Anonymous wrote:Get the best engineering degree you can, and then if you don't want to do engineering, you can go to grad school for business, law, heck, even creative writing. But you really can't do the reverse. That engineering degree will be a valuable base for anything else you want to do if you don't love engineering itself in the end.

Good advice. Why study CS at UVA? Go to GaTech for engineering.

I am GA Tech graduate (20 years ago), have BS (Science) and MS (Engineering) from there.
GA tech is Engineering and Science school. It is tough school. It is serious place.
I obviously have many friends from GaTech. All who were technical major CS, Math, any type of Engineering = were successful in their fields.
On the other hand Biologyy, Economics majors etc. = felt that Georgia Tech was wrong place for them. They had to work extremely hard, and still could not get high GPAs.
That limited their choices for grad schools.

On the other hand, if you are sure 100% that you want to do Aerospace Engineering, you cannot beat GaTech.

I think since you are not sure what you are doing in your life yet, you better stay with UVA. It is great school, you will have many choices. It will not cost your fortune to change major. If you will decided to do engineering, you can transfer to VaTech and save a lot of money. You can use saved money to go to GaTech for masters in that case .

^^ also was trying to say that since Va Tech was binding and I was applying to an SCEA I couldn't apply to Va Tech early. When I got into "better" aerospace schools, it no longer made sense to apply to Va Tech RD. I would have applied had not they had ED. I applied to UVA because I was a Jefferson Scholarship nominee (didn't get it).

Anonymous wrote:This is a random but think about where you want to live after college

If you want to or are ok with living in the DC area choose UVA
If you want to or are ok with living somewhere else besides DC or VA generally choose Georgia Tech

Also don't think too hard. You will do well wherever you will go

Congratulations

A lot of gt grads end up on the west coast.

Anonymous wrote:Op - Vtech not an option?

OP here. Va Tech is ED (binding). I got in everywhere EA ED or SCEA to schools that ranked in aerospace much higher. I liked Va Tech (visited) but my scores put me more in the Purdue, MIT, Cal Tech range, along with Ga. Tech.

This is a random but think about where you want to live after college

If you want to or are ok with living in the DC area choose UVA
If you want to or are ok with living somewhere else besides DC or VA generally choose Georgia Tech

Also don't think too hard. You will do well wherever you will go

Congratulations

Get the best engineering degree you can, and then if you don't want to do engineering, you can go to grad school for business, law, heck, even creative writing. But you really can't do the reverse. That engineering degree will be a valuable base for anything else you want to do if you don't love engineering itself in the end.

Can't really answer your question but can provide my input - I went to UVa and majored in CS - part of Engineering there. Did a minor in the Comm School in MIS. I didn't want to go to a full on tech school - I wanted other options. I ended up not needing them but having UVa on my resume has always been a plus. Obviously, computer science is vastly different from AeroSpace.

UVa is a great school in a great town. I'm from Atlanta and while Tech is a great school it's in the middle of a city which has it's issues. You won't have the college town experience there which Charlottesville is great for. Though, you will be a "minority" at UVa - being in the E-School

I went to u of Md for undergrad and grad and considered uva for grad.
My take on UVa for aerospace engineering was it was more about the background subjects - the science prerequisites and the higher level math and less of the applied stuff. At Maryland we had space systems labs, wind tunnels, a rotorcraft lab and a composite materials lab. As an engineer my brain turns on for the applied stuff so I chose Maryland. Uva had a car crash lab.

I have two close friends who went to Georgia Tech and that seemed like the real deal to me - bigger than Maryland offering a lot more options, classes and professors, seemed a lot less petty than Maryland but academically challenging as engineering is supposed to be (if you don't do your work you get your well deserved F- as it should be). Graduates seem very well prepared and productive.
I'd go with Ga Tech personally.

( and by the way guys - I'm a gal with an A average).

Georgia tech hands down. It is well ranked for aerospace. UVA gave us a bad vibe for engineering but GT was a happy happy place. Talked to several recent grads and they were thrilled to go there. My daughter choose yet another school OOS but a different field. While everyone will advise you where to go you really should trust yourself and pick happiness over anything else. Good luck

Anonymous wrote:Georgia tech is one of the top engineering schools in the country. The job offers post graduation are phenomenal. The question isn't if you want to do aerospace but if you want a stem degree. If you want a business degree go to UVA.

This.

I would choose Georgia tech for their coop program. Many students intern throughout college (being sophomore year) and graduate one or two semesters later as a result. The coop pay is fantastic and your resume is set upon graduation. Many of the employers are Fortune 500 and it is an invaluable experience that costs nothing. It's fairly common to have a full-time offer of employment halfway through your senior year. You could easily contribute to the additional tuition.

I wouldn't discount going to school in a city and being able to gain work experience during school. UVA is an excellent and probably more prestigious school but Georgia tech is more likely to result in quite a few job offers come graduation.

Anonymous wrote:Title says it, I guess. I'm trying to decide between the two. Parents are cool about the OOS tuition but the difference is at least $20K a year. My concern is that I am not 100% convinced I want to do aerospace engineering. I think I do. I've done well on all the testing and have had calculus and scored well on subject matter tests and got in everywhere I applied. I'm just scared I'm making a big mistake if I go to a Tech school and decide after a year that I might want something not in the math or the sciences. I'm only 17 so find it difficult to make a life choice this minute but have to. I don't want to do a gap year. UVA has aerospace engineering, too, but the Ga Tech program is clearly in another league. Yes, I've toured both campuses (and others). Confused. I could make another two trips to both campuses next week, but am running out of time. Thanks for any advice you might have.

The first question is: how is the extra $20k per year being paid for?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you said Virginia Tech, it's a no brainer, stay in state. But UVA vs. GT for aerospace? It's a no brainer. GT is the obvious choice. We hire a lot of engineers (including aerospace) and, after Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech is where we recruit from the most. We have very few from UVA.

+1

Agree. Why apply to UVA over Tech if the goal was any kind of engineering degree?

Anonymous wrote:Op - Vtech not an option?

No. Please don't choose VA Tech over GA Tech or UVA. Big mistake!!!