I have already been accepted to Pitt’s College of Engineering, but am waiting to hear back from some other schools that currently are higher on my list. Could anyone please give me some insight on where Pitt stands when compared to these other schools? Thanks!
Stats:
GPA – 4.0
SAT – 2050
Maryland – waiting for decision
Florida – waiting for decision
Rutgers – accepted
Michigan – deferred
Lehigh – waiting for decision
Reputation-wise you mean? I’d say for the US in general (in which Lehigh doesn’t have immense name recognition), they’re all pretty comparable, with Michigan topping them all, but not by too much. Except for Lehigh, they’re all good state schools (I mean technically Pitt isn’t but it’s just easier to say it is than explain what it really is) with plenty of resources and smarts and opportunities. Lehigh isn’t public, but is still excellent. You can’t go wrong with any of them. Really.
Having only been to Pitt and Maryland, I can’t give you a superb run down of all these schools. There are differences, though, and those differences could have a large or minuscule impact depending on who you are. Do you like being in a kind of dingy town but close to DC? Then Maryland works. Do you hate hills with a passion and want a closed campus? Then Pitt is not for you. But education-wise, any school will serve you fine.
In terms of engineering, most of those schools (with the exception of perhaps Rutgers and Lehigh) are going to be about the same for education. I know Maryland has some excellent graduate programs- not sure about Florida or Michigan, so that may trickle down into the quality of undergraduate experience.
I would take some time to talk to upperclassmen students at each school. How did the programs treat them. What was the emphasis of the degree (do they want their students to go into industry or graduate school, this is a big thing to look at). What kind of companies work with the schools and tend to employ students. Which majors are strong at the school (important for the branch of engineering you want to do.) You need to think about those questions in conjunction with other things like cost, campus life, distance, etc. before you make a decision.
I would place UMich a notch above the rest of your Engg. school choices. UMD and Lehigh have been fairly strong in most disciplines of Engg. for a while. Pitt is the up and comer amongst the lot. As the other posters have mentioned, your choice will depend on a variety of factors incl. lifestyle fit, COA, climate, etc.
Disclaimer : My D1 goes to Pitt Med (she did her undergrad at Pitt too) and D2 is a Freshman at GTech. We are from PA (Lehigh Valley area).
Thanks for being so helpful everyone!! @nhdmaniac @awesomeopossum @i012575
http://profiles.asee.org/ I’ve found this site very helpful when comparing engineering programs - you can look at each program, breakdown of faculty, entering frosh stats - Pitt’s frosh engineering stats are pretty impressive vs. other programs.
@amandakayak Wow thats an awesome website. Thanks so much for sharing that. Extremely useful.