<p>I’m a senior at Clemson University in South Carolina about to graduate with a degree in Ceramics and Materials Engineering. I applied to UVA’s Dept. of Materials Engineering Ph.D. program and was thrilled last weekend to receive a letter of acceptance AND financial aid.</p>
<p>If there’s anyone on these forums who is familiar with the MS&E department, I’d love to hear your input, but I’m also interested in this forum’s opinions on Charlottesville and the university in general.</p>
<p>Specific questions:
What is there to do for fun?
What kind of outdoor activities are there (any particularly good fishing)?</p>
<p>CVille is great.
[url=<a href=“Google”>Google]Google[/url</a>]
I like how the first result is, “So what’s there to do in Charlottesville? - College Confidential”
Just search, cville hasn’t changed that much recently.</p>
<p>Did you check out the MS&E department before you applied to the PhD program? I’d suggest visiting UVA, and your specific department, before you enroll.</p>
<p>hhhmmm - I think if my son (undergrad student) asked me these questions, I think I would ‘kick his butt’ …</p>
<p>I completely agree with ChrisTKD - I would probably add some more questions like: excuse me? You’re planning to transfer to college x and you haven’t even visited the campus yet or not talked to current students yet? You don’t know anything about the strengths/qualities of the department and you plan to do your Ph.D. there?</p>
<p>Sorry, but from a senior I would expect a little more preparation! (To give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you DID do all of that and just wanted to get some other people’s opinions, but then your wording is quite misleading …) In particular for a student from Clemson I would expect this, since Charlottesville is just a day’s drive away - it would be different if you lived at the West Coast.</p>
<p>Whoa whoa, my guess is he/she did plenty of research and also may have applied because it’s solid in rankings. Even if he/she didn’t, they’re making the attempt now, no need to get nasty towards someone reaching out. Also, a senior in engineering doesn’t exactly have a ton of time to just take an expensive road trip…</p>
<p>-One thing to think about is the MS&E dept only awards graduate level degrees, so a lot of focus from the faculty will be on PhD students (they do teach undergrad classes).<br>
-There’s a brand new nano-tech/materials building, finished back in 2006. They’ve been pumping a lot of money/effort into the department, and engineering school as a whole.<br>
-The engineering school is on the smaller side in terms of size/students, but you get a very homey-feel and the faculty is filled with great people.
-TA opportunities are present
-FinAid…this should be included in your decision. UVa grad school ain’t cheap, at all, much less any grad school.</p>
<p>I personally loved the e-school, at least as an undergrad. It was an intimate, rewarding learning experience and I felt like I was surrounded by teachers that wanted to help me understand the world of engineering. I never felt disconnected from the rest of the University though and I was able to take advantage of the rest of the school throughout my years. </p>
<p>I know visiting may be hard, but I suggest you email either a dean or someone in the admin office and see if they can put you in touch with a grad student in the program. Charlottesville is a wonderful place, I had a friend visit from Clemson once and she loved Charlottesville. There’s plenty of outdoor-sy things to do, cultural events, exhibits, and things to do in the surrounding areas. I’d google or search through past threads on the beauties of Cville life :)</p>
<p>And congrads on surviving undergrad, and congrads on your potential PhD program!</p>
<p>Congratulations,teekeeus! If you do end up in Charlottesville, there are plenty of great things to do. It’s a great place and shoebox has a good suggestion about checking past threads. Very nice and constructive post,shoebox. I’m not sure what if any connection eml2505 has to the university as he said earlier he is from Virginia but son is going out of state to college. Most UVa people will be warm and welcoming like shoebox.Good luck!</p>
<p>you’re absolutely right, sevmom. My son goes to college out of state, but he still applied to UVA (and actually got in), and we visited UVA twice! Some of my son’s friends go to UVA and we had two of them at my home during the Holiday-break to discuss their experiences. I like the school very much and would be VERY happy if my other son chose to go to UVA, and not only for financial reasons!!</p>
<p>What gets my blood-pressure a little up is a certain “help me” attitude I read into the OP. I would hope that a senior in College and soon-to-be graduate student puts in a little more (own) effort into the evaluation of the school he’s going to graduate at - that’s all! </p>
<p>Maybe it’s just my interpretation in this post, but I see this (unfortunately) too often these days (I work with many young people fresh from College) that people prefer to ask more experienced people for answers rather than explore them on their own …</p>
<p>eml: do you have any idea what it’s like to be a fourth year engineering student? It’s busy. REAL busy. I could barely find the time to go on job interviews, much less plan an all out trip across states. It was an extremely stressful process at times because I was not applying to certain jobs knowing that the interview was just not feasible. Since the OP got into a PhD program, my guess is he/she is a very, very busy person themselves. Why on earth would he/she waste time going to visiting if they find out there’s something about the school they know they wouldn’t like? Even if it’s just something like the weather or the fact Charlottesville is a small city, it’s WAY more productive to go online and try to search for the info than waste the money and time potentially. My guess is that they’ll visit or at least reach out to the school, but this is a step in that direction.</p>
<p>Frankly, I applaude the OP for doing a different kind of research besides just going and visiting. There’s more to the school than just a pretty campus and students that look happy and teachers that show off a shiny lab. Maybe the OP saw that Hazel and I reference the eschool a lot and was looking for advice from us.
And, they aren’t looking to transfer, they’re looking to enter a program, and just looking for “input”, aka thoughts/praises/grumbles, not facts.</p>
<p>I think everyone needs to take a step back and be helpful, not critical of a situation that you don’t even know exists. Wahoowah</p>
<p>Hi,eml2505,I really don’t see anything inappropriate in what the OP is asking and apparently neither did hazelorb or shoebox.It actually seems pretty healthy to me for him to be asking questions. My son was in engineering as well at UVa and it is indeed a stressful major and the fourth year a stressful time with worrying about interviewing for jobs or applying to grad school.Good luck to your younger son with his exploration of colleges! Charlottesville was a really nice place to visit for four years!</p>
<p>You can tell when I get annoyed by people not searching because I link Google results, I won’t even reply if I am annoyed enough but this post is pretty tame compared to some of the stuff we get on this forum</p>
<p>Thanks shoebox, I appreciate the input–it’s pretty much what I was hoping to get out of this post. I have a visit with the department planned in the coming months, but I wanted to see if anyone had any insight before I went. I’ve gotten FULL financial coverage including an RA position worth about as much as they can be in addition to an invitation from the adviser whose research I am most interested in.</p>
<p>@eml, thanks for making me laugh. You make so many assumptions. . . .</p>
<p>I don’t mean to steal this thread or anything, sorry if it seems like I will but, I had a question about UVA’s Materials E program.</p>
<p>What sort of majors do undergraduate typically apply with? Physics, Chemistry, other Engineering majors? I really don’t have much of an idea of what Materials Engineering requires, so I was just curious. Sorry =P</p>
<p>Teek: feel free to PM me if you have any burning SEAS questions</p>
<p>wof: you would have to do some sort of science as undergrad, probably chemistry or chemical engineering preparing you the best. I could see Mech/Aeros doing very well, EEs for nano-tech type stuff, physics could probably prepare you too. Other colleges award Materials Science BS degrees. Even something like mining or petroleum engineering could benefit with a MS in MSE. It’s the study of materials, so any science/engineering field with materials can use the knowledge.
[Materials</a> science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_science]Materials”>Materials science - Wikipedia)</p>