<p>Hey everyone, this will be long but hopefully worth reading:</p>
<p>Its been ages since I have posted on here. I spent a lot of time posting on this forum, specifically in this section, my senior year of high school and first year at UVa. When I made my decision to come here I was quite interested in how UVa would prepare me to do scientific research in grad school (my fields are physics and CS) and I had a LOT of questions and concerns even after I came here.</p>
<p>I'm nearing the end of my third year and just went through the insanely competitive phase of applying to summer REUs and similar programs. I applied to 2 programs at MIT, one at Caltech, UC Davis, Berkeley, Santa Fe Institute, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. I was given an offer by everywhere but Caltech and UC Davis, but UC Davis contacted me to personally tell me that I was on the short list for the project I wanted and that I would probably get in if I applied for grad school. If you're curious, this summer I will be at Perimeter Institute doing quantum algorithms research and spending a week at a quantum information summer school at MIT.</p>
<p>I'm not doing this to brag, so I am not going to go posting stats or anything like that, but if you want my information just contact me. I'm doing this so everyone on this board thats interested in science and looking at UVa knows that if they set their mind to it they can succeed and get a strong academic and research background in science here. I was worried about this because of UVa's reputation in the humanities, and considered looking at schools with a lesser academic reputation because I thought they would play more to the sciences, but I was quite wrong. If anyone has any questions about my experience, especially about the Physics or Computer Science departments, feel free to ask. I'll be sure to post again this time next year when it really matters: grad school admissions.</p>
<p>I reside in Virginia, and I’m a junior in high school. While I haven’t performed an exhaustive search of the potential colleges I want to attend, I have a central few in mind that are within the state of Virginia: UVA, Virginia Tech, and George Mason University. I definitely want to pursue the sciences, and the major I have in mind is computer engineering. Initially, I had my mind set on UVA, as it appeared to be the most “prestigious” college in Virginia.</p>
<p>However, VA Tech is consistently ranked above UVA for engineering. Do such statistics indicate that VA Tech is the better school for aspiring engineers?</p>
<p>And also, I have a question somewhat unrelated. I can’t think as critically as many other people. That doesn’t mean I’m ■■■■■■■■, but I don’t have the quick mind that a few at my school have. This characteristic is reflected in my SAT score, where I only got a 600 on the math section (the cumulative score was 1850). I still do maintain a fairly high GPA, as I work very hard in school. Will this lack of mental quickness disadvantage me in my pursuits of an engineering degree?</p>
<p>So, I had a similar debate when I came to UVa. Tech is ranked pretty highly in engineering, so does that mean a good student should consider Tech above UVa if he/she is interested in science or engineering?</p>
<p>In my experience it doesn’t. You are going to get two very different types of engineering educations from these schools. Now, I can only speak from heresay about tech, but I believe their engineering program to be much more like a trade school than UVa’s. They teach you what you need to learn about engineering to be a good engineer.</p>
<p>This can be great for some people, but not so great for others. One thing to realize is as dead set on engineering you are right now, that could easily change when you get to college as it does for many people, and at Tech you are stranded in a sense that the surrounding departments aren’t nearly as good. You don’t have that problem at UVa, and the engineering program itself lends itself to a more rounded education. You will learn all of the same trade-like scientific application you would get at Tech, with the added benefit of the societal implications and management skills if you choose to go that route.</p>
<p>I’ll note that if you want to be a working engineer, management skills are fairly key. Trade engineers reach a pay ceiling very quickly, but when they ascend to management have opportunities to go much further.</p>
<p>Another thing is that you have to look at the qualities they are basing the ranking on, which involves a lot of research and peer respect, but doesn’t do a great job of assessing how good the education really is. There is a correlation, but its not fantastic. Speaking for the CS department at UVa (which is closely related to the CE department you are interested in), we have a number of faculty on hand exclusively for teaching undergraduates. These “teaching professors” are kind of like professors at liberal arts collages: their primary focus is your learning, and they are by and large fantastic teachers. These faculty are in addition to the research faculty that also teach courses. I know the EE department has some teaching faculty as well, but I can’t speak for other departments.</p>
<p>About mental quickness, there are a wide range of kids in engineering. Some of them are math geniuses, most of them aren’t. You don’t have to be one to do well. Working hard will go a long, long way.</p>
<p>Do you know about the molecular bio or neuroscience department at UVA? How big are the lower level classes? Are they taught by professors? Are there research opportunities at UVA for undergrads?</p>
<p>factfinder: I don’t know too much about either department, although I do know someone in neuroscience going to get a PHD next year, but I forgot where she is going. As a rule, very few classes at UVa are taught by TA’s, I have only heard of this happening a couple of times. However, I do think some of the intro classes are pretty big. :-/</p>
<p>As far as research is concerned, it seems to be quite easy to work with professors. I know a ton of kids in the chemistry and biology departments doing research. All you really need to do is find a professor you are interested in and talk to them about their work. In general, they love to talk about it, and if they don’t have room in their lab can often direct you to someone who does. When i started doing research here I just found a professor I liked, asked him if he had anything an undergrad could work on, and he found some funding to take me on. It was really simple.</p>
<p>If you want to do research, you can definitely find a position. That includes both summer and year round. The chem, bio, and phys departments all have independent study and research credits (CS does as well, and I think some other departments, but I’m not certain). There are internal and external grants available to do research in the summers and during the year as well, so you can do it for pay instead of credit if you have the time.</p>
<p>There is also an Undergraduate Research Network here that tries to hook kids up with funding and publishing opportunities and such. I haven’t been involved with them much, but it has helped a lot of kids (in both the humanities and sciences).</p>