Penn State vs Rutgers vs Virginia Tech, OOS, college of Engineering, which one will you choose?

These are the best colleges DS got into, with no financial aid though. BTW, Penn state is Erie branch honor program, 2+2. All opinions welcomed and valued, thanks.

VT, by far.

Cost an issue? It looks like VT is leading here but would she want to start at PSU Erie for the smaller classes? Is the honor program same school as UP?

Cost is not an issue. Looking at the class sizes, it does appear Erie has smaller classes, that is why it’s still in considerations, and we have not much idea about its honor program.

I’d go with VT. Normally VT and Penn St are pretty darn equal in caliber (albeit a general edge toward VT in most areas of engineering), but I’d wonder how the switch from the branch campus would go. The better students from our high school (heading toward engineering) go straight to main campus. I’m not sure if those who start at branch campuses end up doing fine or if not. Those I know personally (who start at branch campuses) aren’t engineering majors. Can Erie’s branch campus let you know how many start out vs finish? (Then allow for the fact that there will be those who start and don’t finish at the Main Campus too, of course.)

Another vote for VT

VT

VT

Wow, basically it is VT all the way. It’s much more loopsided than I thought. So nobody think much of Rutgers, I’m a little surprised, given Rutgers approximation to NYC and Philly.

Erie is excellent for engineering but…it’s not main campus. So it’d all depend on her/your certainty wrt small classes with little weedout (thanks to honors) but at a small campus (I think it’s 4,000 students and not all live on campus) requiring the move to a larger campus after 2 years, or 4 years in the same place, with all the on campus life it entails but also the increased competition. However my gut feeling would be to go for VT, so that she can have the “full college experience”.
Do ask VT what sort of support they have for women in engineering: WISE? Living learning communities? Special adviser within engineering?

Thank you, we will do the inquiry and visit and experience it for a day or two as well.

The living /learning community for male engineering students at Virginia Tech is called Galileo. For women, it is called Hypatia.

@J. L. What is the instate choice?

@j. L Sounds like you have the same decision to make as my son. Penn State admitted him 2+2 also but as OOS we’d have to be crazy to accept that cost wise. He is definitely UP material. Was also accepted to Rutgers, Buffalo, and West Virginia with significant merit.

ASU did offer pretty significant merit, however, without honor, ASU sounds too low ranking a college?

It’s not really about ranking, but rather about experience: non honors classes at ASu are huge, classes that are supposed to be writing intensive or discussion based can’t be due to large class sizes… funding cuts have mostly spared Barrett students not have fallen hard upon the “regular” students. Retention is pretty good (93% of students who had an A average in high school return for sophomore year, and 81% for B average students) but still only 45% graduate in 4 years, in part because of costs and in part because it’s huge and anonymous.
That being said, Engineering is going to be tough everywhere and if it’s less expensive it’s worth considering.

45% is for the entire university, not for engineering though, and I suspect Engineering is even much lower. But I’d welcome anyone’s input if they think we should think more seriously about this option.

Is ASU instate for you? Lowest cost? Many kids opt for their instate engineering school or other schools that end up being cost effective because of need based aid or merit aid . How much did you agree to pay for college?

Miami University (Oxford) gave about the same level of offer, however, that school is not known for its engineering.

This is confusing. Earlier you said “cost is not an issue.” Is it or isn’t it? Obviously, if cost is not a factor, Virginia Tech, for instance, would potentially be one of your better choices. It is hard to give good recommendations without more complete information from you.