UVa Engineering vs. VT Engineering

<p>I don't know if someone else already posted this (please double-check facts as I tried to do this as fast as possible)...</p>

<p>Engineering Grad Rankings (Sorry couldn't find undergrad rankings)</p>

<h2>2005</h2>

<p>VT #31
UVa #34</p>

<h2>2001</h2>

<p>VT #25
UVa #36</p>

<p>Not that rankings mean that much, but UVa is moving up, while VT is moving down - again for grad though.</p>

<h2>Salaries</h2>

<p>UVa 52K Median from 2004 SEAS Annual Report - although it also lists 45K as the Median accepted offer (Probably the top of the class went on to graduate school)</p>

<p>VT 48K Median for 2003-2004</p>

<p>Hence a 4K difference.</p>

<h2>Grad Schools (Top Grad Engineering School Attendance)</h2>

<h2>VT</h2>

<p>Cornell
Princeton
Stanford(2)</p>

<p>So 4 top schools from about 55-60 Engineering Grad Students
= about 6.9 %</p>

<h2>UVa</h2>

<p>Carnegie Mellon(2)
Johns Hopkins
Stanford(3)
Caltech(2)
GaTech(2)
MIT</p>

<p>So 11 top schools from about 50 Engineering Grad Students
= about 22% </p>

<p>Interesting facts I found on the Internet:</p>

<p>-Founder of MIT was a Prof. at UVa at one time
-In a year's time (under a new dean), UVa's rank moved up 8 places
-New 99,000 square foot facility to open this spring
-Hired new National Academy of Engineering faculty (big award)
-Plan to hire 25 to 30 more prof., so ranking should rise</p>

<p>Don't know much personally about the engineering school, but I assume as it is smaller, you will get a lot of attention.</p>

<p>Overall, I think the difference between VT and UVa are as follows:</p>

<p>Everything but engineering: UVa is much better than VT
Enginering: VT is marginally better than UVa in research
UVa engineering students are much better than VT students
UVa engineering students make a little more than VT students</p>

<p>Basketball: UVa is better than VT
Football: UVa is much, much better than VT</p>

<p>Just kidding, VT is much, much, much, much better than UVa in football</p>

<p>Wahoowa....!?</p>

<p>"Just kidding, VT is much, much, much, much better than UVa in football"</p>

<p>LOL.... nice</p>

<p>VaAlum, that's some interesting research.
I know you grabbed the UVa 2004 data because it compares directly to the VT 2004 data, but the UVa 2005 numbers are very interesting as well. (For those interested, go to the SEAS career center website, and look for the annual report. Here's the link: <a href="http://www.seas.virginia.edu/careerdevelopment/2005SeasAnnualReport.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.seas.virginia.edu/careerdevelopment/2005SeasAnnualReport.pdf&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>In 2005, 110 graduating engineers at UVA (65% of the class) reported an accepted offer of $53,722 (median $52,394). </p>

<p>EE, CS, and Computer Engineering beat their national averages, while ChemE, AeroE, and MechE were below the national averages.</p>

<p>The four biomedical engineers were much larger than the national average at $64,550, but four is a very small sample.</p>

<p>The surprise was the systems engineers, the largest major at UVa e-school. 42 graduating systems engineers reported an average starting salary of $67,185 (median $55,000). In fact the undergrads got bigger offers than the MS Systems Engineering graduates (only 5 reporting at $55k--again, a numbers glitch). </p>

<p>I'd say they did pretty well for the "34th best engineering school" in the country!</p>

<p>Cheers,
RB</p>

<p>Hi Redbeard,</p>

<p>I looked at the 2005 survey and although I would love for UVa BioEngineering to beat out the national average by more than 15K, I think the survey might be incorrect. Why?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The SEAS Avg for BioE is 64550. With 4 responses, that means
64550 * 4 = 258200</p></li>
<li><p>The SEAS Range is 32K to 65.6K. That means for sure, 2 of those 4 people made 32K and 65.6K</p></li>
<li><p>258200 - 32K - 65.6K = 160600</p></li>
<li><p>That means, on average, the other two BioEs made about 80.4K, which is well outside the given range.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Something is obviously wrong, either the average or the range. My guess is the average as I doubt even Stanford or MIT engineers beat the average by that much.</p>

<p>I can't do the same analysis for Systems with 42 responses, but again my guess is something is wrong when Virginia engineers beat the national average by 17K - again I doubt even Stanford or MIT engineers make that much more.</p>

<p>Either way, the median is probably a better measure as very high or very low outliers won't skew the results.</p>

<p>Please let me know if my reasoning is incorrect - which for Virginia's sake, I hope it is!</p>

<p>From the 2004 data, Systems Engineers made 52K (Median) and 51.7K (Avg.), which is probably a better estimate.</p>

<p>BioEngineering is not listed that year.</p>

<p>VA, I think you're right. You're definitely right with respect to the Bio Engineers. (This is a new major, so there will be no earlier-year data. Bio-E replaced Aerospace Engineering. AeE is now part of Mechanical Engineering). </p>

<p>As for the Systems Engineering majors, the range went all the way to $81K, so there has been a jump from the 2004 numbers. But, now that we know one number is wrong, us Bayesian statisticians will lower the posterior probability that the other number is as printed. </p>

<p>That's my academic mumbo-jumbo for saying you're probably right. $55K median is still pretty good, though, and I think the recruiting sections in the same paper show that systems engineers are doing quite well. (We'll see... my S is a systems engineering major. I might have him ask about this report.)</p>

<p>All the best,
RB</p>

<p>I've e-mailed the SEAS about the table. I'm sure it's an error. I'll let you know what they answer...</p>

<p>RB</p>

<p>That's great that your S is a systems major. Regardless of what the true number is, your S will be very, very well off when he graduates as a 22 year old (I am assuming he will be 22) - maybe he can buy his old man a sports car!</p>

<p>Just curious, but what is your background / what line of work do you do? I remember you said something before that you graduated from Cornell.</p>

<p>Take care,</p>

<p>VirginiaAlum</p>

<p>Ya, I'm pretty happy for him (as I am for all my kids!).</p>

<p>Lessee, a trip down memory lane:</p>

<p>BA, Cornell (Chemistry & Biochemistry)
MA, Georgetown (Government)
MS, George Washington (Operations Research)</p>

<p>And, right now, a candidate for PhD at George Mason University in Operations Research. (Well, technically, Information Technology Engineering with a specialization in Operations Research).</p>

<p>This allows me to make wisecracks about Bayesian statistics without violating Virginia statutes.</p>

<p>Cheers,
the overeducated Redbeard</p>

<p>Okay, here's the scoop. The e-school data for 2005 starting salaries has an error in the "Annual Report". </p>

<p>In fact, the correct average starting salary for the four BMEs was 48,150. For systems engineers it was 54,565. Apparently, some of the graduate school data got mixed in with the undergrads. </p>

<p>I'm hoping they will actually correct the report.</p>

<p>Cheers,
RB</p>

<p>Thanks for the info RB, 54,565 is still pretty darn good. Your S should be more than fine.</p>