DCUM Forum

Anonymous

02/21/2026 14:42 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

UVA has aerospace. I have a kid at UVA Engineering and he knows of students who are graduating in May who have already landed jobs at Blue Origin and NASA.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 14:38 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son got also accepted at UMD and Purdue. Not sure why anyone would pick Purdue over in-state UMD. Both are great schools bit cost difference is significant. I would be interested to learn the rationale.

Op here, UMD is oos for us. UMd about $2k more than purdue for our situation

Why do people say that UMD is an urban campus? It’s not.
$2k more but hundreds of miles closer and with an urban campus.
Also, not sure about your son's APs, but double check what's Purdue policy. UMD accepts them and many kids graduate 1 semester earlier saving about 14k in tuition, dorm and food costs. Just my 2 cents

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:51 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Kid with some similar options. Keep in mind that FYE at Purdue, while great, doesn’t guarantee your first pick of major and aero is one of the most competitive.
While Case is Urban, there is a real campus. Nice sized both population and campus wise. My DC got a lot of merit, but the intense feeling we both felt wasn’t the right fit. I’m glad we saw it and it was worth the trip.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:38 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:Case Western, VT, and UIUC would be the ones to visit.

I would agree with this if he hadn't already seen VT. I think UMD is a good option to put in that spot.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:31 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

I would look at the engineering graduation rate at all of the engineering programs under consideration.

Intentional weed-out courses can be demoralizing even for the very best students.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:30 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

UVA has had a well respected Aerospace Engineering degree for more than 40 years.

They routinely place graduates to work at Boeing, Northrup, Lockheed, and elsewhere to actual design/engineer aircraft -- commercial & military, manned and unmanned.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:24 Subject: Re:Engineering, several acceptances

Mine is going to do aero and has been admitted to a similar list, including Purdue. Waiting on GT, but otherwise will be Purdue.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:19 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would visit Case. I think that the smaller private school experience is substantially different from the big public experience and he should see if he likes it.

I also agree that UIUC is one to visit because it stands out on your list for reputation.

Finally, assuming you are in the DMV, I would visit UMD. It’s a great school and it’s easy to get to. I think that every school you visit has an opportunity to realize “Hey, I didn’t know C mattered to me until I visited a school that had (or didn’t have) it”. So UMD gives you an opportunity to see more and maybe have that moment.

Also does he have other preferences? My kid likes cold weather. He wouldn’t pick solely on that, but if he got into such a great list of schools it might be enough for him to cross UF off. On the other hand, if your kid loves warm weather that would be a reason to visit.

Congrats to your kid on a fantastic list!

I think this is the right priority order, and for the right reasons, but there’s also a strong argument not to borrow trouble and just to let him commit to Purdue. It’s the best aero program of this strong group.

Agreed. Purdue has a great Aerospace program.

Op. We really loved Purdue campus (the only ones we can compare to were UVA, VA tech), and the fact it is fye, where it gives them chance to clearly make informed decision when committing to actual major end of freshman year. Most other schools were accepting direct aerospace . Reading comments here, I feel we will keep our case tour we scheduled awhile ago, and add UIUc and maybe UMD.

In terms of price below is the order from cheapest to most expensive. Our two in state flagships with no merit are the least and most expensive.

VA tech
U Florida
Case western, Purdue honor
Ohio State
UMD
UVA

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:10 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would visit Case. I think that the smaller private school experience is substantially different from the big public experience and he should see if he likes it.

I also agree that UIUC is one to visit because it stands out on your list for reputation.

Finally, assuming you are in the DMV, I would visit UMD. It’s a great school and it’s easy to get to. I think that every school you visit has an opportunity to realize “Hey, I didn’t know C mattered to me until I visited a school that had (or didn’t have) it”. So UMD gives you an opportunity to see more and maybe have that moment.

Also does he have other preferences? My kid likes cold weather. He wouldn’t pick solely on that, but if he got into such a great list of schools it might be enough for him to cross UF off. On the other hand, if your kid loves warm weather that would be a reason to visit.

Congrats to your kid on a fantastic list!

I think this is the right priority order, and for the right reasons, but there’s also a strong argument not to borrow trouble and just to let him commit to Purdue. It’s the best aero program of this strong group.

Agreed. Purdue has a great Aerospace program.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:09 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:GT was also the Olympic village where the athletes stayed at in 1996

Yes, the Olympic pool on campus is something to behold.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 13:07 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:I would visit Case. I think that the smaller private school experience is substantially different from the big public experience and he should see if he likes it.

I also agree that UIUC is one to visit because it stands out on your list for reputation.

Finally, assuming you are in the DMV, I would visit UMD. It’s a great school and it’s easy to get to. I think that every school you visit has an opportunity to realize “Hey, I didn’t know C mattered to me until I visited a school that had (or didn’t have) it”. So UMD gives you an opportunity to see more and maybe have that moment.

Also does he have other preferences? My kid likes cold weather. He wouldn’t pick solely on that, but if he got into such a great list of schools it might be enough for him to cross UF off. On the other hand, if your kid loves warm weather that would be a reason to visit.

Congrats to your kid on a fantastic list!

I think this is the right priority order, and for the right reasons, but there’s also a strong argument not to borrow trouble and just to let him commit to Purdue. It’s the best aero program of this strong group.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 12:58 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would visit Case. I think that the smaller private school experience is substantially different from the big public experience and he should see if he likes i

Also does he have other preferences? My kid likes cold weather. He wouldn’t pick solely on that, but if he got into such a great list of schools it might be enough for him to cross UF off. On the other hand, if your kid loves warm weather that would be a reason to visit.

Congrats to your kid on a fantastic list!

Thank you!
DC prefers cold, campus should have good rec centers with climbing walls and swimming pool. I feel they prefer nerdier crowd than party crowd. Not interested in parties, late nights and such, at least as of today. Very interested in strong technology advanced labs. Preferably close college town , not university dispersed within city ( like George Washington in DC, or Georgia tech in Atlanta).

Case is urban. But it is nerdier and smaller.

I toured UIUC with my kid (not for engineering). It's a very typical Midwest flagship. My kid goes to another of those. It's like Penn State/Wisconsin/Indiana/Michigan in campus layout.

I think you need to read all the sources of info you can about aerospace engineering and emphasize that over campus fit.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 12:55 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

GT was also the Olympic village where the athletes stayed at in 1996

Anonymous

02/21/2026 12:44 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

Georgia Tech is not dispersed in a city - at least not for Engineering. It has fairly defined borders with academic buildings throughout and generally bordered by dorms, dining halls, Campus Rec Center, and Bobby Dodd football field. For Mech Eng, all classes are on campus which is really nice with Tech Green and many trees and pathways. Just beyond campus is Tech Square with many small restaurants and a large bookstore and apartment buildings catering to students. That said, they are building more on campus dorms.

Anonymous

02/21/2026 12:39 Subject: Engineering, several acceptances

You don't necessarily need to major in aerospace to pursue a career in that field. Mechanical will do fine. Aerospace is often very cyclical, and a mechanical engineering degree will likely offer more options in different sectors.

That being said this is a very good list of engineering admits. I'd look most closely at Purdue honors, UIUC, and UMD.