<p>My S is very excited about UVA, but I am not sure it is worth the OOS tuition since he is leaning towards engineering, and that is not UVA's strength. Any opinion on its engineering school vs UMD and SUNY Buffalo? We are New Yorkers, so Buffalo would be very cheap.
He applied to the College of Arts and Sciences, and was accepted but is considering transferring into the Engineering School. I have heard this is not hard to do. Thanks!</p>
<p>Consider that your son is only leaning towards engineering and could very well switch back out. Would you have been willing to pay for UVA if he stuck with A&S? If so, then I don’t think there’s really much of an issue on the education itself. He’ll get a quality education in engineering or computer science but it just won’t be in a really tech-oriented environment. If he wanted to be around students that really want to work as engineers then he probably would have applied to GaTech, VT, etc.</p>
<p>Have you visited Charlottesville VA and College Park MD? If not, do so because the local vibe may turn him off at one or the other school.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. He’s visited both. He’s quite taken by the beauty of UVA, which is understandable, and I think he’s fascinated by what he perceives as its prestige factor. It’s just clearly an emotional choice, and I’d rather not spend money on emotion. If he were interested in majoring in English or history, there’d be no question. Those departments are top notch. I’m just wondering what the experience is like in the engineering programs. Do the undergrads get enough attention? Do they get real mentoring from faculty? And is it strong enough technically to enter a technical field, or are the engineering grads headed into business? Could he get a real high-tech job coming out of UVA? </p>
<p>I really appreciate everyone’s input on this forum. I have learned so much from others’ comments through this whole process. Thanks to all who contribute!</p>
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<p>Chris - We’ll agree to disagree. There are people who want to work as engineers who choose UVa over GaTech and VT for any number of reasons. My son is one of them. The gross generalization that is continually made here (ie UVa engineering students have no interest in actually working as engineers) just isn’t true.</p>
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<p>On this we totally agree. Students will do well when they are comfortable and happy at their University homes. UVa and UMCP are very different and will appeal to different people.</p>
<p>materfamilias, I have a UVa engineering grad . Engineering is not what UVa is most known for but is well respected and many companies recruit there. He and his friends all seem to be very gainfully employed. Lots of the recruiting will be for the DC area so that could be a consideration. Whether or not you want to pay for your son to have an out of state college experience is another story. Only you can decide that.Good luck with the decision!</p>
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<p>Make it 2. S1 graduated last year and got job after internship before senior year.</p>
<p>materfamilias writes “I’m just wondering what the experience is like in the engineering programs. Do the undergrads get enough attention? Do they get real mentoring from faculty? And is it strong enough technically to enter a technical field, or are the engineering grads headed into business? Could he get a real high-tech job coming out of UVA?”</p>
<p>Yes, they are strong enough to enter a technical field.</p>
<p>There appears to be a bit of a difference though in the general mindset of the college versus a more techie school. If you attend a UVA engineering open house or view their website you will hear about graduates who become patent lawyers, go into investment banking, or are on the path to management. The college presentation may appeal to different students than the ones that would love a techie school. At UVA an aspiring mechanical engineer can see how a 3D printer can produce plastic parts straight from the CAD system.</p>
<p>At a techie school (e.g. VT) you won’t hear anything about becoming a patent lawyer or working in investment banking even though VT graduates do this as well. At VT an aspiring mechanical engineer can walk through the RoMeLa laboratory and see custom fabrication of parts for the robots that placed 1st in world competition. But since your son didn’t choose to apply to a techie school then there may be some aspects of those schools that don’t particularly appeal to him. {note to all - I brought up VT only as an example of a techie school; I didn’t intend to discuss its relative merits or bring up the rivalry issue}</p>
<p>Bottom line though is that he can be successful working in a technical field after studying engineering at UVA or UMD.</p>
<p>We are also New Yorkers debating UMD and Buffalo. In addition my son got a partial scholarship to Buffalo. He would enter directly to Engineering at Buffalo and Arts and Sciences at UMD. He isn’t set on Engineering but is considering giving it a try at Buffalo then transferring to UMD if he changes his mind. Is this too risky?</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for your feedback re UVA engineering. It is reassuring to hear that UVA grads can indeed get jobs doing technical work, not just management/I-banking. I don’t know what my son will decide to do with his degree, but I’d like to make sure he has options. We just got back from another visit to Charlottesville, and it was gorgeous as always. He’s totally sold on it regardless. From this visit I learned that their biomedical engineering is top-notch, although that is not my son’s interest. It is also very competitive to get into – about half of the students who want the major can’t get in. Apparently chemical is also capped.</p>
<p>Re the Buffalo vs UMD post, I think it would help if you knew which field in engineering he wants to pursue. UMD has phenomenal aerospace, for instance, and it’s right next to Goddard, but how much better it is than Buffalo in other engineering fields I am not so sure. If your student is undecided, as so many are, of course, it’s a harder call. You may want to look up the rankings of each individual engineering department. I haven’t visited Buffalo, but I was impressed by the literature produced by UMD engineering – there seems to be a lot of cutting edge work going on, and at least some of the undergrads are really involved in it. The recruiting stats for UMD are great too. If your son got into Buffalo Honors, that seemed to offer a lot of perks – priority for registration is a VERY big benefit at any school. I’m assuming he might have gotten into Honors since you said he got merit aid. Good luck!</p>