<p>I’m a parent and an engineer working in Virginia so I’ll give you my two cents based on visiting UVA, VT and VCU with a student. I did not visit ODU so I can’t tell you anything about that school.</p>
<p>No doubt UVA is the most selective. Just look at the stats for all three and you will see the differences. UVA and VCU also have biomedical engineering whereas VT does not (they are starting a minor this year in BME since they now have a medical college). So if she is dead set to go BME then UVA or VCU are the way to go for undergraduate. VT does have a very good graduate school in BME, but does not have a undergraduate degree in BME. </p>
<p>I have heard it is very competitive to get into the BME pipe line at UVA. They restrict the numbers of students (to insure the quality of the education no doubt) to a small number. So there is a chance you could plan on going BME as a freshman and find out you can’t get into that program, I think it is based on the first year grades. At a top notch school like UVA I would imagine it is indeed tough to make the cut given the competition. VT also has some restrictions regarding major selection based on GPA the first year as well.</p>
<p>VT has some outstanding programs and has a ton of research dollars. It’s well known as a engineering school in Virginia and beyond. The school is very good at training excellent engineers. They take a more technical approach to the training there with a small amount of liberal arts requirements. Most of the curriculum is hard core engineering including the electives. It is a beautiful campus (something my daughter seems to like) in a rural setting. The students were friendly and seemed to like the school.</p>
<p>UVA is also an excellent school. It is more known as a liberal arts school (my opinion) but is gaining excellent recognition for its engineering school. UVA has a different approach which I call the “Thomas Jefferson” way. Engineers study the technical material and they also get a ton (in my opinion) of liberal arts thrown into the mix. The student that showed us around was a BME student who was getting a minor in French. I’m not saying that is good or bad, just different then the VT approach. It is a beautiful campus with more of a city feel to it then VT. Once again the students were friendly and seemed to like the school.</p>
<p>VCU is the least selective but has an excellent faculty and faculty. Many people put VCU down because it is the least selective of all three schools. My feeling is that it is a decent school for engineering. I don’t know about the other programs, but for engineering it does a good job (in my opinion).They also have a medical college which makes the BME program solid. It is right in the heart of Richmond and does not feel like either VT or UVA, way more urban as you would expect. Once again the students were friendly and seemed to like the school. They also have a guaranteed medical college admissions path for those that want to go to the medical college. As you would expect it is very competitive to get a guaranteed admission before entering, but two of the students from our high school are there now and planning on going on to MCV when they graduate.</p>
<p>I have worked with engineers at from all three schools and each school is doing good job training entry level engineers (in my opinion). They all seemed well prepared to enter the work force and make a contribution. I would definitely recommend taking your daughter to all three for a look. All three have something to offer and we are lucky in Virginia to have all three as choices.</p>