Virginia Tech v. UT Austin for Engineering?

c151515
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 18:58:03 +0000

Son is trying to decide between VT and UT Austin for Engineering. UT Austin seems like the obvious choice because it is ranked higher academically but I feel that there is more to the decision than that. He likes both schools. Although it’s lower on the rankings, VT is highly regarded for Engineering. VT is in a mountainous area (son is not a city kid) and has club sports in his favorite sport so he would have an “instant family” when he joined the team. He also liked it very much during our tour, whereas the UT tour was kind of a neutral experience for him. When we visited, VT felt like a much smaller campus while UT felt like a sprawling city. Also, he was admitted to VT Honors and the Galileo LLC but didn’t get Honors at UT so he wouldn’t be part of a smaller community there. Son is super smart but doesn’t love studying so Galileo seems like a great option to guarantee academic success. UT is a comfortable choice because many of his friends are going there (for different majors) but it is so large it seems he will just be swallowed up there. My question is: Is it a bad decision to turn down the higher-ranked school if the lower-ranked school just feels like a better fit? (Tuition thankfully is not an issue so that is not a deciding factor.) Any thoughts are appreciated!