Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard the avg GPA is insanely high among the accepted.

It is for Tech engineering. We went to engineering day. 4.0 expected. My vote would be Tech over JMU because you're not 100% sure he's going into engineering. Tech has a better reputation and more flexibility. It is difficult, however, to make the transfer within tech to the engineering school. Most likely you will not get the intro engineering course so plan for an extra year. Also the Tech calculus engineering course is bone-crushing. They do want to cull out the weak students.

I would say the opposite. JMU has a top notch business school if he wants to change majors. He will likely end up at grad school for engineering anyways.

In many schools (not just VT), it is very difficult to transfer in from General Studies. Not impossible, but usually high GPA required in math and science classes. A general engineering degree from JMU is fine, but he may need to go to grad school for engineering in order to broaden his career options.
If he likes business, perhaps engineering in undergrad and getting his MBA could be a good route too. I'd advise him to choose the school environment he likes best, engineering is hard enough - better to be in a place he likes.

Anonymous wrote:I've heard the avg GPA is insanely high among the accepted.

It is for Tech engineering. We went to engineering day. 4.0 expected. My vote would be Tech over JMU because you're not 100% sure he's going into engineering. Tech has a better reputation and more flexibility. It is difficult, however, to make the transfer within tech to the engineering school. Most likely you will not get the intro engineering course so plan for an extra year. Also the Tech calculus engineering course is bone-crushing. They do want to cull out the weak students.

What 17:56 said. It doesn't have the depth of courses that traditional engineering programs have. It's s general engineering with hands-on projects from the start and lots of collaborative work. New, so less known but self interesting.

I've heard the avg GPA is insanely high among the accepted.

My husband hires a lot of new engineering grads (he an EE). He said he doesn't know any from JMU and that he would suggest GMU or JMU for engineering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?

Just go to Tech, do University Studies and then transfer into VT engineering. Plenty of students do this. In the larger engineering (ME, CE and EE) no one will even notice.

This requires the student to do well. A 3.0 average will not be sufficient....

Anonymous wrote:Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?

Just go to Tech, do University Studies and then transfer into VT engineering. Plenty of students do this. In the larger engineering (ME, CE and EE) no one will even notice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?

I didn't know they had one. I'm an engineer, know a lot of other engineers and I don't know a single one who graduated from JMU. A lot from Tech, though...

That's because it hasn't been around long enough to know anyone who graduated. They are all young yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?

I didn't know they had one. I'm an engineer, know a lot of other engineers and I don't know a single one who graduated from JMU. A lot from Tech, though...

It is relatively new. They have a new college of science and engineering. I've heard good things.

I didn't know now that hey had one either. But from the looks of it, it's ABET accredited and project based and fairly new as it started in 2008.. Looks like everyone gets a BS in general engineering and not specialties. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your DS.

Anonymous wrote:Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?

I didn't know they had one. I'm an engineer, know a lot of other engineers and I don't know a single one who graduated from JMU. A lot from Tech, though...

Son got into Tech and some other great schools but not for engineering. He did however get into the engineering program at JMU. He is torn between majoring in business and engineering. Lately, he is favoring engineering. Having a tough time deciding what he wants to do. Can anyone tell me about JMU's engineering program?