<p>I would appreciate any thoughts comparing the two....</p>
<p>private v public
sums up a lot really if you think about it</p>
<p>My friend and her daughter got back from a visit to UVA, specifically UVA engineering and they were very concerned. Her daughter is in between UVA x WASHU and Vanderbilt. She said that you need to apply for your major (Chemical engineering, biomedical engineering) after the freshman year. It is an application where you have to write an essay, they look into your grades and so forth. They said that the top half of the class always get the major they applied for. But you can end up having to do another major because yours was too competitive that year. So it is clear that you don’t start on your major as a freshman. Also, she heard they are cutting costs in the engineering department. Also she thought that the engineering facilities are not up to date. So she decided to cross UVA engineering off her list.
I went to Vandy engineering open house, and we felt that they have lots of resources, they hired 3 news professors last year, the facilities are really great, small classes, research opportunities and so forth. Also you start to work towards you major as a freshman. If you change your mind later it is easy to change majors. But you don’t have to worry about applying to Biomedical engineering or to chemical engineering by the end of your freshman year because you are already since the beginning in that major. If money is not an issue, I vote for Vandy.</p>
<p>DD is a sr. ChemE major. Didn’t look at UVA but did look at WashU, Carnegie Mellon, CWRU and ND. All good programs but were, obviously, particularly impressed with Vandy. Hasn’t regretted the choice for a moment.</p>
<p>I have a relative who went to UVA, got a masters and a Ph.D in engineering and then when on to be a chief rocket scientist at NASA. Vandy is a good school too, but I know someone who got a degree in chemical engineering at Vandy, and now she is a elementrary school teacher. You really can’t go wrong with either though.</p>