VT and UVA Engineering vs elsewhere

Hello all,
I am an engineering student at VHCC in Abingdon, Virginia. I’m planning on transferring in the fall of 2020. My current #1 choice is Virginia Tech but I would also like to go to somewhere with more prestige like an Ivy League school, a UC (UCLA or UC Berkeley), or USC. Those schools would obviously be more expensive than VT or UVA in state. Is there any justification or reason to pick one of those over the cheaper, but still very good, in state school? Thanks for the replies!

Why did you start at a CC?
Cost? Not sure what you wanted? Not a strong student in HS? Family issues?

Your best bet would be to try to transfer to public colleges and universities in your home state. You will get the most credits transferred that way.

What courses have you taken in CC? What were your grades?

There no reason to look at California’s good state schools over Virginia’s good state schools.

None of the Ivy League schools are better that VT. Cornell is probably a peer. The rest…not so much. Don’t take my word. Go tour VT and go tour Penn. See for yourself. UCLA and UCB are also both very large state schools. UCB in particular has world class graduate research. Will your undergrad experience be better than Tech? I seriously doubt it. Will you make more money? No. If it were me, I’d be taking advantage of the fact that one of the world’s better engineering schools happens to be cheap and in my home state.

Thanks for the responses! I started at CC because it was closer to home and my parents are paying for it lol. I actually got accepted into VT out of high school but just decided to take the CC route. My GPA is a 3.5 (I tragically missed 2 As by less than a point…) but after this semester it should be up to a 3.65+. I just switched to engineering but I got all of my humanities and arts out of the way. I’ve always lived in Virginia and would love to see a change for college, but I don’t think double the price would really be worth it. Thank you both for the help!

Where we are, for engineering, none of the schools you mention would have more prestige than VT. As the pp mentioned, Cornell would be seen as a peer. Probably the UCs and USC too, but we don’t get those grads in our area to know. I’d only consider CA schools if you wanted to live in/near CA. The cost isn’t worth it anywhere else - for engineering - when you have great options.

Engineering top schools and generic top schools are not the same list.

I would love to live in CA but probably not enough to drop a lot more money.

You can always take a job in CA after you get your degree!

I am a PE that started at the same school you did. I would pick in state unless you get a free ride somewhere else. The decision between VT and UVA would depend on the type of engineering you want to do. UVA meets 100 percent of need, so it may be cheaper than VT depending on your FAFSA info. I am local and would be glad to discuss in person with you and your parents if there was a way to email someone directly on here without putting contact info to the public. My last intern did the VHCC/VT route that you are considering, and my intern for this summer is a local student that is finishing up their first year at VT.

Another thought for going to school in another area would be to go to an in-state school for your BS and apply for a graduate assistantship for your Masters at an out-of-state school. Free tuition and a stipend for probably 20 hours per week working for a professor.

Agree that there is no need to look OOS. In two years, you could take a job or go to grad school OOS. I am a VT partisan, it is a fantastic place, and top notch reputation for engineering. But for financial reasons alone, it’s a no-brainer