<p>My son has been admitted to these and wants to study aerospace engineering. We are still awaiting financial aid and scholarship information (UM is the only one to offer much so far), but I wanted to see if anyone had an opinion of the relative quality of these schools engineering programs.</p>
<p>Purdue is ranked the highest according to USNews, they are ranked #4.
Virginia Tech is ranked 17th and UMiami is unranked.
These rankings are for aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>Data drawn mostly from USNWR</p>
<p>OBJECTIVE DATA</p>
<p>Undergraduate Population:
Va Tech: 21,627 U Miami FL: 10,537 Purdue: 30,875</p>
<p>Costs (Tuition & Fees):
Va Tech: $6,973 in-state, $18,929 out-of-state U Miami FL: $31,232 Purdue: $7,096 in-state, $21,266 out-of-state</p>
<p>Graduation & Retention Rank
Va Tech: 60th U Miami FL: 98th Purdue: 83rd<br>
-% of Students expected to graduate in 6 years:
Va Tech: 66% U Miami FL: 71% Purdue: 59%
-% of students who do graduate in 6 years:
Va Tech: 76% U Miami FL: 71% Purdue: 66%</p>
<p>Faculty Resources Rank:
Va Tech: 169th U Miami FL: 45th Purdue: 63rd
-% of classes with 50+ students
Va Tech: 21% U Miami FL: 7% Purdue: 19%
-% of classes with <20 students
Va Tech: 24% U Miami FL: 45% Purdue: 33%
-Faculty/student ratio
Va Tech: 16/1 U Miami FL: 13/1 Purdue: 14/1 </p>
<p>Student Selectivity Rank:
Va Tech: 113th U Miami FL: 49th Purdue: 137th
-Average SAT/ACT:
Va Tech: 1110-1290 U Miami FL: 1160-1360 Purdue: 1030-1260
-% of students ranking in top 10% of high school class
Va Tech: 37% U Miami FL: 62% Purdue: 27%
-% acceptance rate
Va Tech: 72% U Miami FL: 46% Purdue: 75%</p>
<p>Financial Resources Rank:
Va Tech: 130th U Miami FL: 31st Purdue: 94th </p>
<p>Alumni Giving % and Rank:
Va Tech: 21% (54th) U Miami FL: 16% (94th) Purdue: 19% (75th)</p>
<p>SUBJECTIVE DATA</p>
<p>Peer Assessment:
Va Tech: 3.4 U Miami FL: 3.2 Purdue: 3.8</p>
<p>Based on the objective data, one would likely identify U Miami as the top pick among this group, but the subjective data differs dramatically with that conclusion. Not sure what this means as many, many, many posters (including me) question the usefulness and accuracy of Peer Assessment scores. U Miami is known to be an improving school over the last decade and the reputation score with academics is typically a lagging number. But all of this is possibly beside the point as your son is looking at aerospace engineering and, among academics, Purdue would seem to be the choice. A key consideration obviously is if you are in-state Virginia or Indiana, the cost difference vs the other schools is LARGE.</p>