My son has been accepted to CSoM and VT. His intended major is computer engineering. It’s been a difficult decision and while we’ve done all the virtual tours and used Google Earth, it’s not the same. Neither school has started in person tours. We’re hoping for some thoughts this forum may be able to offer.
CSoM has a CS+Computer Engineering (focus) degree and at VT, my son would be entering the general engineering program. We are OOS for both schools so costs are pretty close. We live in a Dallas, Texas suburb so he is accustomed access to larger city, without be a urban dweller. Flights are easy to Denver, but it’s not a huge consideration.
Some items we are considering are rigor & faculty support and internship & coop opportunities. At the end of the day, we understand it’s up to him to work hard and overcome challenges. Any thoughts to push over the decision scale from one school to another would be great. Thanks in advance.
The size of the schools is definitely different.
I was surprised how many Texas students I’ve met from Mines. There are just a ton of students from Texas and a lot of students do internships or get jobs in Texas after graduation.
Mines has easy access to downtown Denver (and the airport) by light rail, so access to sports, theaters, museum, government. It’s also not far from CU-Boulder and there is some interaction between students and activities at the two schools.
No question, CSoM definitely wins on accessibility from Texas. Blacksburg has a few extra steps to get to from here, but I’m hoping he’ll enjoy it so much there, he’ll only come home a few times outside of summer break.
You live in Texas and you are considering VT?
Did your son not apply to Texas A&M?
VT is the Texas A&M of Virginia.
So funny you say that. That’s exactly what I said to my son. We actually did apply to Texas A&M but got accepted to their Galveston campus. We can go the Entry to Major route and hopefully transfer to College Station or just go to Virginia Tech and forego the transfer. We were really hoping for College Station.
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For first year engineering students, VT has a similar entry to major system as Texas A&M, but the automatic admission (to engineering major of choice) college GPA is 3.0 at VT versus 3.5 (rumored to be increasing) at Texas A&M.
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You are looking at pedigree I think this decision is much more as both are great schools. One had a massive campus, as nice a campus as there is. But enormous. The other is fine and smaller. VT by its nature IS a technical campus in name, yet in reality it’s got everything from business to the social sciences to hospitality. Mines is a STEM driven institution. One has division 1 sports. One is small school. Both are great for outdoor enthusiasts but they are different types of outdoors.
I think your question comes down to not who is the best education or best for outcomes. I think it comes down to which campus size is better for your son.
We definitely considered that. We didn’t really know enough about the Galveston campus to know what his first year experience would be like. If A&M does move to a 3.75 GPA for guaranteed entry to major, that would be a challenge. We just didn’t want him to be away from College Station any longer than a year. As Greymeer noted, VT seems like a twin school to A&M but in Virginia. We’re not opposed to him getting to experience another part of the country.
Campus size and sports are definitely on the list for pros and cons, but I’ll discuss this prospective a bit more with him. Thanks for your input.
I would encourage your son to reach out to students at both schools and get a feel for the people he’d be surrounding himself with because like someone above me aid, either way he’ll be getting a good education its down to his life as a student now! I know a student at Mines who absolutely loves it and a few at tech who enjoy it just as much, so your son can’t go wrong 
He does have a friend at Mines and that’s what makes it hard to decide. He has watched just about every YouTube video on both schools and joined just about every virtual session offered. I think he does prefer the larger campus and sports, so I think he’s leaning towards VT. Thanks everyone for your feedback.
One can overanalyze themselves to death. He will make friends wherever he goes, and in some ways having a friend can be limiting if it keeps him from trying to make new ones.
We all over analyze everything. Fit is most important but even with all the over analysis, many get it wrong. One might go to their favored school and have a bad roomie or bad professors, etc. On the other hand, you might go to the “affordable” school that you hate and meet your bff.
There’s no true way to tell.
I’m sure he’ll be fine either way but if he wants the big sports - there you go. He wants big - Va Tech is enormous - it’s also the nicest campus in the country (for my money) along with Duke.
Wow, you know me! I’ve definitely overanalyzed. I know myself well enough to keep it to myself. As a parent, we all want to make sure they are set up for success, but as you noted so well, you never know.
He’s feeling more confident about his decision-making and I’m filling in with advice when he asks. If I could just stop my overanalyzing mind!
Virginia Tech. He loves it there. He ended switching his major into civil engineering. He’s doing really well.
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