For undergrad engineering, UVA or Tech?

[Anonymous]

00:34 thank you. Gives us lots to chew over. Application still a couple of years off but helpful in how to evaluate information. DC Would prefer a less competitive environment by nature, not ability. Would enjoy all kinds of hands-on fabrication opportunies, is analytcal and somewhat interested in new building techniques, more sustainable technology , environmental impact, etc. thanks for your help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA Engineering Grad here with many friends at VT.

If you child absolutely wants to study engineering and work at a company with the title of "engineer" after college, VT is a better choice. The curriculum is more hands on and practical like you would expect from a Tech school. The companies that recruit heavily at VT tend to be more traditional engineering companies in mature fields. Does your child like to build things in their spare time? VT is the school for kids that restore cars, build circuit boards, or fly model airplanes. The study body is fairly normal with some weirdos and backwoods folksy kids. If your kid is a lacrosse bro or NOVA princess, VT will feel rural and different to them. If they switch out of engineering like many people do, they are pretty screwed and their career trajectory will suffer. While a small sample set, my liberal arts VT friends are underperforming compared to my liberal arts UVA friends.

If you are at all unsure of your field of study or career trajectory, UVA is the better choice. UVA's curriculum is more high level and focuses on developing analytic thinking skills. UVA allows students to take electives outside engineering and offers many hybrid type classes like engineering ethics. It's possible to minor or double major in something outside of the E-school and graduate on time. I graduated with a double major in Economics and I think this has served me well. That said, I was the kid that built model airplanes and I resented that the curriculum was not more hands on. The labs were boring step by step required classes and there were not many design projects or opportunities to tinker with anything. However, I found the engineering student body to be exceptionally bright and normal. The E-school personality is dialed back a notch or two from the pretentiousness of the overall student body. However, your child should consider themselves somewhat "preppy" to feel comfortable. Companies that typically recruit UVA engineering grads included the mature engineering companies, but more recently those in evolving fields like BioMed and other smaller tech startups. These companies want the high level problem solving skills that UVA teaches. UVA engineering grads are heavily recruited into consulting, finance, healthcare and energy sectors.

Thanks for such a complete and thoughtful answer. Great info to share!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA Engineering Grad here with many friends at VT.

If you child absolutely wants to study engineering and work at a company with the title of "engineer" after college, VT is a better choice. The curriculum is more hands on and practical like you would expect from a Tech school. The companies that recruit heavily at VT tend to be more traditional engineering companies in mature fields. Does your child like to build things in their spare time? VT is the school for kids that restore cars, build circuit boards, or fly model airplanes. The study body is fairly normal with some weirdos and backwoods folksy kids. If your kid is a lacrosse bro or NOVA princess, VT will feel rural and different to them. If they switch out of engineering like many people do, they are pretty screwed and their career trajectory will suffer. While a small sample set, my liberal arts VT friends are underperforming compared to my liberal arts UVA friends.

If you are at all unsure of your field of study or career trajectory, UVA is the better choice. UVA's curriculum is more high level and focuses on developing analytic thinking skills. UVA allows students to take electives outside engineering and offers many hybrid type classes like engineering ethics. It's possible to minor or double major in something outside of the E-school and graduate on time. I graduated with a double major in Economics and I think this has served me well. That said, I was the kid that built model airplanes and I resented that the curriculum was not more hands on. The labs were boring step by step required classes and there were not many design projects or opportunities to tinker with anything. However, I found the engineering student body to be exceptionally bright and normal. The E-school personality is dialed back a notch or two from the pretentiousness of the overall student body. However, your child should consider themselves somewhat "preppy" to feel comfortable. Companies that typically recruit UVA engineering grads included the mature engineering companies, but more recently those in evolving fields like BioMed and other smaller tech startups. These companies want the high level problem solving skills that UVA teaches. UVA engineering grads are heavily recruited into consulting, finance, healthcare and energy sectors.

Thanks for such a complete and thoughtful answer. Great info to share!

Yes, thank you PP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mason is a commuter school, comparable to a community college. Fine for what it does. Like umbc. But it's not going to move the needle.

Actually UMBC is harder to get into than VT

UMBC is crazy good computer science.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

UMBC stands for YOU MUST BE CRAZY