Auburn vs GaTech [Aerospace Engineering]

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I feel I have monumental decision to make in March, it will be one of the hardest in my life, and I am working diligently to make it a well informed one.</p>

<p>Background info:
White Male
ACT - Eng: 33, Math: 30, Reading: 36, Sci: 34
GPA: ~3.8</p>

<p>I live in Alabama and attend a mediocre high school. I have participated in all of the possible AP courses Applicable to me, and I have excelled particularly in AP Physics B, Calculus AB, and History. Got by in Chemistry, Psychology, etc.</p>

<p>This coming fall I will be attending college and I plan to major in Aerospace Engineering; have narrowed my choices down to either Auburn University or Georgia Tech.</p>

<p>At Auburn:
I have a full tuition scholarship, Honors college acceptance, many friends, much much better social life opportunities.</p>

<p>At Tech:
I will have to pay for my education using life insurance money from my father's death long ago. Better location, essentially better program, better ranking (according to USNews, which I feel this really doesn't necessarily mean anything), and probably more overall opportunity.</p>

<p>I am really struggling on which to choose. I have toured both, and I fell in love with Tech the first time I set foot on campus. I would truly much rather go to Tech, but I have a paid education at Auburn, which isn't absolutely terrible.
What I really need to know is, do the opportunities/education/location of Tech outweigh attending Honors college at AU (smaller class sizes, etc). Furthermore, If I attended Auburn, I would have ~$125k to my name, while if I chose tech, I would have little to nothing as far as finances go. My family wants me to attend Auburn, but is generally supportive of either one. They just feel that financial security is more valuable than what they see as marginally better education. I am not sure of how I feel about the previous statement as well. Similarly, does the security and benefits of a Tech education outweigh the risk of possible debt while attending graduate school wherever I may choose to do so?
Lastly, by no means do I want to spend my adult life in the Southeastern region of the US. How much more of an opportunity does Tech allow for escaping this terrible bible thumping place?</p>

<p>I ask you all for advice, experiences, and opinions on how much a GaTech education in Aerospace Engineering outweighs one at Auburn.</p>

<p>Thank you,
Adam</p>

2

<p>I’m a current Aero Engineering student. I applied to Georgia Tech and got in. I went to USC instead, but GT was my second choice. Their academics are probably better, but I liked USC’s location, both for the weather as well as the industry connections that I would make there.</p>

<p>I’d advise you to go to Georgia Tech if you are really serious about being an Aerospace Engineer. Their program is listed as #2, just behind MIT. #2! Auburn is listed as #56 on the 2010 rankings. Now I realize that rankings aren’t everything, but there is a significant difference between a top-ten school and a school in the 50s. This isn’t a marginally better education, it’s a significantly better one.</p>

<p>Then you must consider the sort of people you’ll meet at both schools. At GT you will be mingling with some of the top people in your field. Your classmates will become your future coworkers, and companies will come to your school and seek you out for jobs. You can start forming connections in industry immediately, as the department likely has faculty in industry, or retired from the big companies, and have connections still available.</p>

<p>With these connections, it’s far more likely that you’re going to get a job at some big aerospace company and get out of the southeast, if you want. A good career at a good company is worth far more than the money you have right now. And even better, since you have that money to pay for school, you’re going to get out from GT with little to no debt, something that many students have to deal with.</p>

<p>Oh, plus an undergrad from GT is going to give you far better opportunities from grad school. Don’t worry too much about grad school cost, it’s typically mostly covered by teaching, research stipends, etc. Or by a company that you plan to work for, if you can manage that.</p>

3

<p>Can you dig into the degree requirements, available concentration areas, course descriptions, number of faculty, research projects, and coops/internships at each school in aerospace? Also talk to anybody you know that actually works in the field. If you don’t know anybody, look for a professional society’s local chapter in Huntsville, Birmingham, or wherever. They generally have local meetings and you can easily go talk to working engineers about their opinions. The rankings do mean something, but most of the advantages only kick in at the graduate student level. Make sure GT is really better for undergrads before you give up the Auburn package. </p>

<p>If you do well at Auburn, you could later go to GT or some other place for graduate school. On the other hand, if you don’t do well at GT the school’s name won’t help much. So the main thing is to find your best fit, and cost is part of it. $125K is a lot to make up. It may be as Hawkwings said, but you have to make sure.</p>

4

<p>Auburn is a very respected school and has lots of alumni connections. I have a friend who is a mech eng major who got an internship in Kansas City after his sophomore year. A well paid internship where they put him up in a suite style hotel all summer. He also had offers of an internship in Minnesota, but did not pursue that one. He was offered these opportunities because of his excellent work at Auburn. He was not an outstanding student in high school, but he is excelling at Auburn. Tech is a very respected school as well, and I have friends who have done well paid coops and got their choice of six figure job offers right out of undergrad. This was 20 years ago, though, so I don’t know what their current undergrad job offerings are. I do know that there is supposed to be a 3 to 1 ratio of male to female at Tech, so even our brightest boys in high school who were lucky enough to be accepted there did not consider it because they wanted somewhat of a social life.</p>

5

<p>Dude, that’s a no-brainer…go to Auburn. You will get a free education. You would rather pay to go to Ga Tech? Just prove yourself with the grades and it doesn’t matter what rank the school is.</p>

6

<p>I’ve never looked into this very deeply, but I know a few people who have tried to become residents of Georgia. According to the paper linked at the end of the post, if you can establish domicile (permanent residence) for 12 months prior to the first day of classes for whichever semester/quarter you want to apply for aid, you are eligible. If you haven’t heard, Georgia has the HOPE scholarship that pays for tuition completely, plus student fees. If you can establish permanent residence, you can pay your way through your first year at GT and then have your college expenses paid for, except for living/meal requirements. That should still leave you with a hefty amount of cash upon graduation (graduate students live off of 20K per year, I think you can manage the same).</p>

<p>This is the link to the paper: <a href=“http://www.gsfc.org/main/publishing/pdf/2006/2006_residency_regs.pdf[/url]”>http://www.gsfc.org/main/publishing/pdf/2006/2006_residency_regs.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Please talk to someone who’s familiar with these laws though. Talk to an adviser at GT, they know the inner workings of the system. I can only postulate how you could do this, but it seems very possible and personally I know people who have done so, but I’m not certain about the details. In my opinion, you should do this option because GT is one of the best in the country for aerospace engineering.</p>

7

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<p>Yes, it does matter. You won’t have the same opportunities coming out of the two schools because the same companies do not go to both. At GT you’re at the very top in terms of AE programs and companies recruiting AE’s. You’re simply not going to have the same internships, the same job opportunities, the same employment rate, or the same salary coming out of Auburn. The impact of this will ripple through your career.</p>

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<p>Not necessarily. The rankings dictate who comes to campus to hire, which impacts undergraduate students greatly.</p>

8

<p>Understand you’re only talking about an undergraduate degree here. If you end there, GT would offers some first-job advantages. But, for serious aerospace work, you are going to need an advanced degree. If you go to Auburn, do well, engage in undergrad research, do well on the GREs, you will be able to go to a top-flight grad school likely with full financial support. With intelligent investing during the years your risk-exposure is at its minimum, you will end with a lot money that would otherwise be lost, and end up with exactly the same terminal degree. If you’re highly motivated, I’d suggest Auburn.</p>

9

<p>Consider contacting the career centers at both schools–see which companies <em>regularly</em> recruit on both campuses for internships and full time positions. Both schools should be able to provide you with lists/career fair info from past fairs. Likely that GT is considered a Tier 1 school by most companies. Do the comparisons as internships could prove quite valuable for full time employment, esp if you are not interested in grad school right away.</p>

10

<p>You will have a difficult time getting into GT from Auburn for grad school. Its not impossible, but it’s very very difficult. Coming out of GT makes schools like MIT, Caltech, and Stanford possible.</p>

11

<p>I know this is an old thread, and you may not check this anymore, but I’m having the same dilemma.I have full ride to auburn but I really like ga tech, and I’m seriously considering trying to transfer to MIT as well after my sophomore year, so what did you end up doing?</p>

12

<p>^I’m a second year at GaTech. We have quite a few career fairs and I know the AE (aerospace engineers) are recruited pretty heavily. Living in Atlanta is amazing. So much to do in the city. </p>

<p>However, the fact that you don’t have to pay to go to Auburn is a HUGE factor. The rankings really aren’t gonna matter too much provided you get good grades coming out of Auburn and really get involved in clubs and such. </p>

<p>If you have any questions about tech feel free to PM me</p>

13

<p>GT Research Institute was one of the first booths at the engineering career fair at Auburn earlier this fall - they were recruiting co-ops students from Auburn.</p>

<p>Yes, check out both their career fairs… I don’t think you will find GT has the big names and Auburn doesn’t. Last year when we checked they looked pretty much like the same companies.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p>Redo the math when you’re budgeting on GaTech. One of the biggest concerns is getting out in four years, which isn’t common. The four year graduation rate is only 34%! It’s a tough school, tough programs, where it’s not uncommon to retake early classes and not take heavy course loads. They are excellent, no doubt. The culture is not to finish in four years. Add at least another full years tuition and expenses, if not a year and a semester. </p>

<p>Auburn is a solid school, good undergrad experience, ABET accredited, not the insane pressure cooker GT is, and does have good recruiting opportunities for better students. I actually really like Auburn. If financially it is a better fit I’d take a very serious look.</p>