<p>I’ve visited the University of Michigan and toured their engineering dept and also have seen UVa’s dept. If you are judging the two schools just on who will give you a better education in mechanical engineering I think Michigan is the winner by far. It is an incredible department and also offers all those great teams to work on like the solar car team that has an annual budget of $2,000,000. Also if you look at which employers recruit at Michigan versus UVa, Michigan also wins hands down. That said, UVa is a lovely school and I can see the attraction. My son will have to make the same decision as you regarding mechanical engineering depts, that is if he gets into UVa. And he may choose atmosphere over a great engineering dept. We’ll see. Good luck!</p>