<ul>
<li>UT is 4th after only MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley in faculty in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)</li>
<li>Austin is indeed a high tech center, although I'm not quite sure it's the same as it was before the tech crash in 2000; still there are MANY high tech companies in diverse areas - from international research consortiums founded due to UT's presence (Sematech), gaming, IT consulting, semiconductors, etc. Companies like Dell, Samsung, Applied Materials, National Instruments, AMD, and many, many others - too many major names to list them all.</li>
<li>Recruiting - literally hundreds of companies recruit at UT. The annual engineering expo fair gets over 200 companies on campus.</li>
<li>UT has the world's fastest academic supercomputer (and has perenially always had computing resources in the upper echelons of academia).</li>
<li>if you decide engineering isn't your thing, UT's academic programs are all essentially ranked at least top 20 (and mostly higher)</li>
<li>Austin itself! One of the best college towns (er, cities now). Not as large as a major city, but with much more to offer than a typical college town</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote=]
Basically, I want to know which of these schools would be about as good as, say, Georgia Tech?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, UT-Austin has more NAE members on faculty (and a higher % of faculty) than Georgia Tech. And in the NRC rankings, UT actually was ranked higher in most engineering areas. Outside of engineering, UT's natural science programs are also stronger than GaTech's. While GaTech is indeed excellent, it is more singularly focused and can't offer the same academic breadth and depth of schools like Wisconsin, Texas, Washington, Illinois, etc.</p>
<p>Texas is excellent for Comp Sci / Comp Eng. I had a friend switch to Comp Eng after a straight Eng track. He absolutely loves it. His classes are challenging--and he was a good programmer before he switched--and the professors are excellent.</p>
<p>i have always heard, especially from engineers that VT has one of the best programs in the country. and as far as the shooting, their stats don't show any drop in applicants to my knowledge.</p>
<p>geeze, i wouldn't think so!!!it never even occurred to me! it's a school you should definitely look into. large, but known for engineering. beautiful campus, reasonable price and some of the best college food in the country. they evn have super easy language requirements to help out the more language-challenged (engineers ;) ) students! not a good place for language-based majors, however. good luck!</p>
<p>The city of Worcester has a lot of colleges, but it is not really what I would think of as a college town. The city has some rough areas, and some areas that have been improved. WPI is definitely in a better part of town. I suspect that for kids that get off campus they find restaurants etc. that they like. But overall, it seems that kids are working a lot! (Like most engineering schools.)</p>
<p>The WPI campus is very compact. They are building new student apartments and will break groudn on a new gym fairly soon. All the other buildings are very close together. They have a brand new, large bio-engineering building that is a couple of streets away from the main campus, and they have plans to further develop that area with graduate student housing etc. The immediate area around WPI is pretty nice: off campus apartments in decent houses, frat houses, parks, a few restaurants and a grocery store. But there isn't a whole lot to do for students without cars.</p>
<p>WPI has an active music/theater scene. Since it is a small school everyone has a shot at participating in stuff. They have an international house of some sort. (I'm not sure what it is - check the web site.)</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Computer Engineering
1 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology<br>
2 Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
2 Stanford University (CA)
4 University of California–Berkeley *
5 U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
6 Georgia Institute of Technology *
7 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
8 Cornell University (NY)
8 University of Texas–Austin *
10 California Institute of Technology<br>
11 Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)*
12 University of Washington *
13 Princeton University (NJ)
14 Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *
15 Univ. of California–Los Angeles *
16 Northwestern University (IL)
16 Rice University (TX)
18 Univ. of California–San Diego *
18 Univ. of Southern California<br>
20 Univ. of Maryland–College Park *</p>
<p>Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)</p>
<ol>
<li> Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 4.9 </li>
<li> Stanford University (CA) 4.7 </li>
<li> University of California–Berkeley * 4.7 </li>
<li> California Institute of Technology 4.6 </li>
<li> Georgia Institute of Technology * 4.5 </li>
<li> U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign * 4.5 </li>
<li> Cornell University (NY) 4.4 </li>
<li> University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 4.4 </li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 4.2 </li>
<li> Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)* 4.2 </li>
<li> University of Texas–Austin * 4.2 </li>
<li> Princeton University (NJ) 4.1 </li>
<li> Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison * 4.0 </li>
<li> Johns Hopkins University (MD) 3.9 </li>
<li> Northwestern University (IL) 3.9 </li>
<li> Virginia Tech * 3.9 </li>
<li> Pennsylvania State U.–University Park * 3.8 </li>
<li> Rice University (TX) 3.8 </li>
<li> Texas A&M Univ.–College Station * 3.8 </li>
<li> Columbia University (NY) 3.7 </li>
<li> Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY) 3.7 </li>
<li> Univ. of California–Los Angeles * 3.7 </li>
<li> Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities * 3.7 </li>
<li> University of Washington * 3.7 </li>
<li> Duke University (NC) 3.6 </li>
<li> Ohio State University–Columbus * 3.6 </li>
<li> Univ. of California–San Diego * 3.6 </li>
<li> Univ. of Maryland–College Park * 3.6 </li>
<li> North Carolina State U.–Raleigh * 3.5 </li>
<li> University of Florida * 3.5 </li>
<li> University of Pennsylvania 3.5 </li>
<li> Univ. of Southern California 3.5 </li>
<li> Harvard University (MA) 3.4 </li>
<li> University of California–Davis * 3.4 </li>
<li> University of Colorado–Boulder * 3.4 </li>
<li> University of Virginia * 3.4 </li>
<li> Arizona State University * 3.3 </li>
<li> Case Western Reserve Univ. (OH) 3.3 </li>
<li> Iowa State University * 3.3 </li>
<li> Lehigh University (PA) 3.3 </li>
<li> Univ. of California–Santa Barbara * 3.3 </li>
<li> Yale University (CT) 3.3 </li>
<li> Brown University (RI) 3.2 </li>
<li> Michigan State University * 3.2 </li>
<li> University of Notre Dame (IN) 3.2 </li>
<li> Vanderbilt University (TN) 3.2 </li>
<li> Washington University in St. Louis 3.2 </li>
<li> Dartmouth College (NH) 3.1 </li>
<li> Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick (NJ)* 3.1 </li>
<li> University of Arizona * 3.1 </li>
<li> University of California–Irvine * 3.1 </li>
<li> Colorado School of Mines * 3.0 </li>
<li> University of Delaware * 3.0 </li>
<li> Univ. of Massachusetts–Amherst * 3.0 </li>
<li> University of Missouri–Rolla * 3.0 </li>
<li> University of Pittsburgh * 3.0 </li>
<li> Auburn University (AL)* 2.9 </li>
<li> Boston University 2.9 </li>
<li> Clemson University (SC)* 2.9 </li>
<li> Colorado State University * 2.9 </li>
<li> Drexel University (PA) 2.9 </li>
<li> Illinois Institute of Technology 2.9 </li>
<li> Northeastern University (MA) 2.9 </li>
<li> Tufts University (MA) 2.9 </li>
<li> University at Buffalo–SUNY * 2.9 </li>
<li> University of Illinois–Chicago * 2.9 </li>
<li> University of Iowa * 2.9 </li>
<li> University of Tennessee * 2.9 57. Worcester Polytechnic Inst. (MA) 2.9 **</li>
<li> Kansas State University * 2.8 </li>
<li> Michigan Technological University * 2.8
**70. Rochester Inst. of Technology (NY) 2.8 </li>
<li> SUNY–Stony Brook * 2.8 </li>
<li> University of Utah * 2.8 </li>
<li> Washington State University * 2.8</li>
</ol>