<p>I've narrowed down my college choices down to Villanova and Rutgers. I'm visiting both next week. Both will also cost the same. I plan on majoring in mechanical/aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>Villanova is much smaller and is ranked #10 in engineering (where doctorate is not offered.)
But at the same time I'd imagine Rutgers would have better research opportunities since it is a much larger school.</p>
<p>Overall which would you say has a better engineering program? Are there any other positives/negatives about attending either?</p>
<p>rutgers is not academically near villanova. I do not know much about engineering at either school, but in general villanova is much more rigorous.</p>
<p>I visited Rutgers last week and Villanova today. I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of Rutgers and how disorganized its campus tour/info session was. I visited Villanova today and loved the campus. The campus was definitely 100x nicer than Rutgers. Everything seemed organized and it wasn’t over crowded like Rutgers. The students seemed very nice and the professors too. I talked to one professor for a while and he then proceeded to give me almost a 2 hour tour, out of his own time, of the engineering labs.</p>
<p>As of right now I’m leaning towards villanova but I’m still concerned about the size. Despite the fact that I liked the smaller school feel more, I feel like I’ll be limiting my opportunities especially as an engineering major.</p>
<p>BroadwayBlue, anything specific you have questions with? I’m a current engineering student at Nova. Feel free to PM me if you want. What do you mean by limited opportunities? It may not have all the things a large university has, but there seem to be more opportunities to get involved earlier in your education. Most large universities take students until senior year to even get involved in research. Villanova is not like that. People can be researching as early as freshman year.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about size too much. I’m at a small LAC and was still able to get a summer internship even though I’m just finishing my freshman year. If you look for opportunities they will be there.</p>
<p>Yeah, it really depends on what you are considering as opportunities. Rutgers probably does have more things going on. More projects across a larger scope that is probably easier to find one that suits exactly what you want to do. On the other hand, a smaller school might have less projects going on, but they are usually easier to get involved with. As for internships and research opportunities, if you really want one, you can find one without too much difficulty.</p>