To any current students, alums, or anyone knowledgeable, can they elaborate on the difficulty of CS at GT?
I have hopes of attending MIT/UCB/Stanford for grad school, and I don’t want a low GPA to keep me out of the running. I’m aware that GT is tough, with many engineering GPAs below a 3.0. Is CS this way as well? Is there a place to see the curriculum for CS majors so I can start preparing?
I have no prior CS experience BTW.
Thanks
The average GPA at Tech, including for engineering and CS majors is well above 3.0 and has been for a number of years. While it is true that many Tech students have a GPA below 3.0, a large majority graduate above that level and usually 30-35% graduate with highest honors. If your goal is to attend “MIT/UCB/Stanford” for graduate school, I wouldn’t be worried about picking an easy school/major. I would be focused on picking a field that you are reasonably passionate about so that you will be willing to put in the hard work needed to do well academically while getting involved in research.
If you’re looking for a school where you can be average and then go on to attend the best graduate programs in the world, that doesn’t exist. Grades distributions for the CS department for the Fall of 2016 were 52% As and 19% Bs and the engineering department awarded 43% As and 26% Bs. Generally, 40-50% of grades tend to be As in most CS and engineering classes, although it obviously varies by class and professor. You can get a 4.0 or near 4.0 at Tech by working hard. You can also get great grades at other places by working hard. The common theme is that if you want to do exceptionally well, you’re going to have to work hard. If that scares you, Tech may not be the place for you and neither are top graduate programs.
The biggest things that get undergrads into trouble, and consequently destroy GPAs, are 1) lacking strong study skills and habits because HS was too easy and 2) failing to or being too ashamed to reach out for help/tutoring at the first sign of trouble. Pretty much everyone admitted to Tech is smart enough to do very well. Chances are that as long as you put in the effort to study (including learning how to study effectively if you have not yet developed this skill) and ask for help when you need it, you can do exceptionally well at Tech.
thank you for the detailed response @InPursuit
My son says about half his CS classmates are awarded As. Its challenging though and you can take honors classes at GaTech to further challenge yourself. . If you want to get into MIT for a PhD, (MIT offers no masters in CS) , you will need a lot more than As in the minimum coursework. You will need to take more math or/or EE, more physics than other students, and do research work and find something challenging to do each summer. Getting into grad school for CS is much harder than getting into GaTech from out of state Early Admission or Regular Decision.
See latest story–GaTech just published that 18% of OOS students got in EA, and about 46% of Georgia students got in early this round. Those out of state kids who got in are the very top in the nation. So you will have smart classmates. Many Georgia students are top too, but not as many, its just much easier to get into GaTech if
you are from Georgia. So this means the classes are not as hard as Caltech, or CMU College of Computing undergrad, where all the students are at the tippy top. Its more balanced at GaTech.
Admissions for CS Grad school at the top ten (Berkeley, UIUC, CMU, MIT, UW Seattle, Harvard, Cornell, Caltech, Wisconsin, GaTech ) . is a much bigger hurdle than getting As at GaTech which is relatively easy.
You need to score well on GRE, maybe take the Math Subject GRE, perhaps take the Putnam Math Exam while
at GaTech, be a co author on a research paper, attend REUs,
and or have some very top internships that are really really hard to land even from GaTech.
Another way is to get a masters degree, by paying for it, then apply for a PhD at a top program.
PhD programs are just very oversubscribed and many international students win the spots. The reason ?
Very top jobs go to PhD CS students, with the very top salaries. Or you can get a tenure track position,
with a PhD, which can be quite lucrative at the top schools too.
Look up the salaries for top CS professors at GaTech. Its public domain, the salaries of the state of Georgia employees.
@Coloradomama thanks for the detailed response. Sorry for not making this clearer, but I plan on pursuing a Masters in Engineering for my graduate degree. I feel a M.Eng will progress my career sufficiently without spending extra years of study. Does this fact change any of what you said to me earlier?
OK, so to be clear , you are in high school and deciding between GT and an “easier” school, for undergrad CS
and hope to get a masters at Berkeley or CMU etc? Then yes, go to the hardest undergrad school you can get into and afford, and do as well as you can on your GRE exam and GPA.
But you maybe can go easier on research work,as an undergrad, and really focus on your GPA, if you plan to pay for a masters degree and its not as difficult to get into masters programs if you are paying cash tuition for them. They also do not expect you to have sd much research experience under your belt, if you are going to start research as a masters candidate but it may be a good idea to try this out as an undergrad, but not as pressing to get an REU or other research project every summer, as you may want to, IF you were headed directly to a PhD program.
Also, you may want to work in a co op, which GaTech is top for, to earn money for that masters degree. Also Georgia Tech may suit you as they have some five year masters programs too, some with RA funding! But I agree going elsewhere for a masters degree is an outstanding idea. It will give you two perspectives on CS and more contacts. There could even be some TA or RA slots for masters candidates, but usually they go to PhD candidates first, but not always.
Also do you want a classwork masters or a research/thesis masters degree? They are quite different in length
and depth.
Also look at GTRI, the on campus research nonprofit near GT’s Atlanta campus for masters degree projects too.
Undergrads work there too on projects–
You don’t necessarily have to pay for your masters and many students don’t. Most, if not all, top programs allow you to work for a professor as a research or teaching assistant in exchange for funding your masters degree and without needing to pursue a PhD degree. At some places this type of funding might only be available to those pursuing thesis based masters, but I don’t think that’s usually a requirement. For example, I know that research and teaching assistantships are often available for both Stanford and Georgia Tech masters programs and do not require you to complete a thesis. The thesis/non-thesis option is usually more dependent on what you want to do after Tech. If your goal is to get a research job in industry, the thesis option often makes more sense, although you can obviously perform research and get published without needing an official masters thesis as well.