Google Niche + food and you’ll see the rank. You can go there and eat - and see. You see a lot of folks of certain top schools here complaining about the food. Both my kids did although one now realizes her dining hall is ok - it is, I’ve eaten twice.
Us parents have to get past the - he’d choose X over Y. I suffer from that too. Truth is, on the Va Tech campus, there will be kids who chose it over MIchigan, UVA, and likely Stanford. Some Ivies for sure. Smart kids abound and Techs rep is super solid.
They have virtual sessions on line. If the info isn’t there, ask admissions- they were providing the other year (in the info session).
I’m not saying there’s no ED advantage - why you should call the school.
I’m saying a few years ago there was little (overall - don’t know about engineering) but ask for the data so that you / your son can make the right decision. It’s likely not a HUGE advantage but I can be wrong and maybe that’s the difference between admission and not…but maybe not.
Best to get the data and evaluate.
Here’s a link i found on CC with data - not sure where it’s from or how accurate but I’d assume it is.
PS - not sure you can compare Pitt and CMU - as similar - but that’s just my opinion.