<p>Appreciate some thoughts regarding preference for Engineering course at these two university</p>
<p>Many thanks</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has a stronger undergradute focus/more prestigous school. If costs are the same, I would go with Vandy. If you are in-state at UT and paying full price for Vanderbilt - I would go with UT.</p>
<p>UT has a great engineering school. One of the best ChemE departments in the nation, great connections in the oil industry I’m sure. It’s also absolutely massive; big classes and not near the amount of undergrad focus you’ll find at Vandy.</p>
<p>As Pancaked said, UT is great for engineering, but it’s also a huge school where you will be attending lectures with hundreds of other students and it will be very impersonal. Vandy engineering is much smaller and therefore doesn’t have anywhere near the research output of UT, but has made some big steps in recent years and may offer the better undergraduate experience. Smaller class sizes at Vandy will allow you to meet people more easily, although you seem to be foreign, which will present an obstacle wherever you go. Still, you will get a great education either way. I would say it’s a tossup, though your experience at each school will be very different - unless you want to do chemical or petroleum engineering, in which case UT is probably superior.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Vandy’s engineering other than the rigorous acceptance scores for that major. Coincidentally, my daughter will be attending Vandy this coming fall, but my oldest son will be graduating from UT with a Chem E degree in May. He secured an incredible job back in October and will graduate in 4 years. He LOVED Austin, loved U.T. and said it never felt like a really big school to him. Like any school, you get consumed in your major and walk the same beat every day. He told me that the Chem E’s workload is intense and is much harder than the other engineering disciplines. The payoff is huge though. It’s certainly not for everyone, but if you are disciplined and can see the forest through the trees, it can be very rewarding. I couldn’t be more proud of how hard he has worked. Also, the fraternity saved him. He did not have to plan his social life, he just showed up!</p>
<p>Lovinlife - As a Chem E and sorority member many years ago, based on your post it seems the life of an engineer in college hasn’t changed. In my case, I wouldn’t have had any girlfriends from college without the sorority (There were only a handful of women in my ChemE program). </p>
<p>It was nice to hear when we visited Vandy last week, that the School of Engineering is comprised of over 30% women.</p>