I am deciding between the aforementioned schools, and I am out of state for both. I will be studying engineering, and am stuck because of the prestige of UVA’s name, but the well-rounded nature of Clemson and the Honors program. UVA is not giving me any merit or need-based aid, while Clemson is giving me about $21,000 per year.
How much does the name of the school matter?
It matters. But you aren’t talking about Swiss cheese. It’s clemson and the honors college. I bet dollars to donuts you will have clemson alum really go out of heir way to help post grad too. No knock on uva at all. It’s top notch.
Clemson has a better rep in engineering. It has a larger engineering college than UVA.
There is no need to do honors college at Clemson unless you want to. You won’t have a problem getting job offers with an engineering degree from Clemson.
I am a UVA alum and agree Clemson is better for engineering. The honors college and the engineering school are very well respected.
@DrClemson @UVAmom23 UVA engineering is actually well respected, just a smaller program than a place like Virginia Tech or Clemson .Recruitment and job placement are excellent. It is ranked #34 for undergraduate engineering, Clemson is ranked #56. Both UVA and Clemson have very good engineering programs so it really comes down to fit and cost. Good luck with the decision!
@sevmom - for those engineering rankings, how significant are the differences in raw scores between the individual insstitutions? I can easily imagine a ranking where the difference between #34 and #56 is the difference between 1000.34 and 1000.56, or essentially meaningless.
@tstuppi9 - What is the difference in the cost of attendance for you, taking into account your own best estimates for travel expenses, after the aid money? How much of the aid is scholarship that requires a specific GPA for renewal? If you lose that part of the aid, what would your cost be at Clemson? Does the aid include the federal student loan at Clemson? If so, recalculate your comparable costs of attendance without the federal loan. If you qualify for a federal loan at Clemson, you can also get one for UVA. Job placement may be slightly better at one or the other, but your starting salary for a given job won’t be any different because of where your got your degree. Truly, if you like Clemson better, and it is more affordalbe, it is perfectly OK to study there.
@happymomof1 The rankings at that level are not that meaningful. I brought it up only as a counterpoint to the assertion that Clemson automatically has a “better rep” or is automatically “better for engineering.” It is not that simple. They are both fine for engineering and cost and fit come more into play at that point . Both good choices.
I understand that UVA has a fine engineering school. As long as the engineering program is ABET accredited, it should be fine, especially the large state ‘flagship’ and land grant universities.
My point is Clemson’s general reputation is science and engineering, like Va Tech, while UVA 's general reputation is liberal arts. This is because Clemson has a larger engineering college.
Clemson awarded the 24th most undergraduate engineering degrees between 2007-2016. UVA was not in the top 50.
Clemson had the 22nd largest undergrad engineering enrollment in 2016. UVA was not in the top 50.
Here is the source of the information above. This is a nice resource for any prospective engineering student deciding where to go to college.
US News has a list of top ranked universities that grant the most STEM (science, math and engineering degrees)
Clemson made the list at 35 percent STEM. Va Tech is 40 percent STEM. UVA isn’t on the list.
Graduating more engineers helps these universities build relationships with the major engineering employers.
NCEES, the organization that oversees the two exams required to obtain a professional engineer license, is located across the lake from Clemson. Many of the Clemson professors help write questions for those exams. Clemson engineering students typically have a high pass rate on the FE/EIT exam that can be taken during the senior year.
https://ncees.org/
Clemson Honors is the easy choice in your situation.
The deciding factor shouldn’t be who has the most students in their program. UVa seems to have 2700+ which is sizeable, well more than, say. Yale.
What can you afford? If the UVa cost is too high, and Clemson is affordable, go with Clemson. But not just cuz they have more students. If your family can easily pay for either, then I’d say you have more research to do on specific programs and opportunities at each.
Adding: Clemson gave 21 or the 15k noted in your other thread plus the 5500 freshman loan (which is not free money?) Again, what can your family afford?
The Hijors program at Clemsonnisnt as well developed as the one at U of SC, but there are still advantages, from scale and practical. The biggest one besides the housing and priority for tickets to sporting events is priority class registration. At a state school, or any large school really, this makes a huge difference.
Also, anecdotally and not to tick anyone off, but my friend , CEO of an engineering company on the triangle,was helping my daughter with VT vs Cornell vs Clemson vs RPI, and of those, she went out of her way to mention that she found “every engineer “ from UVA “full of themselves”. UVA wasn’t even on my daughters list.
Of the schools that were, she heavily favored VT, with her alma mater RPI a close second.
And PS - her own daughter applied to VT, Clemson, and UNC. Not UVA.
Well, @Gudmom I have a UVA engineering grad son and he is certainly not full of himself. Neither are the engineering friends of his I’ve met . But, maybe they are outliers. 
I have a VT engineering grad son as well. Both great choices, just different programs. And anecdotally, my UVA kid only applied to UVA, not VT. UVA engineers have no problem getting jobs. Same for Clemson and VT engineers.
And again, cost and fit! In this particular case, Clemson sounds like it might fit the bill for this particular student, particularly given a much lower price. Good luck!
I never said to go to Clemson ‘just because it has more students’.
The name of the school is not nearly as important as what you do while you are there. Pick the school that is best for you in terms of fit, cost, and curriculum. Engineering students should plan to get advanced degrees and once you get a master’s or Ph.D., your undergrad school becomes a second thought.
Actually, “engineering students” often don’t get “advanced degrees”, unless they are very interested in academia or research. Doesn’t mean they don’t continue learning but getting a PhD is not on the radar for many engineers. Doing well on initial jobs , continuing to learn , are very important .
I know a lot engineers with MBAs but not many in engineering