Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like JMU is the stronger school but not in engineering.

Pitt is an AAU university, a member of the ACC, has a billion dollars in research funding each year and a 4+ billion dollar endowment and is one of the nations oldest universities. I'd guess that it's a "stronger school" than JMU in most objective measures. That being said, the people that I know who went to JMU had a great experience, and it's certainly an up and coming university.

Anonymous wrote:OP: it sounds like a lot of butt-hurt Virginians posting here who don’t like hearing anything bad about JMU. It’s a good school. But let’s not kid ourselves, if anyone here is at all familiar with engineering college programs, we wouldn’t even be comparing these two. Pitt is a real engineering program with different disciplines for specialization and co-op opportunities. This is a weird thread that is not based on reality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are in VA and not getting $ for Pitt: JMU.

what they said.

IF your daughter is staying in the DMV and you need to save money.

Otherwise, no one will have heard of JMU other than around here. I lived in Pittsburgh and never heard of JMU until I moved to this area. Similar to locals here wondering, what is an IUP?

Pitt is a far better choice, unless she wants to stay local.

NP. I grew up in VA and had never heard of Pitt until two years ago, when my oldest was a junior in HS. It's not like it's UPenn or Penn State.

Seriously? Where in VA? Pitt (I did not attend btw) has been a nationally recognized AAU member (one of 64 in the US) and R1 institution for many decades. Are you the first in your family to attend college? If so, that may be why?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have not heard much about Pitt. I know a lot more about JMU and people that have graduated from there.

That makes total sense if your are in and from VA. JMU is a regional university.
The others mentioned in this string are National Universities. Virginia has many. When you leave the area, they are well-known entities. Regional schools are not as well known.

From US News https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?int=top_nav_National_Universities

National Universities:

#25 UVA
#59 Pitt
#63 Penn State
#75 Va Tech
#148 GMU
#172 VCA

JMU: #3 Regional Universities South

Others on that list are Rollins, the Citadel and Barry College rounding out the top 4.

Fairfield University in Conn is #3 on the Regional List for the North.

Anonymous wrote:I have not heard much about Pitt. I know a lot more about JMU and people that have graduated from there.

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like JMU is the stronger school but not in engineering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are in VA and not getting $ for Pitt: JMU.

what they said.

IF your daughter is staying in the DMV and you need to save money.

Otherwise, no one will have heard of JMU other than around here. I lived in Pittsburgh and never heard of JMU until I moved to this area. Similar to locals here wondering, what is an IUP?

Pitt is a far better choice, unless she wants to stay local.

That's funny, I grew up in Philadelphia and all the Main Liners would pick JMU over Pitt in a heartbeat--for any major. Pitt was not desirable. I get that it's reputation has improved, but just like my limited perception, your view is not accurate. You cannot possibly be comparing JMU to IUP. OP: both are great schools. So with that in mind, she should decide based on what kind of experience she wants. They are very different. A few years ago, my son considered both and was leaning toward Pitt because he wanted an urban environment (before he very unexpectedly got admitted to Georgetown).