<p>My son was admitted to both UVA (regular college) and Pitt (honors college). He is planning on studying Biomedical Engineering (with possibly a minor in Electrical Eng) and we are trying to evaluate the merits of the programs offered by each institution. We visited UVA during their recent Engineering Open House and spoke with some of the Bioengineering students and the director of undergraduate Bioengineering programs. We are familiar with Pitt, at least from a campus life perspective, since my daughter is graduating at the end of April from there with a Neuroscience degree. Both programs seem to have a similar selection of course offerings, but we are wondering if Pitt might offer a better range of undergraduate research opportunities (although UVA seems good in this area as well). Both schools are very close in the recent USN&WR rankings. Since we are residents of VA our thought is that if both programs are about equivalent it would obviously make sense from a financial perspective to go with UVA (plus we live only 1.5 hours from C'ville). Of course there is also the obvious difference in the city vs. "small" town campus atmosphere.</p>
<p>Any guidance anyone can provide about relative merits of the two programs would be appreciated. My son seems to have a specific interest in medical imaging although that could certainly change as he moves forward.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>