<p>I got admitted to GT, U of M, and UIUC's engineering program, and now I am waiting for the admission decision from UVA. I know I am not admitted to UVA's engineering program yet, but I am trying to make my final decision as soon as possible. So, how do you think about the mechanical engineering program at UVA compare to the schools that I listed above? (Btw I live in Virginia)</p>
<p>I actually don’t really know anything about the Mech-E program even though I have a few friends in it, but here are some plusses:
if (the horror! the horror!) you change your mind about your major to a non-engineering field, say math (like me yay!), you have the option of other (really good) programs whereas at a technical school like GT, there’s not as much flexibility (although my best friend goes to GT and is in aerospace and absolutely loves it, but then she’s known she wanted to do that since she was like 7 years old)
also
In-state tuition. Yeah. Speaks for itself.
Also, UVA is just a great place in general. I love it so much, and so does almost everyone else who ends up here. </p>
<p>So this doesn’t really answer your question at all, but maybe it helps a little…</p>
<p>I’ve visited the University of Michigan and toured their engineering dept and also have seen UVa’s dept. If you are judging the two schools just on who will give you a better education in mechanical engineering I think Michigan is the winner by far. It is an incredible department and also offers all those great teams to work on like the solar car team that has an annual budget of $2,000,000. Also if you look at which employers recruit at Michigan versus UVa, Michigan also wins hands down. That said, UVa is a lovely school and I can see the attraction. My son will have to make the same decision as you regarding mechanical engineering depts, that is if he gets into UVa. And he may choose atmosphere over a great engineering dept. We’ll see. Good luck!</p>
<p>Save for Chemical Engineering, it looks like UVA has seriously neglected their engineering facilities. They are small and dated when compared to other BIG name engineering programs (VT, GT, etc.). Kind of reminds me of Tulane U. Engineering takes a back seat for Capital dollars after Business, Medical, Law schools. In fact Tulane recently eliminated their Engineering program. Not saying UVA will do the same, but DO go look at the engineering facilites at UVA before committing.</p>
<p>Please get your facts completely right. Tulane maintains both Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, the latter highly ranked and one of the first in the country. They did indeed eliminate civil, mechanical and electrical, as they were not as popular and post-Katrina, there was no choice but to tighten some budgets.</p>
<p>Sorry, stand corrected. Curious that Tulane still offers Chemical. Biomedical I understand given the huge investment in their Medical and Health programs. Must be a large benefactor.</p>
<p>I recall the howl of fury that accompanied the closure of the other programs (mechanical, civil, etc.) at Tulane from the alumni. I know the program was small compared to other colleges in the area (including LSU and UNO) when I was in New Orleans and didn’t carry as much name recognition with local employers. I suspect they weren’t getting the rersearch dollars.</p>
<p>Note that in VA there don’t seem to be any private colleges with accredited engineering programs. </p>
<p>Anyone looking for engineering in VA should definately look at VCU. The new engineering building is very impressive and beautiful.</p>
<p>I agree with your assessment that the eliminated programs couldn’t carry their weight. Unversities can tolerate that with some programs, but engineering tends to be expensive. And obviously Tulane was facing tough times just then. Chemical probably benefits from the presence of the oil companies in Louisiana, maybe? Anyway, not the point of the thread.</p>
<p>Interesting observation about VA and no private schools with engineering. Maybe just a result of VA having top flight public schools almost from the beginning?</p>
<p>“Anyone looking for engineering in VA should definately look at VCU. The new engineering building is very impressive and beautiful”</p>
<p>^ If only the area/city surrounding that building complemented it…</p>
<p>I have posted pieces of it before but according to UVa’s own internal evaluation engineering is underfunded and not up to par overall. There are a couple exceptions.</p>
<p>WAG Report.
"Of the core departments, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Materials Science and Engineering show a great deal of dynamism and are frustrated by
their continued low ranking. The other three all show serious weaknesses that call for
early attention. Biomedical and Materials are both doing well and enjoy relatively high
rankings. Systems and Information Engineering shows a good deal of vitality, but
probably because of its somewhat unusual name is unranked.
There are several characteristics of SEAS that are quite pronounced. First, there is a
strong correlation between newness and quality. Second, there is very wide disparity in
quality among the departments, more so than in most engineering schools. Third, several
topics are covered by multiple departments, sometimes more than two. Finally, SEAS is
small and broad at the same time. Each of these is potentially a problem and an
opportunity.
The eight departments in the School fall naturally into three groups. The three
departments in newer areas: BME, MSE and SIE are energetic and high quality
departments that are performing very well. CS and ECE are making some progress in
breaking out of the pack. Both are ranked at the bottom of the top third among peer
departments, an acceptable place. These 5 departments can be the hallmark of SEAS.
All, especially BME, SIE and CS require growth in faculties and graduate students and
need to be given funding and resource priority.</p>
<p>Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)
The department has 27 tenured and research track faculty, an undergraduate class of 278
students, and a graduate class of 90 of which 50% are PhD track students. Its external
research funding is $5.1M and its research expenditure $8.2M in FY 200616. The
department is ranked 32 among graduate Aerospace Engineering programs and 33 among
graduate Mechanical Engineering programs in USNWR.
MAE has three problems that need management attention. These are: aerospace
engineering, research funding, and the Center for Applied Bio-Dynamics.
Aerospace was a group absorbed by MAE, when its home department was dissolved.
MAE needs to decide what to do with aerospace engineering. The presentation that we
received seems to suggest that MAE leadership is letting aerospace engineering die by
natural attrition. This may be the best course available, but aerospace continues to attract
more than 20% of the undergraduates, one of whom attended our meeting with
undergraduates and spoke enthusiastic of the field. The situation is messy.
The second problem is research funding. The total amount of approximately $5 million
in awards per year is acceptable, but the distribution is very poor. One member of the
MAE faculty accounts for 30% of the funding and four members account for more than
72%. Fully half of the faculty receives no funding of their own. While they might be
active supporting PI’s in their grant activities, nevertheless one would expect that a
greater number of the faculty would have grants of their own.
Center for Applied Biomechanics (CAB) is a large project in MAE which has significant
industrial support and accounts for a large percentage of its external funding. A large
portion of its activity is involved in crash research for the automobile industry using
cadavers. CAB may also be a problem. From both the presentation made to us by CAB’s
director and from discussions with graduate students, it appears that much of the activity
in CAB consists of contract testing with only a small portion that is truly research. There
was some concern raised in discussions with the students that this “contract testing”
activity often greatly slowed the progress of the theses and dissertations. If the students’
comments represent a true picture of the general operation of CAB, then there may be
issues of the appropriateness of having CAB as an integral part of MAE and of recruiting
graduate students to staff its functions. CAB may benefit the department, but is it in the
best interest of the students?
With these problems, MAE is a troubled department and needs early management
attention."
16</p>
<p>^ Thank you!</p>
<p>ycm, here’s a link to Career Development report. It will give you some statistics for recent graduates. I know it doesn’t really answer your question about mechanical, but does offer some information about recruiting on Grounds, who is recruiting, and what majors they are looking at. <a href=“http://www.seas.virginia.edu/admin/careerdev/files/seasannualreport.pdf[/url]”>http://www.seas.virginia.edu/admin/careerdev/files/seasannualreport.pdf</a></p>
<p>Sabaray, thank you very much for this link. This is very informative. Here’s what I get out of the report…
- Mechanical engineering is the second largest major in UVa’s engineering school. I would think this would mean that it should be a priority for the engineering school to keep it vital and well funded.
- Of all the majors in the engineering school, only mechanical engineering and computer science earn less than the national salary averages for their majors.
- Looking at which of the top recruiting companies, Lockheed Martin hired no mechanical engineers although you would think that would be a natural fit. Northrop Grumman did hire 7 out of a class of 70-80 graduates, about 10% of them. I don’t know how other universities compare here. 10% could be good.</p>
<p>Since the original post asked about UVa engineering vs Univ of Michigan, I took a look at Michigan’s annual recruiting report. It does not report all the same breakouts as UVa, but the average salary for mechanical engineers graduating from there is $60,197, above the national average, and 59% of the jobs recruited request mechanical engineering majors. Here is the link- [Michigan</a> Engineering | Annual Report](<a href=“http://career.engin.umich.edu/annualReport/index.html]Michigan”>http://career.engin.umich.edu/annualReport/index.html).</p>
<p>Just realized I made a mistake in my post above about Lockheed Martin. They hired 7 UVa engineering grads in total. They didn’t all have a mechanical engineering degree.</p>