<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I have been accepted to University of Virginia and Virginia Tech schools of engineering. I need some views on both of these schools to help me decide. I have already gotten helpful replies in the colleges' respective forums, but since this one has a wider audience, I hope someone can give some input. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Coming from a Maryland resident who has no special relation to either school, I can say that the University of Virginia simply strikes me as more prestigious.</p>
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Coming from a Maryland resident who has no special relation to either school, I can say that the University of Virginia simply strikes me as more prestigious.
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<p>For engineering?</p>
<p>In general. Honeslty hearing "Virginia Tech" just doesn't elicit the same "wow" reaction that hearing UVA does. </p>
<p>In engineering, I don't really know. I still think UVA is the better choice, but that's of course subjective.</p>
<p>When I hear of those two names, I feel that VT is the better engineering school. I'm not sure what UVA is good at. But I believe UVA is more prestigious overall.</p>
<p>Haha, I love how 3 posts in a row decide which is better by the feeling they get when they hear the name.</p>
<p>Almost feels like an English class. Yuck.</p>
<p>I think UVA is better. It's more selective, so the classes will probably taught with more rigor and difficulty.</p>
<p>Both are very good schools for engineering. While Virginia Tech is obviously ranked very highly, I would consider what you are looking for in your college experience. As a much smaller school, I would believe UVA has a stronger focus on the individual, as a liberal arts college would. If you decide not to go into engineering, UVA also has a number of other great programs.
As a Virginia Tech student, I know that most of our classes (physics, statics, dynamics, etc.) are taught in huge lecture halls, and this could be difficult for many students. In this instance, I would disagree with al6200 on UVA being more difficult. Virginia Tech is a state school with a very large engineering program, and thus weeding out students is a high priority. I don't remember the exact statistic, but it was something close to half or more students drop out of VT engineering. My guess is that UVA would have the opposite approach in a much smaller program. However, Virginia Tech has excellent opportunities to get involved, such as a wider selection of student design projects and research. If you can distinguish yourself, I think Virginia Tech would be more rewarding.
As far job recruitment goes, I know Virginia Tech has a very solid program. I would imagine many graduates end up working in the Northern Virginia/DC area, where a lot of engineering jobs are. This is most likely the case with UVA as well. As far as prestige goes, I know at least 8 or so people off the bat who were accepted into UVA and went to Virginia Tech instead. They all had negative things to say about UVA which I won't go into ;) , but it is ultimately a personal choice. Good luck and congratulations!</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. Also, merman2983 thanks for the detailed response. I was wondering, are all engineering courses lecture halls? or just first year courses?</p>
<p>I am in mechanical engineering, but I'm guessing your first year looks similar to mine. Classes like Chemistry, Physics 1 and 2, and the introductory general engineering class are typically very large classes, with smaller recitations or workshops. The only negative experience I've had with a class is with my Physics 2 professor, who was just a horrible teacher that couldn't get the material across. Other large classes like Statics and Dynamics have proved to be extremely rewarding, because of the extremely fair and uniform, although challenging, structure. Again, this depends on your professor.
As far as upper level courses, I believe the size of the classes tends to shrink, with about 40-70 students in a lecture. This, I have learned however, has little to do with the quality of the class. The only C I received was in first semester calculus, with about 20 students. As time goes on, you should be able to better gauge what is expected from you and how much time to put in for the desired grade.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying. Just wondering: How are your 8 friends feeling in virginia tech? Are they happy they chose it over uva? Or not?</p>