For undergrad engineering, UVA or Tech?

[Anonymous]

UVa engineering grad here - if your kid is truly committed to being a working engineer, Va Tech is fine. However, if a kid ever wants to do something different during school or after, the kid will be much better off at UVA. A large number of entering engineering students fail out, and at UVA, these students can switch over to very well respected liberal arts programs. Also, I have many classmates who have gone on to do amazing things outside of engineering (become lawyers, doctors, start companies, work on Wall street, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VT alum here, so I'm biased, but Tech is ranked higher than UVA for engineering, and VT alums are highly-sought after in the eng'g industry. Just off the top of my head, a few of my eng'g graduate friends are working for GE, a satellite tech startup in Reston, and Alcoa.

Must be a regional thing. Never heard of the school until the mass murders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVa engineering grad here - if your kid is truly committed to being a working engineer, Va Tech is fine. However, if a kid ever wants to do something different during school or after, the kid will be much better off at UVA. A large number of entering engineering students fail out, and at UVA, these students can switch over to very well respected liberal arts programs. Also, I have many classmates who have gone on to do amazing things outside of engineering (become lawyers, doctors, start companies, work on Wall street, etc.).

+1. Do well at UVA and then go to an awesome grad eng program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVa engineering grad here - if your kid is truly committed to being a working engineer, Va Tech is fine. However, if a kid ever wants to do something different during school or after, the kid will be much better off at UVA. A large number of entering engineering students fail out, and at UVA, these students can switch over to very well respected liberal arts programs. Also, I have many classmates who have gone on to do amazing things outside of engineering (become lawyers, doctors, start companies, work on Wall street, etc.).

That's a great point. I chose a higher ranked overall university vs. a lower ranked but higher ranked engineering program and I'm glad I did. once I found out that engineering really wasn't for me, it left me with a plethora of other, strong options. That probably wouldn't have been the case had I gone to the lower ranked school.

[Anonymous]

Va Tech, but it is difficult to get into. YOu must apply as a freshman in your application to the Engineering School. Of the 8 colleges, Engineering is the most difficult to get into, followed by architecture and two others. You must list a second college - not of the top four - as your second choice.

[Anonymous]

I've known a lot of kids who start off as engineering but then switch to something else. Regardless, I'd choose UVA, no question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Va Tech, but it is difficult to get into. YOu must apply as a freshman in your application to the Engineering School. Of the 8 colleges, Engineering is the most difficult to get into, followed by architecture and two others. You must list a second college - not of the top four - as your second choice.

You can just enter as undecided, which is called "university studies" and then transfer into any major. Some are restricted - engineering - but if you take the pre-reqs it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but it would be really silly to go to UVA for engineering. Here is the 2014 USNWR rankings for specialized engineering majors - UVA doesn't show up one time, but VT is ranked in the top 10-20 in every category except materials and biomedical engineering:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ABE/AboutUs/NewsAndEvents/Spotlights/threepeat-for-abe-undergrad-programs/2014%20Undergraduate%20Specialty%20Rankings%209.10.13.pdf (this list has Purdue highlighted in each category but ignore that, couldn't find the list on USNWR for free)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Va Tech, but it is difficult to get into. YOu must apply as a freshman in your application to the Engineering School. Of the 8 colleges, Engineering is the most difficult to get into, followed by architecture and two others. You must list a second college - not of the top four - as your second choice.

You can just enter as undecided, which is called "university studies" and then transfer into any major. Some are restricted - engineering - but if you take the pre-reqs it doesn't matter.

Wow. This is so not the case in real life. Sounds good, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Va Tech, but it is difficult to get into. YOu must apply as a freshman in your application to the Engineering School. Of the 8 colleges, Engineering is the most difficult to get into, followed by architecture and two others. You must list a second college - not of the top four - as your second choice.

You can just enter as undecided, which is called "university studies" and then transfer into any major. Some are restricted - engineering - but if you take the pre-reqs it doesn't matter.

Wow. This is so not the case in real life. Sounds good, though.

Um, what? Read up. I have plenty of friends who transferred into engineering from university studies and are quite successful now. I also have friends who entered the College of Engineering as freshmen and transferred out and graduated with some other major.

http://www.admiss.vt.edu/majors/index.php/majors/major/US

[Anonymous]

Virginia Tech for sure.

As someone in an engineering field that deals with recruitment, Virginia Tech is a much better school in that specific field. Recruiters are all over that place, and it has a lot of programs that give students hands on engineering experience.

Talk to engineers, but Virginia Tech is better. For everything else, UVA is better!

[Anonymous]

Got accepted to both Tech and UVA, but decided UVA for EE instead. Had a lot of friends going to VT for engineering instead. 30 years later, base on colleagues that attends both, I say both programs are equally good. UVA is a lot closer to NoVA so that's a big plus!!

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, my sister and nephew attended the UVA engineering open house and were extremely unimpressed. She said it felt like she was walking through a middle school science fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth, my sister and nephew attended the UVA engineering open house and were extremely unimpressed. She said it felt like she was walking through a middle school science fair.

Why did they say that? What did they expect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Va Tech, but it is difficult to get into. YOu must apply as a freshman in your application to the Engineering School. Of the 8 colleges, Engineering is the most difficult to get into, followed by architecture and two others. You must list a second college - not of the top four - as your second choice.

You can just enter as undecided, which is called "university studies" and then transfer into any major. Some are restricted - engineering - but if you take the pre-reqs it doesn't matter.

Wow. This is so not the case in real life. Sounds good, though.

Um, what? Read up. I have plenty of friends who transferred into engineering from university studies and are quite successful now. I also have friends who entered the College of Engineering as freshmen and transferred out and graduated with some other major.

http://www.admiss.vt.edu/majors/index.php/majors/major/US

So your eye roll is based on your first hand experience that's 15 yrs old?