<p>Hey everyone, I have narrowed my college choices down to these two schools. I have been accepted into each school's engineering program's and I am going in undecided. GAtech is giving me no money, so that would be 40k a year and Virginia has not sent me my financial aid package yet but I would imagine that I am getting no money from their either which would amount to 30k a year. My goal is to go to grad school on the west coast at Berkeley or Stanford but I am struggling picking which college I should go to in order to put me in the best situation before grad school. GAtech is the better school with a better reputation, although it is 10k more a year. Virginia tech is still a reputable school but I feel like a degree from GAtech carries more weight. If someone could please give me some insight it would be immensely helpful.</p>
<p>While GaTech may be a little higher in reputation than VaTech - they are both outstanding Engr schools and would serve you well for getting into grad school. </p>
<p>BUT…they are very different schools in terms of campus environment. So, part of your decision needs to consider the campus environment/lifestyle…big city/urban setting vs rural/small-town setting. VERY different!</p>
<p>GT and VT are peers academically, so a 40k difference plus not having to go to school on GT’s campus would push me to choose VT.</p>
<p>But ya know, I may just be a bit biased, seeing as I already made that decision.</p>
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<p>They are peers if you mean that both are large state research universities with a primary focus on technology. But academically they are not peers. GT is more respected, has higher starting salaries, has a higher placement rate, and has a better co-op office. Also consider that GT has more than twice the research funding ($310 million per year vs. $146 million per year) with nearly half the students (13,000 undergrads vs. 24,000 undergrads).</p>
<p>From a practical perspective, you always have to consider the fact that VT is considered second-class to UVA within the state and has a higher ranked UMD competing for jobs in NOVA. In addition, VT is in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>I wish I could edit, but the funding numbers above are old (last year’s numbers). The current numbers have GT with $347 million in research (12% increase) and VT with $152 million (4% increase).</p>