy.

is this because Asians are mostly in engineering school? only 15% of total first year students accodring cds.

[Anonymous]

I'm a female graduate of VT engineering, but a while ago, though it sounds like the ratio hasn't changed. I have no idea what the vibe is like now, but some things that probably haven't changed because the ratio hasn't. (one caveat is chemical engineering which skews more female than other specialties--an across the board average isn't relevant once you are past freshman year). I chose ME, which was slightly lower than the 25% average. I think there were about 20 women in my graduation year of a bit more than 100 people. You will be a visible minority in you engineering classes, about 3-4 in any given class, which might be a new experience for your daughter--but on the flip side, the women tended to be pretty friendly with each other and were more close knit than I think the male students were with each other. I think engineers across the board are pretty direct communicators, which might be jarring if you aren't used to that. I'd also say that VT is not known for hand holding it's students--you really have to be a self starter, ask for help when you need it, find some people in classes to study with if that might help you, etc. I do think the main thing is, if she likes engineering and this is what she wants to do, she'll do great. Va Tech has a lot of opportunities for engineering students-I loved my time there, and the projects I worked on. It's a big campus with lots of opportunity to socialize outside of engineering--my college best friends were not engineers, but people I met in the dorms my sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is a female and has applied to Virginia tech engineering. I noticed the female population is pretty low for engineering something like 25%. Anyone has daughters that attend in the engineering prgms? How is it? Is there toxic male energy there? Is there room for growth and support from the faculty itself?

More of a nerdy vibe and a lot of Asian students that are far from "toxic" male energy.

is this because Asians are mostly in engineering school? only 15% of total first year students accodring cds.

Last year it was 1,791 Asian to 10,275 total engineering students, so closer to 20%. https://eng.vt.edu/about/student-facts-and-figures.html (the term "asian" is blank on the chart for some reason, but you can tell what it should be by looking at the graduate figures below).

What is particularly interesting about VT engineering is that it is almost 50% OOS. It's 4,553 OOS to 5,742 instate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a female graduate of VT engineering, but a while ago, though it sounds like the ratio hasn't changed. I have no idea what the vibe is like now, but some things that probably haven't changed because the ratio hasn't. (one caveat is chemical engineering which skews more female than other specialties--an across the board average isn't relevant once you are past freshman year). I chose ME, which was slightly lower than the 25% average. I think there were about 20 women in my graduation year of a bit more than 100 people. You will be a visible minority in you engineering classes, about 3-4 in any given class, which might be a new experience for your daughter--but on the flip side, the women tended to be pretty friendly with each other and were more close knit than I think the male students were with each other. I think engineers across the board are pretty direct communicators, which might be jarring if you aren't used to that. I'd also say that VT is not known for hand holding it's students--you really have to be a self starter, ask for help when you need it, find some people in classes to study with if that might help you, etc. I do think the main thing is, if she likes engineering and this is what she wants to do, she'll do great. Va Tech has a lot of opportunities for engineering students-I loved my time there, and the projects I worked on. It's a big campus with lots of opportunity to socialize outside of engineering--my college best friends were not engineers, but people I met in the dorms my sophomore year.

Thanks, this was helpful! I have a female junior OOS considering VT for engineering, most likely ME.

[Anonymous]

I have a female senior Hokie (OOS) studying engineering. She's majoring in Biological Systems Engineering, which has a heavier female presence than some of the other engineering majors. She's has an excellent experience! Paid internships in summer, 2 job offers for after graduation, one of which she's accepted. She's also on a design team that has competed at Nationals the last few years and placed very high. She's had time to participate in other clubs, as well as 2 years of research with a faculty member.

To my knowledge, she's not had many issues with sexism type stuff - in her first semester Intro Engineering class (general engineering), she was the only female in her project group. The guys underestimated her but the script flipped when they realized she could program and she led them in all that work. She also had to head up the group and delegate tasks because at least one of the others was not doing what he needed to work-wise.

Two of her roommates are female engineering students who both have had great experiences at VT as well, one in Civil and one in Aerospace. They also have been successful getting paid summer internships and job offers for post-grad.

I work at a T10 private and was not sure what to expect from a large state school like VT, but I have been very impressed.

[Anonymous]

VT is Blacksburg.. how do these engineers land internships? Do companies trek all the way to campus or its mostly online/connections?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VT is Blacksburg.. how do these engineers land internships? Do companies trek all the way to campus or its mostly online/connections?

good question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VT is Blacksburg.. how do these engineers land internships? Do companies trek all the way to campus or its mostly online/connections?

They have huge career fairs. So, yes, employers go to Blacksburg.