<p>Hey guys, I was waitlisted for Tech's engineering program so I need to make a choice from my safety schools. I just won an engineering competition in my county staged by the department of defense (trying to raise interest in sciences among high school students) and the leaders recommended ODU.</p>
<p>I was offered a $20k scholarship to ODU (money isn't a huge issue but it definitely doesn't hurt) and I will likely be accepted into the honors program.</p>
<p>VCU and Uni of Alabama both offered me admission but not scholarships (missed the deadlines). </p>
<p>ODU seems to have the best program followed by Bama and VCU, but I feel like ODU itself is a below average school. I don't want to get there and have the students partying 24/7 and me not be able to study. It's graduation rate is only 25%. </p>
<p>Opinions? </p>
<p>Have you visited any of these schools? They will all have some partying, but if that doesn’t interest you, you’ll find like minded people to hang out with. ODU is local for me, I’m not aware of there being partying 24/7, on the weekends, yes there are parties. </p>
<p>I have also had the pleasure of working with several bright ODU engineering grads. My son has attended engineering camp there in the summers and my husband has been involved, through his company, speaking at the engineering school, doing research with the school, and hiring engineering students for internships and full time positions. </p>
<p>I haven’t known Bama to be an engineering school at all. Perhaps I’m biased because I went to Auburn, which is known for its engineering school.</p>
<p>VCU has a relatively new engineering building that I hear is quite nice.</p>
<p>Are you a VA resident? If so VCU would be a good choice. If you decide fairly soon you can apply for their honor’s dorm. It’s an old (1970’s) hospital about two blocks from the engineering school. You would have a private room with a private bath. I imagine “honors dorm” means it would be fairly quiet.</p>
<p>I am a Virginia resident. I was originally pretty set on VCU due to their up and coming engineering program and being a better ranked school. But I talked to the engineers for the DoD and they seemed to think ODU hands down, just trying to get a second opinion. I will be visiting ODU this Saturday and VCU the following Saturday.
Anybody know of anybody in ODU’s engineering or honors college? I know the school itself is not known for being great but the engineering side seems to be nicer. And I would definitely want to live in a honors dorm, I’m not one to party every weekend.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>I told you in Dec to apply to Bama because it would give you a half tuition scholarship. If you had applied then, you would have gotten about $12k per year plus 1500. </p>
<p>WHEN did you apply and why did you delay??</p>
<p>If I remember correctly you told me 3 days before the deadline, which normally would have been fine but my parents are really against Alabama (no clue why, they don’t mind other out of state schools). So I didn’t apply until mid-Jan I believe. Right now I’m mainly choosing between VCU and ODU, but I put it in the title just incase it is a somehow better engineering school than instate which I haven’t heard thusfar.</p>
<p>Maybe, DoD people may like ODU because they’re more familiar with it, since there’s a military base nearby?</p>
<p>That’s too bad that your parents were so stubborn. I told you in dec and the deadline was Jan 6. AT this point, Bama is unaffordable.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, your parents can’t pay a lot. How much will they pay (w/o you paying for loans)?</p>
<p>I don’t think it was stubborn, I think it was more along the lines of having to pay for an application to a school I probably won’t attend. My parents can pay some, and I have a GI bill for a year from my dad. We aren’t broke, but we definitely aren’t well off. I’m guessing 1/2 of my school I will have to pay for.</p>
<p>Relax bwoods96, people are only trying to help. At any rate my dad knows a ton about engineering jobs, colleges and recruitment. (He is CEO of one of the larger engineering and technology headhunter firms in the country) So I asked him about your issue just a few minutes ago and without hesitation he said go to the school that you like best and can afford without loans. He said the industry to include the DoD will make no distinction between any of your 3 choices. They are viewed as equals especially for an ME degree. </p>
<p>Secondly, if you have the GI bill, you should have access to the Post 911 Yellow Ribbon program. Alabama has a very generous yellow ribbon program which will make your first year virtually free so you can apply for scholarships next year. <a href=“404 - Page Not Found - Veterans Benefits Administration”>404 - Page Not Found - Veterans Benefits Administration;
<p>Good luck and cut mom2 some slack everything she has said on this thread and the other has been 100% accurate. </p>
<p>Oh yea, I visited Bama twice once with my brother 3 years ago and then again last year and let me tell you I think it would be a total blast.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I offended mom2kids or anybody else, definitely not my intention.
Thanks for asking your father, definitely nice to know what an actual business thinks. Alabama will still likely be too expense to consider especially with what your dad said; but I didn’t know about the yellow ribbon part of the GI bill, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I am visiting ODU this weekend so I should have a better idea about my choices.</p>
<p>After visiting Bama once, ODU twice, and VCU four times I have decided on VCU. ODU offered me a $20k scholarship and admission to the honors program, but when I visited I decided I would not be able to stand 4 years there. I was very out of place and I didn’t feel impressed by the program. I visited VCU and I really liked the campus and the people the program, the program also seemed like it had it a lot more figured out than ODU. Bama was nice but I liked VCU better.</p>