Georgia Tech

[alpengeistfan1]

Hi everybody! I'm going into my senior year of high school, so of course that means I'm looking at colleges. I'm wondering if anyone here as gone to Georgia Tech? It's near the top of my list, but I'd like to ask some people some more questions if that's possible. I can PM whomever if needed.

 

I'd be going into engineering if that makes a difference, probably civil.

 

Thanks!

[ParkTrips]

I went to Tech and still live less than 10 miles away, so hopefully I can help. I know of a couple others here who went to Tech, so hopefully they will chime in as well

 

I see you are out of state, so the first question I will ask is how are you going to pay for college? That is probably the most important thing when choosing a school.

 

Georgia Tech is a fantastic school for qualitative disciplines. All of the engineering programs are ranked at the top. Even if you decide to change your mind, the College of Computing and College of Business are excellent as well. The school has one of the best co-op programs in the country, which is especially popular among engineering students - this helps Tech grads when it comes to being competitive in the job market: something like 80-85% of graduates last year had a job offer by graduation, compared to a national average closer to 50%. And the alumni network rivals many private schools. It is a very good school for undergrad, and even better for graduate degrees. It is pretty diverse too (not something we see at many southern schools), and you will meet some of the brightest minds in the world at Tech

 

With that said, there are potential drawbacks. First of all, it can be extremely demanding. But I consider this to be as much a positive as a negative, as the misery is only for 5 years (good luck getting out in 4), while the skills and work ethic you pick up will carry with you for life. The campus life is ok at best too - it's a southern school, so there's a big Greek presence, but its an engineering school first and foremost, so pretty much everyone at Tech is nerdy and often socially awkward in some sense (before anyone else says it.. myself included ). Since Tech is located in Atlanta, it presents a much different environment than, say, Virginia Tech or Cornell or PSU or whatever other schools you may be considering (based on your location).

 

Which brings me back to price. Recently, a young man working at Publix saw my GT shirt and asked if I went there.. I said that I did.. he asked if it was worth the money, and I said absolutely. However, I paid in-state tuition. At 5k/semester (Which is twice as high as it was 10 years ago), it is a bargain in my mind. Think about it this way: 8 semesters is 40k before rooming: that's just one year's after-tax salary for the average Tech grad who makes $60-65k in that first year. BUT - if you have to pay out of state tuition without scholarships or mommy and daddy's help, I'd have to think harder about it. Especially once you factor in room and board, you're probably looking at 100k. I'd say that if you are comparing it to PSU or another in-state school for you, I'd probably have a long hard thought about what you want to do, where you want to go after graduation, etc. But, if you're looking exclusively at out of state schools or can get someone else to fund your education.. Georgia Tech is going to be hard to beat on an overall level.

 

 

Good luck. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more. I honestly expected this to be Joey talking shit about football.. but then I remembered that he can't do that anymore

[alpengeistfan1]

Thanks so much for all that detail! I sent you a PM (at least I think I did) about more stuff.