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

Cost is not a determining factor, but someone asked if ASU is the lowest cost college for us, hence the comment. Yes, looks like DS is most likely heading to Virginia Tech.

Is Rutgers instate? Not clear as you have OOS after Virginia Tech in your thread title. If Rutgers is instate, that would definitely be worth looking into further. A couple of us have asked what your instate engineering options are. Sorry if I missed your response. I was confused because you said “cost is not an issue”, but seemed to be looking at schools with engineering that give merit aid (ASU, Miami of Ohio, etc) . I would probably pass on PSU unless it was the main campus since it does not seem to be instate for you. Good luck with the decision.

I am very curious why VT is overwhelmingly favored over Rutgers. Any concrete reason is appreciated! On paper Rutgers has lower admission rate, higher stats in student profile, and a much more convenient location.

Rutgers is OOS for us as well.

Re: Arizona State

Arizona State’s low graduation rates probably relate to the fact that it is not that selective.

https://admission.asu.edu/freshman/apply says:

Some majors do have higher requirements.

However, a strong student should not be too concerned about personal risk of delayed or non graduation because many of the weaker students do not graduate or take extra semesters. (However, extra semesters are often more common for engineering majors, regardless of college.)

One advantage that Rutgers have over VT and PSU is that (currently) no engineering majors are restricted admission for those who enter in the engineering division:
https://soe.rutgers.edu/oas/first-year-declaration

VT starts engineering students in general engineering. Those who earn a 3.0 college GPA in the first year courses can choose any engineering major. Others face competitive admission:
https://enge.vt.edu/content/dam/enge_vt_edu/undergraduate/coe_com.pdf

PSU does something similar, and publishes varying college GPA thresholds to enter each major:
https://advising.engr.psu.edu/advising/entrance-to-major/index.aspx
https://advising.psu.edu/entrance-major-requirements-college-engineering

Thanks for your comments, good food for thought. However, isn’t the reason that normally people choose a more reputable school to go to is to choose your peers? Because better peers are much more likely to push one to perform to a higher standard, which I believe is exactly what my DS needs. Therefore, ASU’s graduation rate does deter us from attending.

As for the GPA requirements, VT looks easier, because 3.0 guaranteed it, while Penn State only listed the minimum GPA, What is the engineering survival rate in VT and Penn state? Anyone got data? 3.0 should be OK though, not too tough, hopefully.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/ (bottom of page) suggests that the average college GPAs at Rutgers, VT, and PSU are around 3.1 (ASU not listed). Being in a school with mostly stronger peers may backfire if he ends up at the bottom of the grading curves and does not meet the GPA requirement for his desired major (at VT and PSU).

At least it worth a try. Worst comes to worst, I believe ASU is very easy to transfer into.

Transferring to ASU engineering majors does require a college GPA higher than the minimum for the campus:
https://webapp4.asu.edu/programs/t5/programs/AreaOfInterest/08/undergrad/false (click on specific majors to see transfer GPA requirements)
Most engineering majors seem to require 2.75 or 3.00 GPA to transfer in.

So a student in the lower GPA range at VT or PSU and could not get into the desired major may have a GPA too low to transfer to an ASU engineering major.

Actually, studying your link of GPA up to 2015, Virginia Tech has higher average GPA than Penn State or Rutgers, no wonder it is one of the campuses that has the happiest students. The case for Virginia Tech is stronger and stronger.

VT alum here - H is too - and currently owns his own engineering firm (going on 20 years). No regrets at all with our college choice. We loved our time there. Every couple of years we stop by to see the changes the school has made since we were there (back in the 80s!) It’s expanded incredibly. We’re jealous of the students there now and all their opportunities. We talk with current students and listen to what they are researching, etc. These are random students we come across who offer to speak with us - not selected students from admissions or the alumni network, etc. Yes, students are happy there. I’ve yet to hear a single one speak negatively about the school.

We wanted our lads to go to VT, but alas they all wanted elsewhere (none headed into engineering either). Such is life.

Why is VT ranked better than other schools (for engineering)? My guess would be due to their multiple opportunities in all sorts of research - and these aren’t limited to grad students. It’s just a guess. Others might have more concrete reasons.

Engineering is a tough major, so be sure your guy knows to join study groups or similar to help him keep up. It’s a major one can’t get behind in and expect to catch up with an all nighter before the test. This last part is true regardless of the school chosen.

"However, isn’t the reason that normally people choose a more reputable school "

Splitting hairs.

By regional reputation VT and ASU are academically equivalent schools.

On the east coast, VT is not considered to be any kind of academic powerhouse. No more than ASU is one on the west coast.

^ I disagree wrt to VT reputation. It is considered as a very strong university for stem, equal to PSU (main), UMD, etc

@Greymeer Are you sure? Everyone we talked to, ranked VT Engineering very highly. ASU is known to be the super safety school, which is not true for VT, especially OOS.

For engineering? You ought to find a different crowd to consult with. Powerhouses in engineering are often different than powerhouses for other majors. Doing a quick google search and just looking on the search page it appears they’re ranked #13. ASU is #38. PSU is #24. Individual departments have their own ranking so one should look at what they are interested in if rankings matter. As with anything else, different schools have a more directed engineering focus.

Overall though, in engineering circles, yes, VT is considered an academic powerhouse. H has had headhunters after him pretty much his whole engineering career and even when doing projects on other continents, his VT degree was respected (since many of those folks cared about the name on his diploma as well as projects he’d already done).

Just saw that VT is opening up a 1 Billion research center in northern Virginia, and with Amazon HQ2, VT engineering is looking to go up even more.

^ “ASU is known to be the super safety school”

Umm… VT is a super safety.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinesimon/2017/08/02/super-safety-schools-25-top-colleges-you-can-actually-get-into/#736185ef5954

Google “super safety colleges”.

Sorry, there is no way that Virginia Tech is a “super safety” in engineering. VT’s fairly high acceptance rates are misleading- lots of self selection in terms of applicants and a large class to admit every year .

A lot of the college admission percentages are misleading because they don’t account specific majors that may have higher admission criteria. It’s just a percentage of total addimision. Penn State is another one. They’ve admitted students this current admission cycle to the main University Park campus with substantially lower stats than a lot of business and engineering pre-majors with higher stats. Instead, PSU pushed those kids off to branch campuses. And the expection is that if you want to attend, don’t count on any aid.