<p>Hey, so I was accepted to both UMD and UVA's engineering schools. I am in-state for UMD, and theyre giving me $9k a year in scholarships. UVA costs about $40k a year as opposed to UMD which is now about $8k</p>
<p>I want to do engineering...is UMD's engineering program a lot better than UVA? I'm worried about the huge size and big classes/TAs and all that stuff that comes with big schools. Is this a big concern or is it not really that bad? I guess I'm kinda hoping for a brief comparison of the 2 schools, I only have a few days to decide :(</p>
<p>UMD’s engineering program is quite strong, and IMO, it certainly isn’t worth spending more $$ to go to UVA. One of D1’s friends from the dorm freshman year (an engineering major) had an internship at Microsoft (in Washington state) the summer between freshman and sophomore year. </p>
<p>As far as the size of UMD, the beauty of a large school is that you can be as anonymous as you choose to be. All of D’s profs in her 2 majors have known her by name. She had one prof for both semesters freshman year; his letter of recommendation for her probably played a big part in her getting a part-time internship at NASA, starting the fall of her sophomore year. If you want to get to know your profs, go to class, participate (if there’s a chance to), go to office hours of the prof—introduce yourself, get help before exams, etc.</p>