my son was offered admission to VT and Texas A&M college station for aerospace engineering, and so we are now torn between the two universities as they both have almost similar rankings. We “are out of state” for both the schools and the cost is nearly equal so it ain’t a problem. but we cannot decide between the two. any suggestions and reviews will be very helpful and immensely appreciated.
Honestly, if costs are a wash, just go with whichever one you prefer. If you visited the campuses, I’m sure your son liked one over the other. Working in an engineering field, they are both great programs and I’ve met excellent grads from both programs.
What weather does he prefer?
What part of the country does he want to end up living in?
How easy it is to travel to each of these?
Do they have Coop programs if he is interested?
Do they have undergraduate research opportunities?
Are they direct admit programs?
Is there a minimum GPA that must be maintained?
Both VT and Texas A&M start engineering students in first year general pre-engineering and require them to apply for their majors after taking first year courses. At VT, 3.0 GPA assures first choice major; at Texas A&M, 3.5 GPA is needed to assure first choice major. Those not meeting the auto-admit GPA compete by GPA at VT for remaining space available; at Texas A&M, they write essays and have to rank at least three majors for placement.
Texas has a very large economy and employers recruit heavily from Texas A&M. It’s hard to get your foot in the door for AE, so I recommend a masters degree and/or a minor or double major in something easily employable, i.e. computers. Houston is a city that hires a lot of Aerospace engineers, so being in Texas could help a lot. Also AE companies hire a variety of engineers like mechanical, industrial, and environmental engineers, as well as computer engineers.
These are both very good schools for engineering. So, which campus/campus vibe , does he prefer? You can google Virginia Tech Post grad survey to find lists of all the employers that grads end up at -Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc. You can also see lists for all the other engineering majors and all majors in general , in case he changes his mind about aerospace. VT has a very large Career Fair, great recruiting and job placement, a beautiful campus, as well as loyal alumni, great school spirit, and great food! Two excellent choices. Good luck with the decision.
I really appreciate all your suggestions and they are a blessing for the confused soul. Its tough choosing one over the other. we are inclining a bit towards VT