<p>Hey,
So I've narrowed my college choices down to GT and CU. I'm definitely going down the engineering path, most likely ME or EE and then a MBA. I've already been to both and like them a lot, but I'm leaning toward GT a bit more, being more technical and all. What I wanted to know is if going to one or the other going to be better in the long run i.e grad school, jobs, etc. I have some people babbling on about Ivy this Ivy that and all of its connections, but then GT also has some pretty incredible offerings. Before I seal the deal with either, I just wanted some input on some pros/cons and what would end up being a better choice. Which one would be better in the long run if I plan on going to grad school?</p>
<p>GT is an awesome engineering school. Actually, I would venture to say that GT is far and away a better engineering school than SEAS. If you think you are a more technical student and see yourself having a technical type of job, (maybe working a 9-5 as a project manager, going around to various sites and examining specifications, creating drawings, etc) I would definitely choose GT. You will get a nice job straight out of college doing exactly what you want to do. </p>
<p>However, if you are not 100% sure that you want to be a technical engineer, like if you thought you might dabble in finance or business down the line, or maybe you have future aspirations to be a CEO or CFO, Columbia is your best bet. A Columbia degree goes a long way in a lot of different fields. You can’t necessarily say the same for GT. </p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I will add my own personal note, though… I actually applied and got into GT, as well as Columbia. As a serious prospective engineering student, I was faced with the same dilemma you are faced with, as far as going for the better pure engineering education or going for the more “prestigious” degree. Then my FA packages came in a couple days ago… and I found that it would actually be cheaper for me to go to Columbia than GT. LOL.</p>
<p>long-run: columbia will open up doors. it is something that sounds difficult to understand right now, but it is something that i will say with certainty having friends who have gone to other schools, family members at other schools that the best long-run choice i made was going to columbia (regardless of the short-term benefits…of which there are many). it is an incredible community of people who really care about you and want to figure out ways to open opportunities for you.</p>
<p>short-term: columbia is a very well-resourced, small engineering school with a specialty in developing those who might seek something along the lines of an MBA for the purpose of running engineering companies or forming skills that could be used in any number of career paths. strong internship opportunities with national and international presence. i think that columbia is very underrated as an engineering school and have said this often on this board. the small size mixed with the emphasis on real life design is compelling, and if you look to see where columbia faculty are getting the phds it is at all these top places.</p>
<p>why gt? it is a traditional and high powered engineering school that is respected for many of its departments. columbia is private and can be expensive and so if money is a reason. you might not want to study in the city. you might like the idea of a larger state university. all these reasons are compelling. yes i am giving it short attention, but you can go to the GT forum to talk about this stuff.</p>
<p>but i think your inference that SEAS is not as technical is not true, any SEASer will tell you. SEAS is mathematically rigorous, and honestly the offerings are not going to be drastically better than columbia’s when it comes to the actual numbers of it - though GT is very highly regarded in engineering, i will be the first to say that. an engineering education is relatively standardized regardless of where you attend to meet certification so ultimately you have to ask yourself what community you want to be a part of. a further you should think about grad school as you have and so you can go to columbia ugrad and elsewhere for a master’s. many columbia engineers who pursue engineering will also go to gtech (or equivalent level) for grad school because for the most part people serious about engineering will want a master’s and they get into the best. columbia will further offer you a very strong grounding in humanities that aim to make students more analytical. lastly as being a high powered undergraduate environment it will put you in league with peers who have incredible talent and expertise that will make you smarter. further - if you change your mind from engineering you also are at a school that has excellent placement in any number of fields outside of or tangential to engineering.</p>
<p>i think it is a tough decision otherwise i think you would’ve decided already, so please know that you should choose what makes most sense to you.</p>
<p>but to answer your final question - if your fear is getting into grad school: both have proven track record of getting students into engineering grad school and top schools. i know people will somehow make very deliberate statements and say go to x if you want grad school, well that is simplistic and almost assumes that no columbia alums go to engineering grad school. i can say anecdotally enough that if grad school is a goal of yours - you can go to cu and not have a problem so long as you do well.</p>
<p>ultimately, it is less about what school will be better for grad school, but how hard you are willing to work when you get there (and perhaps what school will compel you to work harder). if you flake out at GT or Columbia then forget about grad school. so find the community you like more, the school you like more. i love Columbia and you can too.</p>
<p>edit: just saw you wanted to go to grad school. </p>
<p>Forget what I said earlier… Georgia Tech is really not geared for grad school at all. Their 4-year graduation rate is 33%. (look at the first post)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/596884-usnwr-2009-looking-data-xxi-4-year-graduation-rates.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/596884-usnwr-2009-looking-data-xxi-4-year-graduation-rates.html</a></p>
<p>Their 4-year rate is so low because most of their students are on a 5-year (or 6-year) track. A lot of the students just take 5 years to finish because the workload is so heavy, but if I’m not mistaken, some honors students are part of a 5-year program where they receive a BS/MS in their major upon completion of the program. So basically, GTech sets it’s students up to go into the workforce directly out of school. I actually have a friend who just graduated from GT, and after receiving his Master’s through the 5-year program he was immediately offered a six-figure job. </p>
<p>So basically, go to GT if you want to start working right after college. You can still get a graduate degree from there in 5 years if you are ambitious enough. But if you were planning on doing something different for grad school, GT will definitely not offer you as much flexibility as Columbia will. For example, you could go through the 5 years at GT and even get your MS. But if you decide to forego the workforce and want to go for an MBA after that, you basically just wasted a year. Instead, you could get a Columbia BS after four years, get into any MBA program in the country, and when you finish you’re set for whatever you want to do.</p>
<p>GT is hard to beat for engineering. I’d say go for that. It may be cheaper as well.</p>
<p>Also, You don’t get jobs because of your degree. You get jobs because you are smart.</p>
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<p>Just curious - what kind of idealistic bubble do you live in?</p>
<p>Go to Columbia if finances aren’t an issue. Enjoy a top notch education in a fantastic city. Atlanta is a snooze fest.</p>
<p>I don’t live in a bubble. It is often that the people who go to top schools are smart. But if you ask everyone at top companies where they went to school, many will say some random schools. </p>
<p>Forget that argument. GT is better for engineering clearly. Then go to Columbia for your MBA. If you have a different background like engineering (other than finance) you will have an easier time to get in to columbia. These schools look for diversity. (source: relative interviews for Columbia Business School).</p>
<p>Excepted completely agree that school does not = future success. but where you go to school is without question the foundation of your future.</p>
<p>from what i can tell the OPs concern is less about which is a better engineering school (though he does make a comment about it being more technical), which to be frank Columbia is pretty much near the top tier (and with a goal to be top 10 by 2020), but rather which is best to get into grad school from. i tried to alleviate that concern because i agree with you, it matters how hard you work. so ultimately it should be based on what community he/she want to join. </p>
<p>and lastly - looking through your comments, you often just put down columbia. do you have a problem with it as a school? so OP go through Excepted’s comments to know that he/she seems to have a bias against cu of some sort and read his comments with a grain of salt. i mean no disrespect to you Excepted, but unless you start giving columbia a fair shake on here - i can’t really trust what you say.</p>
<p>in the end choose what is best - and if it is columbia, you wont regret it.</p>
<p>GATech is ranked very highly for engineering - this is why it has a little halo around it on this website. Half the people here are US news ranking whores. It is a better pure engineering school, but the qualifications of students at GAtech are considerably worse than at Columbia. If you are influenced and pushed by your peers, then Columbia might actually leave you ‘smarter’ in the long run. If you are 100% sure you want to do engineering then go GT, otherwise it’s Columbia hands down. Getting an MBA can be done through a variety of routes, and B-schools like the Columbia SEAS education, because it gives you the same hard analytical skills as a top engineering school, but makes you more well rounded, more aware of the implications of your actions, and gives you better soft skills.</p>
<p>It depends on if you, as an engineering student, want the best engineering education you can get OR Columbia’s Core, which has some of the best liberal arts classes that you will be forced to take. At GT, say you take IYSE (in which GT ranks #1) you will be most likely to be supplementing with classes in the college of computing (which is top ten as well) maybe some of their management classes, etc while you’re doing the rigorous load of engin. prereqs etc. At Columbia, you’re going to be sharing your focus in between the spectrum of LAC-esque stuff that Columbia makes you do, and the SEAS major requirements. </p>
<p>GT’s engineering rankings are deserved - as is Columbia’s overall ranking. GT has make incredible progress over the years and has progressed to sending their top students to the same places Mit/Ctech sends. Also keep in mind GT is cheaper and that money saved will come in handy when fixing up an MBA if that’s what you want. </p>
<p>There’s no iron rule that one college will leave you ‘smarter’ than another. Visit both and gauge what school will provide a structure and environment that will cater more to what you want to get out of life. </p>
<p>Oh yes, and you do get jobs because of your degree. You get promotions and overall success in the working world by being smart, creative, dedicated, and having charisma.</p>
<p>It seems that all the large companies that recruit at Columbia also recruit at Georgia Tech. However, Georgia Tech has a lot more options (engineering).</p>
<p>[Georgia</a> Tech Career Fair 2008](<a href=“http://www.career.gatech.edu/careerfair/students/companiesHiring.php]Georgia”>http://www.career.gatech.edu/careerfair/students/companiesHiring.php)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/sites/cce/files/2008ECCFEmployerProfileBookforweb_0.pdf[/url]”>http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/sites/cce/files/2008ECCFEmployerProfileBookforweb_0.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you wanted a “traditional engineering” job coming out of Columbia and I am a GT student with similar credentials, would the GT student get the offer? In this case, I think GT wins because employers have a history of their grad placement. Employers know what to expect from a GT student since they’ve hired so many already. Columbia grad most often go into careers that’s not traditional engineering so employers don’t have a history to go by. Then again, like someone pointed out, </p>
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<p>If you were deciding between the two schools for engineering graduate school, would the same arguments made above hold?</p>
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I think if you took a survey at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, DE Shaw, Bain, Sequoia Capital, KKR, and whoever else you’d want to include… you’d find an enormous percentage went to the very top schools. Sure, you’ll have your odd Penn State grad in there, but going to a top school is an *indicator<a href=“though%20not%20a%20guarantor,%20of%20course”>/I</a> of all kinds of sterling personality characteristics that these top firms seek.</p>
<p>None of which bears on the OP’s question, of course.</p>
<p>The question comes down to whether you are absolutely positive that you want to work as an engineer, for a manufacturing or eng consulting firm or something, or whether you want to explore all kinds of ideas and consider a wider variety of possible career paths. If you’re sure you want to be an engineer, you should probably go to GT. If you want more of a varied, balanced undergraduate experience, you should probably go to Columbia.</p>