<p>I got accepted to both, but Vanderbilt is going to cost me $8000 more. I know that UF's ranking on USNews undergrad chemical engineering is really good, but Vanderbilt has closer knit relations with their professors which I liked. Which is better for chemical engineering??? Research opportunities?? Input please!</p>
<p>I would go with the University of Florida. The Chemical Engineering program is currently ranked 21st overall. </p>
<p>Also has amazing career prospects</p>
<p>Attempting to sound as unbiased as possible, you’d probably be better off with going undergrad at UF. It’s cheaper, is ranked higher for chemical engineering, and if you want to go somewhere else as a graduate, you’ll have saved money to do so. Not to mention UF athletics > *.</p>
<p>UF hands down! The classes at Vandy might be smaller than at UF, but, you will still have all the opportunity you want to interact with the engineering profs at UF.</p>
<p>but, aren’t the classes extremely intense? I’m not really looking forward to the weed out classes…</p>
<p>^ With all due respect: how are you going to make it as an Engineer if you can’t pass some silly class at UF.</p>
<p>Maybe you can take a couple at a local community college over the summer.</p>
<p>good point : ) i think at this point i’m leaning towards vanderbilt and i’m trying to look for excuses to not go to uf, my safety…</p>
<p>I think you misconstrued what I was trying to say.</p>
<p>They are silly classes at Vanderbilt as well. When it comes to engineering the field is highly demanding. What you will face in the classroom pales in comparison to what you will face at Lockheed Martin and all the other top engineering firms.</p>
<p>My cousin graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and he has a difficult job.</p>
<p>oooh, gotcha</p>
<p>yayy, you’re not going to get a freebie engineering degree from any top ranked engineering school without putting in lots of hard work. Remember, engineering in the field is not about turning some crank 40 hours a week to get some work done. It requires lots of invention to create products (bridges, missile guidance systems, soap, etc…) that may have never been designed before that rely on a solid foundation of skills (that I like to call a tool box). I think engineering school mostly teaches you how to use the tools in your tool box. If you don’t know how to use these tools, you’re not going to be a successful engineer.</p>
<p>My point is, the “weed out” classes are going to be tough, but, you must endure it to be ready for the “real world”. You can’t be a Navy SEAL (and shoot down pirates) without going through boot camp first.</p>
<p>Yayy, go to where YOU feel better. In the end, this choice is a personal one. No matter what people tell you over the internet, you will have to make this choice based on what you want. </p>
<p>We’re all obviously hoping you’ll choose UF because that is our favorite school :)</p>
<p>You, on the other hand, seem set on Vandy. So, make the choice without our pressure.</p>
<p>Btw, Vandy is a school I’m interested in too…I just happened to like UF more.</p>
<p>thank you everybody!! </p>
<p>I’m pretty set on engineering, I just wanted to make that clear. I know that it will take all my dedication and will if I want to survive in engineering and I will have to love it if I’m going to make it into my own career. I think I may have taken engineering a bit not so seriously in this thread, and in the end it deviated from my true questions about the quality of engineering at both schools. I was really looking for the pros and cons at both schools and also actually trying to bounce questions off people and get some answers.</p>
<p>That said, I had a talk with my mom and I’m getting excited about UF! We are going to the Honors visitation day that’s coming up, and we’ll try to squeeze in a trip to Vandy also. I think what drew me to Vandy was the quality of the small engineering program, which isn’t well known, but is in the beginning stages of gaining recognition. It is also starting to specialize in nanotechnology, where I would get to start research in my sophomore, maybe even freshman year. I would work with the top notch professors, because they don’t have a lot of other students to take under their wing.</p>
<p>That was the impression that I received from Vandy when I talked to them over the phone and they told me to drop by their VINSE office if I visited Vandy. I really don’t know much about UF’s engineering program except that it’s extroadinary but really big. My guidance counselor told me that I would have to work through the intro classes my freshman and sophomore years and then would be able to find research to work on with professors. So, any thoughts, comments, help now???</p>
<p>UF has a big nanoscience department with brand new facilities:</p>
<p>[Center</a> for Nano-Bio Sensors at the University of Florida](<a href=“http://cnbs.centers.ufl.edu/research/biosensors.asp]Center”>Center for Nano-Bio Sensors at the University of Florida)
[Nanoscience</a> Institute for Medical and Engineering Technology](<a href=“- NIMET: Nanoscience Institute for Medical & Engineering Technology”>http://www.nimet.ufl.edu/)</p>
<p>Thanks!! I’m probably going to be veering a bit towards Chemical with Materials, so the second link helped me. From what I can see, UF’s nano institutes are pretty well established right? Will I be able to get hands on research experience hopefully by the end of freshman year or by sophomore year? Thanks again!</p>
<p>UF has a top 10 materials program in undergrad:</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> engineering specialties: Materials - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-doct-materials]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-doct-materials)</p>
<p>UF also has an undergraduate engineering research program (that is designed for junior and senior year students) that allows students to work with top-notch engineering corporations on very challenging and interesting projects. This program has been established more than a decade ago so its very fine-tuned. You can look at all the previous projects (click on the “projects” menu) and get an idea of how awesome these projects are. Putting these projects on your resume will land you a job anywhere.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Florida - Integrated Product & Process Design](<a href=“http://www.ippd.ufl.edu/projects.html]University”>http://www.ippd.ufl.edu/projects.html)</p>
<p>I will see if there is any information on research opportunities for freshmen and sophomores.</p>