how hands-on is vcu’s engineering program? how hard is it?
I don’t know but I’ve heard many engineers say all you really need is a school that is ABET accredited and they are.
Have you toured and visited the department? All the buildings are new and they have nice new apartments very close to the school buildings. My son has a friend who got in there a couple of years ago for ME. He got full tuition merit aid. Money was not an issue with his family and he ended up at Tech.
I do know they are doing some interesting work at VCU. The da Vinci Center is really interesting. A friend told me the graduates of that are in high demand.
http://www.davincicenter.vcu.edu/
At any rate, VCU is rolling admissions. You can apply there now and probably have an answer in a couple of weeks. Good luck.