<p>My child is interested in engineering and possibly aerospace or mechanical. We are Va. residents so many in state schools are at our fingertips. For some reason my child is also interested in USFalong with others. He is a great student with strong ECS and test scores. How is USF looked upon inthe engneering world? I know it isn't a top school but could he get a good education? Should we just stick with instate schools and count our blessings in regard to tuition. Another thing my child also wants to do in college is participate in marching band! Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>wow you are so lucky that you have Virginia Tech, one of the best engineering schools (and very cheap) in the country! stick with VT!</p>
<p>USF is not known as a “very good” engineering school.</p>
<p>Yes, your son would get a good education in the engineering program at USF. But given your in-state option is VaTech, it is your clear choice because of quality and cost.</p>
<p>And, although we’ve argued this many times, your son also has UVA, which is a better overall school and as a better post-graduate record that VaTech (from a career and graduate school perspective). In addition, you’re also close to UMD, which is a 1st tier engineering school (VT and UVA are both 2nd tier schools). </p>
<p>I assume his overall interest in USF is the weather? It’s a very strange school to pick at random, as it’s not even in the Top 100 for engineering schools.</p>
<p>Oh come on. You can’t be trying to push a kid to UVA over VT for Aerospace. VT is top 10 in schools that give a graduate degree in Aero.</p>
<p>Academically and financially VT makes much, much more sense than USF.</p>
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<p>I missed the AE reference - I was just looking at ME. UVA doesn’t have an AE program, so if he’s possibly going into that field, VT is the obvious in-state choice.</p>
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<p>Agreed. That’s why I thought it might be for weather.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t make sense to apply to USF for the weather. UF is a top 50 school with a superior engineering program to USF, and the weather there is virtually the same.</p>
<p>For engineering, though, Virginia Tech is superior to even UF. If you’re in-state, you’re getting a great deal.</p>
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<p>USF does have the beach near-by, right? UF is 90 mins in both directions. </p>
<p>If you want a good engineering program with decent academics, you’ve got to look at all of the SoCal schools. I’m not sure of the guy’s stats, but UCSD has got to be the greatest weather in the world.</p>
<p>dont choose college because of a beach btw</p>
<p>and as well…inside of florida most people consider USF to be the bottom of the chain</p>
<p>below UCF FSU and of course UF, if you are gonig to choose a school in florida besides UF, go to ucf…</p>
<p>usf???</p>
<p>but you have VT instate, that is a good school.</p>
<p>if you can goto UVA, why would you goto Virginia Tech whether you are doing eng or not?</p>
<p>remember, this is only for undergrad education; it really doesn’t matter whether you goto techie-school or not for undergrad.</p>
<p>moreover, it’s not like VaTech grads get paid more than UVA (based on post-grad surveys of two schools i saw few years back)</p>
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<p>You’re hilariously wrong.</p>
<p>VT has a better engineering school overall than UVA, though UVA is better in a couple disciplines (not including Aero.) The whole “your undergrad school/degree doesn’t matter” thing doesn’t work, at all, in engineering. Most get a job straight out of undergrad, so your undergrad degree (and what you did while you were there) was ALL that matters.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen any numbers on VT/UVA engineering grad salaries but I’d be willing to bet the house that AE engineering grads from VT have a higher salary than from UVA, seeing as the major doesn’t even exist there.</p>
<p>If you would consider UVA, I personally would also want to consider the different atmospheres the campuses present. I mean it’s engineering but you still want to be able to enjoy some part of your “off-time” ;).</p>
<p>Also G.P. How would you consider UMD tier 1 & VT Tier 2? By what measurements?</p>
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<p>Tier 1 is #1 through #25
Tier 2 is #26 through #50</p>
<p>USNWR has UMD as #17 and VT as #27</p>
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<p>Not true. Most companies will have target schools and only go to those target schools to hire. A graduate seeking a career in consulting rather than manufacturing will be much better off coming from UVA than VT, also graduate schools have a higher opinion of UVA than VT because of the more theoretical approach to teaching at UVA.</p>
<p>This also shows the issue with relying solely on rankings - JD, MD, and MBA seeking students, consulting seeking student, IBB seeking students, VC seeking students, research graduate degree seeking students, etc. are better off with the #37 UVA degree than the #27 VT degree or even the #17 UMD degree. Meanwhile, for traditional engineering positions, you see no drop off in manufacturing hiring at VT than UVA.</p>
<p>Edit: but VT is a much bigger program, so you have to keep that in mind. It has more options and concentrations within the engineering field and has an entirely different campus atmosphere.</p>
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<p>Which is why you should come to a school with good athletic programs (at least the ones that anyone cares to watch, good job at lacrosse or basketweaving or whatever sport you beat us at this year) such as VT. ;)</p>
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<p>What did I say that wasn’t true? VT is ranked higher than UVA. Like I said, there are certain engineering majors and career paths where UVA would be better, but for the average engineer a degree from the cheaper VT would serve them better than one from UVA. You’re full of it, and you’re getting called out by multiple people in multiple threads. I’m kind of getting tired of cleaning the slop you call advice from the boards, but heaven forbid anyone think you know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>I read your post wrong. I thought you were claiming that the school you attend doesn’t mater, which is actually the opposite of what you were claiming. </p>
<p>So we agree that undergraduate school matters, we just differ in whether or not it matters who hires at that school vs. what that school is ranked.</p>
<p>I was almost afraid to see what comments were posted to my question. I knew they would be controversial. Being a Va. resident and having a child already in college (not Va. school) I am aware of how lucky I am to reside in this state. I am also savvy to the application process but engineering is new to me. I have been following these post for around 6 months and my eyes have been opened to the wonderful world of engineering.</p>
<p>My child is interested in USF for basically 2 reasons: weather and a slick info packet that showed up at my home. We are well aware of UIUC, Purdue, USC, Ga. Tech, Michigan are top schools and applications will probably get sent their way. His scores are good enough to theorically get accepted to all those schools. You know kids, my son will not stop tallking about USF and I just thought I would throw a question out there as to what kind of education he may get there. Personally, I would not even look at the school as we have two great places here in our state: UVA and VT. Both are pretty hard to walk away from with the advantage of in state tuition. I know students at both schools studying engineering and of course, they like where they are very much.</p>
<p>Keep the opinions coming. I’m learning so much about engineering as my older child is a liberal arts type person. Also, he wants to continue in marching band so that is a big thing for him right now. Go Hokie’s!</p>
<p>Just ballparking it, explain to him that USF will probably cost him between $50,000 to $100,000 in salary during his 20’s, on top of the cost to attend an out of state school (probably $50,000 - $100,000 on it’s own), and that’s assuming he finds a job at graduation, which is much less likely coming from USF vs. one of the other schools listed. For $200,000 on top of a typical salary, he could own his house by 30 or buy a ridiculous sports car. </p>
<p>If he really cares about the weather, in Florida alone, UCF and Miami are better schools (and UF, but it’s in a swamp). In addition, he can try UCLA, UCSD, USC, Cal Poly SLO, UCSB, etc in CA. He could even go to Hawaii-Manoa and get the same quality of education in a nice environment.</p>
<p>And that’s ignoring all the international schools. Greece, Turkey, and Italy have some good international schools on the Mediterranean. I visited one school in Greece where many students took class in the morning, then went out to the water, threw out a line, and studied on the beach. When they got a bite, that was dinner.</p>
<p>seriously dont let him go to usf if he can go to VT, UCF, UF UVA</p>
<p>USF is like REALLY bad relative to those schools ;[
its not even being considered because its a financial choice, kid is considering it as a ‘gotta have it’ choice…burn that letter he got from usf.</p>
<p>thats like me traveling across country and paying out-of-state tuition to attend a tier 3 school.</p>
<p>I am betting that even if theres a chance he will like USF when he actually gets there…there is a even higher chance that he will regret it.</p>
<p>Maybe this is to be expected in the polarizing world of the internet, but I do think the negatives of a USF engineering degree are being overstated in many of the above posts. I know of one USF grad, in particular, that I trust more for flight-critical saftey evaluations than I do of a couple of my fellow MIT alumns. So, I feel a bit of a duty to defend USF to some degree. Although I do think VaTech (and perhaps UVa) <em>are</em> the best options for your son…you are very fortunate to have these choices available to you.</p>
<p>I will add, however, that for any serious work in aerospace, your son will have to go to grad school for at least a masters.</p>