Anonymous wrote:OP chiming in here late —

I have a VT senior. Pls visit Blacksburg if you haven’t had the chance to. It really is a beautiful town.

The students and amazing friendships DD has made at VT are really special to her. I have to say that in our visits over the years that all the students I came across seemed just happy and well balanced. It sounds sort of simplistic but I was really glad DD was surrounded by peers who were happy.

She had many amazing professors and tons of support. She loved her time at VT.

+100
I agree with all of the above. My DD currently has two of her OOS VT friends staying here with us as it's spring break. They are such smart and nice kids! We feel incredibly lucky that she was able to attend this fantastic school.

OP chiming in here late —

I have a VT senior. Pls visit Blacksburg if you haven’t had the chance to. It really is a beautiful town.

The students and amazing friendships DD has made at VT are really special to her. I have to say that in our visits over the years that all the students I came across seemed just happy and well balanced. It sounds sort of simplistic but I was really glad DD was surrounded by peers who were happy.

She had many amazing professors and tons of support. She loved her time at VT.

This is OP. Just want to say thanks for the responses. It was helpful. Of course fit will be the number one factor, but it was interesting to hear about perceived value of rankings, etc.

My DC was accepted to RIT, WPI, and Drexel a couple years ago (applied but not accepted to VT, did not apply to Case). He’s at RPI now, but we visited all the campuses but Case. If he’d gotten into VT it would also have been the most expensive since we’re OOS (he was waitlisted so I had the cost in my spreadsheet along with the others).

A couple things to consider is direct admit to major—I believe VT does a first year engineering curriculum, and then students select their preference for a major—and whether they get their first choice has to do with how well they do freshmen year, whereas the others on your list admit directly to major, so your kid knows they’re in right from the start.

Then I’d also consider which are R1 research universities, which RIT is not, so I might exclude that. RIT and Drexel are very big on co-ops if that’s of interest, but RIT’s location is not great and Drexel is, in general, just not as strong a school as the others.

WPI is unique with its quarter system and project requirements, so make sure your kid is OK with that setup. It’s also over 60% male (RIT too).

Since you can pay for either, I’d probably suggest Case and VT as the top options and let other factors make the difference. If DC wants big sports scene, large campus, more social, VT’s probably the one. If they want smaller, in/near city and are less into partying, it’s probably Case. I don’t think VT is “worth” the higher price from an engineering perspective, but may be worth it from a “happy kid” perspective.

Anonymous wrote:You need to visit the campuses and see how the fit is. Ask questions when there (are classes all taught by professors, co-ops and internships). My daughter is interested in engineering and she is leaning towards a university where the focus isn't fully engineering in case she ends up wanting to change majors. Also ease to get to if needed may be a factor if $$ isn't an issue.

Almost every school with engineering also has all the other usual colleges, to include liberal arts.

Any of those will be fine. We would choose based on best fit and cost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - DC didn’t want to go to UMD because we live very close to it and they wanted to get farther from home. Major will be in engineering (EE, CE or ME).

We have visited or are scheduled to visit all the campuses - I know the schools have very different vibes. I’m purely asking about reputation of the schools and their perceived value.

If you mean how they're ranked, here you go:

Virginia Tech - 14
Case Western - 42
RIT - 57
Drexel - 64
WPI - 64

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate?schoolName=Virginia+Tech&myCollege=engineering-doctorate&_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

USNWR can be an input, but for engineering, I think salary information will tell you more about what employers think of engineering graduates of these schools. You can get that on College Scorecard.

Slight problem with that....salaries reflect regional cost of living. A starter home close to DC will be at least $400K more than in Cleveland.

OK, but I have found there can be a significant differential between rankings and earnings, even at schools in the same geographic area. That suggests to me that rankings may be disconnected from market sentiment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - DC didn’t want to go to UMD because we live very close to it and they wanted to get farther from home. Major will be in engineering (EE, CE or ME).

We have visited or are scheduled to visit all the campuses - I know the schools have very different vibes. I’m purely asking about reputation of the schools and their perceived value.

If you mean how they're ranked, here you go:

Virginia Tech - 14
Case Western - 42
RIT - 57
Drexel - 64
WPI - 64

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate?schoolName=Virginia+Tech&myCollege=engineering-doctorate&_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

USNWR can be an input, but for engineering, I think salary information will tell you more about what employers think of engineering graduates of these schools. You can get that on College Scorecard.

Slight problem with that....salaries reflect regional cost of living. A starter home close to DC will be at least $400K more than in Cleveland.

You need to visit the campuses and see how the fit is. Ask questions when there (are classes all taught by professors, co-ops and internships). My daughter is interested in engineering and she is leaning towards a university where the focus isn't fully engineering in case she ends up wanting to change majors. Also ease to get to if needed may be a factor if $$ isn't an issue.