Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMD is in a gross part of PG county, but it's close to home. VT campus is beautiful but about 4 hours from here.

Ridiculous comment. First of all, its fine. 2nd of all, however you might describe it, there are for worse parts of PG. Sheesh.

The ^PP probably thinks there are too many people of a certain color in that area.

NP. I agree with first poster. College Park is a ghetto. Even the Ikea kids play area looks like a dump.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tour and select best fit. UMD will have more diverse students fwiw.

+1 on the whole, UMD > VTech but for Engineering, it's about the same.

UMD is one of the most diverse univ in the country, and that includes gender diversity. It also has a better football team and is part of the B1G for research, too.

https://btaa.org/about/member-universities

My son is weighing both schools do no dog in fight. Saying UMD football is better seems like a stretch. The schools are 6-7 spots apart in ranking. I'd give the nod for VT for food and campus to make up for those 6-7 spots.

Anonymous wrote:Tour and select best fit. UMD will have more diverse students fwiw.

+1 on the whole, UMD > VTech but for Engineering, it's about the same.

UMD is one of the most diverse univ in the country, and that includes gender diversity. It also has a better football team and is part of the B1G for research, too.

https://btaa.org/about/member-universities

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either is fine. Pick in-state if that is an option.

As a STEM hiring manager, I mostly don't care what rank your engineering / STEM program had, provided it either is Caltech, MIT, Stanford, or it is AbET accredited. ABET sets a high floor. I care a lot whether a student took rigorous in-major upper level electives. We hire from many STEM programs. We consistently find that "program rank" from US News (or wherever) does not correlate with either ability or knowledge or on the job performance.

The US News engineering rankings are "based on peer assessment surveys of deans and senior faculty from accredited U.S. institutions" of "peer programs they were familiar with". Your finding that there is not a great correlation between the rankings (outside of the toppermost of the poppermost programs) and the ability or knowledge of graduates gibes with this haphazard methodology.

Alex, I will take what people say from USNWR lower ranked engineering programs for $100.

Tour and select best fit. UMD will have more diverse students fwiw.

Anonymous wrote:Either is fine. Pick in-state if that is an option.

As a STEM hiring manager, I mostly don't care what rank your engineering / STEM program had, provided it either is Caltech, MIT, Stanford, or it is AbET accredited. ABET sets a high floor. I care a lot whether a student took rigorous in-major upper level electives. We hire from many STEM programs. We consistently find that "program rank" from US News (or wherever) does not correlate with either ability or knowledge or on the job performance.

The US News engineering rankings are "based on peer assessment surveys of deans and senior faculty from accredited U.S. institutions" of "peer programs they were familiar with". Your finding that there is not a great correlation between the rankings (outside of the toppermost of the poppermost programs) and the ability or knowledge of graduates gibes with this haphazard methodology.

go with the in state

Anonymous wrote:VT is ranked higher than UMD for Electrical? Is that correct?

I believe UMD is slightly higher but it's not significant enough to make big differences. You can't go wrong with either one OP. Pick the one that makes most sense for your kid/family

UMD has the purple line opening soon. It goes right through the center of the campus and will make getting into DC much easier. My DC goes into DC often for concerts etc.

My other DC at Penn State can't go anywhere. The town is nice but there is literally nothing else in that area. IDK if Vtech is the same or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMD is in a gross part of PG county, but it's close to home. VT campus is beautiful but about 4 hours from here.

Ridiculous comment. First of all, its fine. 2nd of all, however you might describe it, there are for worse parts of PG. Sheesh.

The ^PP probably thinks there are too many people of a certain color in that area.

Anonymous wrote:My DD has been accepted to both. We visit UMD in two weeks for admitted students day. We are in state for VT and know the school well, as my older daughter attends. Budget is not an issue and UMD offered her merit, which was a nice surprise. She was also invited to join the.FIRE program. Any perspective between the programs? She is looking for supportive professors, collaborative environment, opportunities for internships and research, fun social atmosphere. She will likely know no one at UMD as folks from our area just don’t apply there for some reason. Which program would you choose for your kiddo?

Congratulations. We are a Virginia family too. Son is a junior CS major. Obviously not an engineer nor did he apply to Tech. Was able to get some merit too which made it "comparable" to in-state VA. Accepted into the Honors College, but only stayed with it for a year. Not knowing anyone, it helped him meet people and he's still friends with today. Active in an academic club and club sports. Attends nearly every home athletic event. CP is not "pretty" but the area immediately by the campus on Route 1 is filled with new high rise off campus housing. Not sure if your son is a "partier" but fake IDs are prevalent to get in the 4-5 bars within walking distance. Was ablevto secure summer internships all 3 years. He loves it there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD has been accepted to both. We visit UMD in two weeks for admitted students day. We are in state for VT and know the school well, as my older daughter attends. Budget is not an issue and UMD offered her merit, which was a nice surprise. She was also invited to join the.FIRE program. Any perspective between the programs? She is looking for supportive professors, collaborative environment, opportunities for internships and research, fun social atmosphere. She will likely know no one at UMD as folks from our area just don’t apply there for some reason. Which program would you choose for your kiddo?

Just wanted to warn to look carefully at how the Fire classes fit into the 4 year plan. My child is at UMD for Mechanical Engineering, but chose not to do Fire as it would add extra classes that would not count towards their degree.

OP, please ask this question during your upcoming visit. My understanding is that all the UMD special programs (honors, communities, FIRE, etc.) apply towards graduation.

FIRE s a 3-semester program (typically freshman to sophomore year) that acts as a research internship. It counts towards the degree and fulfills a GenEd requirement.

Congratulations to your daughter. I think she will have a better idea after the visits.

Make sure you look at that 4 year plan. Many of the UMD Gen Ed's fulfill multiple requirements, but I think only 2 of the Fire classes count towards 1 Gen Ed each. And 2 of the Fire classes are just electives. Other majors have free electives, where those other 2 classes would count for something, but I don't believe Mechanical Engineering does. Have your daughter look at the Living Learning program, Flexus for female engineers. It's really a great program for freshman.

Anonymous wrote:UMD is in a gross part of PG county, but it's close to home. VT campus is beautiful but about 4 hours from here.

Ridiculous comment. First of all, its fine. 2nd of all, however you might describe it, there are for worse parts of PG. Sheesh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD has been accepted to both. We visit UMD in two weeks for admitted students day. We are in state for VT and know the school well, as my older daughter attends. Budget is not an issue and UMD offered her merit, which was a nice surprise. She was also invited to join the.FIRE program. Any perspective between the programs? She is looking for supportive professors, collaborative environment, opportunities for internships and research, fun social atmosphere. She will likely know no one at UMD as folks from our area just don’t apply there for some reason. Which program would you choose for your kiddo?

Just wanted to warn to look carefully at how the Fire classes fit into the 4 year plan. My child is at UMD for Mechanical Engineering, but chose not to do Fire as it would add extra classes that would not count towards their degree.

OP, please ask this question during your upcoming visit. My understanding is that all the UMD special programs (honors, communities, FIRE, etc.) apply towards graduation.

FIRE s a 3-semester program (typically freshman to sophomore year) that acts as a research internship. It counts towards the degree and fulfills a GenEd requirement.

Congratulations to your daughter. I think she will have a better idea after the visits.

My kid is an engineering freshman at UMD. I was surprised at how nice the campus was, after repeatedly hearing it wasn't a nice campus. I think it's nice. Things seem to be going well but it's early yet. He DOES seem to be spending a lot of time with high school friends, which has made me wonder if it's harder for non-residents to make friends.

We are instate so that drove the decision for us because for us cost IS a factor. But our research also showed that Penn State and Va Tech are ranked lower than UMD in engineering, so we might have chosen UMD anyway even if we could have afforded the others. I doubt the small difference in ranking matters much - I think they are all considered good at engineering. I would try to do overnights or a day long visit at both and see which one she likes best and just go with her gut since you don't have to worry about the cost.