Obviously UVA is higher ranked than tech overall, but tech has higher ranked engineering higher completion rate and better course selection than UVA in engineering. But what about science and math? in terms of completion rate every single one of techs science and math departments are doing better than uvas. UVA math doesn’t even have a full bsc program while tech has 4 bsc. Even the premed sciences such as biology biochemistry and neuroscience has a better course selection than UVA. Is there a point in going to UVA for STEM?
Your post is a little difficult to understand, but you are referencing programs in two different schools at UVA. I’m not sure how you’ve come up with some of your opinions, but it sounds like you’ve made up your mind.
Search “why UVA” and you’ll see tons of threads that answer your question.
I’d like to see your source of information for saying the Va. Tech has a “higher completion rate” than UVa for engineering programs. Overall, UVa has the highest 4 year graduation rate among public universities in the US - much higher than Berkeley for example. As described in the link below, UVa also has the highest ENGINEERING 4 year graduation rate among public universities. At many public universities, a large number of students drop out of engineering programs - the average 4 year graduation rate is only 33 percent. At UVa, everyone admitted to the engineering school has the full ability to complete it.
http://aeir.asee.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017-Engineering-by-the-Numbers-3.pdf
Also, Tech has many more engineering students than UVa, so it makes sense they have more total courses. You need to concentrate upon looking at the range of types of courses that are most of interest to you., AND how often they are taught. Some colleges list courses in their marketing materials that are rarely offered.
I did a google search and could not figure out what BSC means. The closest I found was BSCE - Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Is that what you meant?
Could mean BS in computer engineering. But UVA does have that. Bachelor’s of Science?
BSC is another way of saying BS bachelor of science as opposed to bachelor of arts. Go look at graduation records and look at the amount of bachelors of science tech awards every year in science engineering and math compared to UVA. Tech is only 50 percent bigger and awards far far far more than 50 percent degrees award with 250 sat points lower than UVA.
I understand that Va. Tech has many great programs, and I am not inferring anything against them. I just want to understand your sources. What type of “tech awards” are you referring to? What did you mean by “higher completion rate”?
You are correct that the UVa Math dept. calls their degree a BA instead of a BS. However, I don’t think that by itself tells you about the quality of the program. The UVa Statistics Dept. also calls their degree a BA.
@mtk4yu UVA does, in fact, offer BS degrees, in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Environmental Science. The difference between a BA and a BS is negligible. UVA offers both a BA and a BS in these four subjects, though the BA degrees are more common.
Also, UVA offers more opportunities to work directly with professors doing research, which is more formative and important. I have several friends and family members who go/went to Tech for science and engineering, and individual research is far less common there. I know several students who do research at UVA in STEM fields as first-years, then develop that research into theses or letters of recommendation.
Go look at graduation archives from tech and uva and look how many kids complete the bachelors of science.
Graduation archives?
In any case, here is a list of all of the degrees conferred by UVa in the spring of 2018. The Engineering School starts on page number 30.
The Virginia SCHEV site has number of majors by degree program. It can be difficult to make sense of it due to the wide variety of codes.
I actually loved my engineering classes at UVA. I could tell the administration pumps big money into having a high graduation rate in engineering. Go look at how many kids complete the biology BS at tech and compare it with UVA.
UVA is worthless for science/math. Government and English and thats about it for undergrad.
its pretty common knowledge among UVA students our science and math departments are underperforming
Here is the list of 2018 UVa degree recipients I described above.
If someone wants to understand the students’ satisfaction with various UVa courses, www.thecourseforum.com should be reviewed. You need a UVa email address to access it.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2018/04/the-end-of-enrollment-caps-in-the-engineering-school
News story about UVa adding engineering professors, so that enrollment caps can be ended for various majors in the E School.
Mtk: I thought you were a high school student or transfer applicant looking to decide between the two universities. However, you actually are a current UVa engineering student?
@mtk4yu You pointed to the number of biological sciences undergraduate degrees VT produces compared to UVA. According to the SCHEV site, it was 442 at VT and 268 at UVA in 2016-17. So VT graduated 65% more bio majors. But VT has 60% more undergraduates, so the relative difference is quite small.
If you look biology, physical sciences, math and statistics, and computer science degrees, VT had 937 and UVA had 610. In that comparison, VT has 54% more science graduates but 60% more undergraduates, so UVA actually graduates a higher percentage in these sciences.
VT does graduate about 2.8X more engineers than UVA. That is really where there is a significant difference.
@Center UVA has the second or third best undergraduate business school in the country–McIntire is stellar.
UVA is the third best public university in the country. No degree from UVA is “worthless.” Even our science programs are good–they just aren’t as good as Tech.
@WahooAS2021 I’m not quite sure why you would concede that “even our science programs are good – they just aren’t as good as Tech”. I can’t think of any conclusive evidence on this point at an undergraduate level. VT definitely has broader and deeper areas in engineering and is higher ranked in that area per USNews, but I wouldn’t say the similar evidence exists in science.