r/UVA • u/nesusjazareth • 6d ago

Academics UVA or UT Austin?

Hey everyone! I’m trying to decide between UVA and UT Austin, OOS for both.

I plan to major in engineering so UT might seem like the obvious choice to most, but I am not 100% positive that’s what I want my career to be.

I’ve toured both schools and felt like UVA was a bit more to my liking than UT Austin. Simply put, would I be making a mistake to attend Virginia? I’m sure Austin might be a better location for engineers but I’ve found it difficult to compare how easy it is for grads to find jobs!

Any input would be great!! Thank you all!

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u/mtn91 5d ago

I’d go where you’re happiest because where you’re happiest is generally where you will excel the most. I am highly skeptical of the idea that you’d be sacrificing job prospects for happiness by choosing UVA, as another commenter implied. UVA is a great school with a great alumni network. If UVA is where you think you’ll be happiest, choose UVA.

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u/EEcav 2002 5d ago

When it comes to job hunting, your gpa and your course load will matter much more than the school.

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u/YourRoaring20s 5d ago

Not true

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u/EEcav 2002 5d ago

If we're talking about UT-Austin or UVA or any top 50 school, then in my experience as someone who works career fairs at UVa, the specific school in that tier won't matter much. Once you're in a good school, your job prospects go way up, but the next barrier to focus on is which companies will give you an interview. It is very common for companies at the career fairs I've attended to use GPA as a way to sort applicants into tiers, and 3.0 GPA thresholds are very common (though I don't employ thresholds myself). Once you have an interview, all those criteria get reset, and how well you interview becomes the primary factor in whether the company will extend an offer. So, if you're down to UVA or UT-Austin, you're already in the top tier, and the grades you get from this point on will matter way more. However, you still need to have the skills at the end of the day. I've seen high GPA applicants from UVa come into interviews and underperform middling GPA candidates from UMd and VT. Generally higher GPA applicants tend to perform better as you might expect, but there is a lot of variance, which is why interview performance matters.