<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I am a high school senior from New Jersey and I wanted to know wether or not Virginia Tech would be a better option for me next year as opposed to the University of Maryland College Park. I will be majoring in Chemistry, and UMD would run me about 7,000 more per year than Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help!!</p>
<p>There are pretty much 0 schools that are worth paying 7k more per year (especially if that’ll be loans) to go to.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech will provide you a great college experience/academics since its located in Blacksburg which is a college town plus the education is great as well. I believe science is strong at Virginia Tech as well. If your looking to pursue your career after graduation lets say at New Jersey or some other state, people will have heard of Virginia Tech (not just because of the incidents/shooting) but for its academics especially in engineering,architecture, and etc. Virginia Tech is known for its academics.</p>
<p>It’s kinda funny because i’m in almost the exact same situation. VT vs. UMD (i assume College Park). I just visited VT and the atmosphere is great. It seems to be a really nice school with nice people and a nice surrounding town. It’s nice. However, UMD seems to be more prestigious and has prime location near DC, but College Park isn’t too great. Both schools are very good academically within the engineering field - I feel that there isn’t much of a difference besides the “General Engineering” curriculum at VT. Both schools have really nice, big campuses (VT looks like a castle, UMD more modern, city-like). In the end, it’s going to be small things, like differences in cost and where I really feel like I could succeed. It’s gonna be a hard decision, but I’m leaning more towards VT right now. Anyways, good luck!</p>
<p>Crazyfingaz - However, UMD seems to be more prestigious and has prime location near DC, </p>
<p>UMD has been improving its academics over the last 25 years but I’m not sure it’s to the point yet where one would say it’s more presitgious.</p>
<p>UMD isn’t more prestigious, at least for Engineering. They’re both on the same level. Also, VT is only 4 hours away from DC as well so I would say that’s close. </p>
<p>Finally, College Park is not exactly the safest campus in the nation. In fact, it can be quite unsafe even in the day (one of my friends goes there and told me). VT is a lot safer and IMO has nicer surroundings.</p>
<p>For 7k extra it’s really not worth it.</p>