I’m currently planning this out way in advance, but my ultimate plan for school is to go to GT for graduate studies in engineering.
A little background: right now, I’m 18 and have over 40 credit hours at my college (CCGA), with a 3.37 GPA. I’m graduating HS next spring, and will obtain my A.S. in Pre-Engineering shortly after that. After getting my A.S., I plan on getting a B.S. in Pure/Applied Math. If I go at the pace that I’m at right now, I should be able to get my B.S. at 20. My extracurriculars consist of working as a tutor/SI at my college for Algebra, Calculus I, and English.
I looked at what GT expects out of a good graduate school candidate, and it’s a little vague, IMO. From my understanding, you have to have taken the GRE with around a 150-155 overall and a 4.0 or higher on the writing portion, and have at least a 3.3 GPA from your undergrad program.
I’m currently looking into internships that I can do over the summer so that I can get experience and possibly some extra money. I’m wondering if my age will put me at a better advantage for graduate school admissions, provided that I meet the other requirements. Also, if you know of other great ways that I can increase my chances for grad school, that would be great.
Your age will neither hurt nor hinder your chances directly.
Why do you want Georgia Tech specifically?Do you even know what subspecialty you’d want to study in graduate school? If not, it is too early to single out a school.
If your goal is engineering, why are you doing your degree in math?
The number one thing you can do to improve your shot at graduate admissions is to get involved in research as an undergraduate. This is where your age may work against you, as you’ll have less time for this, especially if you also do internships.
I guess my age won't matter when it comes to getting accepted to GT, but I'm pretty sure that I'll look better to employers once I graduate.
Georgia Tech is the closest option for me for getting a graduate's degree (I live in southeast Georgia). Also, GT has a very strong reputation for its ME program and will ensure that I am marketable to potential employers. I know some people argue that where you go to college doesn't matter, but GT does claim that they have a great ROI and those who graduate from there earn more in their lifetime (probably just a marketing scheme, but it's not necessarily untrue, either).
Yes, ideally, my bachelor's field of study should match what my field of study is for my master's degree. However, CCGA is only a few miles away from my house, costs very little to attend, and I already have a good group of connections there with professors. I could easily transfer to another school with my credits, but it'll be costly, stressful, and I'll have to start over in a new town and getting to know people. Arguably, it's an enriching experience of its own to live in Atlanta for a while, but I shouldn't have to go there until I go for my master's.
I’m mostly interested in mechanical engineering, but I’m also interested in doing something like actuarial science or physics. I want to get exposed to different sciences and maths and choose my intended master’s program based off of that.
I'll look into doing undergraduate studies. I haven't considered doing it before, but I don't want to shun internships, either. An internship in engineering will help me see if engineering is the right career for me.
This is a terrible reason to choose a graduate school. Graduate school is (primarily) meant for specialization, meaning you need to go to the school that will give you the best education in your specialty of interest.
It does, but so do a lot of other schools. When it comes to graduate school especially, you need to look at the schools that are strong in your sub-area of interest.
This is a fact of life, though, and it’s a heck of a lot easier to do in college than later. My wife and I moved across the country last year and it took up pretty much a year to really start making new friends. In college, it’s likely only days or even hours before that starts.
You don’t even have to go there for graduate school. The world is a big place with a lot of other great schools out there that might be a better fit for you. Don’t narrow your focus so much this early.
This is basically what I was warning against with age. If you rush through your BS so you can graduate in two years, you won’t really have time to explore your interests and career opportunities. Ideally, every undergraduate should do at least one internship and at least one stint in a lab, then make an informed decision about their future. You only have finite time to do these things, though.
If @boneh3ad’s post is not convincing enough, here’s my input.
My, to be exact, my D’s, background:
Got into a flagship state univ. at 16, majoring in CS.
Got her BS with honors at 19.
When graduating, she'd already had 2 years of research and a paper (1st author) in progress (published 2 months afterward).
Now in 3rd year of a PhD program.
In my D’s case, it made absolutely no difference to employers, at least to the companies she worked for during summer. They hired her for her (potential) contribution to the company, not for her (young) age.
BTW, her age didn’t make any difference in her application to PhD either.
My D actually adjusted her courses a few times due to the (pleasant and unpleasant) experience during internship.
My own decision to go to graduate school was informed in large part by my internship experiences. The sorts of jobs I saw BS engineers doing were not the ones I wanted. The MS and PhD guys had much more interesting career paths, by my estimation.
@boneh3ad Ok, so basically you’re suggesting that I get my BS at a reasonable pace, while doing an internship if I can fit it in my schedule.
I’m coming to the realization that there’s a lot of contradictory answers to all of these questions about college and careers. One example of this is when I was asking my uncle if Mercer was a good school for mechanical engineering (he’s an auditor so he’s not a complete expert on this). He said that Mercer has a good ME program, but the one at GT is just better.
However, when I was researching if it mattered which college I went to for engineering or any field in general, the internet said that it didn’t matter.
I guess I need to seek advice from others, but also go with my gut when it comes to making a decision for my future career.
To be honest, I’ve never even heard of Mercer. It may have a solid program but given that I’ve never heard of it, that suggests its brand has limited geographical reach.
As for whether the school matters, that’s a complex answer that is discussed a lot on these board. The shortest answer is “sort of, but not in ways you might expect.” The quality of education for an average student doesn’t vary much from one school to the next, but the geographic reach of their name brand (and thus recruiting footprint) does.
The answer also changes for graduate school, where the strength of the department and your advisor in your specific subfield is more important than the name brand of the school.
I would echo @boneh3ad – if you want to study ME, then find an undergradaute school which has the ME degree. If you prefer physics then major in it. Moving from Applied Math to Mechanical Engineering is not going to be easy.
As long as I am posting, let me give you my experience. I started in the early admission program at UIUC when I was in high school (no AP courses back then…). By the time I started at UIUC full time, I had more than a full year of course credit and I was able to finish my BS in Engineering Physics in 3 years. I decided to stay for a fourth year and get a BS in Chemistry before graduate school. This was a very good decision. I was able to publish a paper and really enjoy my last year of college. After 35 years as a physics professor I definitely don’t regret that extra year spent in college.
@xraymancs maybe I can major in both mechanical engineering and applied math (even if I have to transfer schools), kind of like how you ended up majoring in engineering physics and chemistry.
Funny enough, my high school counselor is the one that suggested that I stay at the college that I’m at to get a BS in math before transferring for grad school. However, if you and the other two people on this discussion are suggesting otherwise, then I guess my counselor’s advice isn’t really the best.