Emory vs. Georgia Tech CS

Hello all!
I am a senior in high school and am trying to decide between going to Emory or Georgia Tech for a BS in Computer Science. I’ve received my award letters and, assuming I take 4 years worth of courses, it would cost me $20,000 more in loans to attend GT than Emory in the long run. The reason I’m not sure about going with the financially obvious choice of Emory is because of the prestigious education in my major at GT as well as internship/coop opportunities. What are your thoughts on my dilemma? Is GT worth the much more expensive price tag?

No-brainer, go to GT for CS. Are you in-state or out-of-state for these schools? Do you have a lot of AP credits? May not be full 4 years for you…

I am in-state and have both AP and DE credits but I’m only 100% sure that it will shorten my college career by a semester. Maybe 2 if I can push myself.

For a total of 20K more, GT is well worth it for CS and their internship/co-op program. I’d got GT as well.

What are your plans after? GT has a fast track MS CS program, as well as their co-op/internship placement and reqruitment events are pretty pro-active. Good luck!

I’m interested in the co-op and internship opportunities at GT. I haven’t thought about a MS but, if I do well enough in classes, I would definitely consider it. Thank you for the encouragement!

A MS in CS is usually not needed to work in the industry nor does it offer any significant boost. I wouldn’t pay for an extra year + MS even if you’re doing well - only if you plan to get a Ph.D. or have an area you feel you want to specialize in once you get into CS that you couldn’t study on your own.

@turntimes99. I do not post often but I am from Atlanta. And have great experience with both schools. Although technology is Gtech’s specialty it’s no MIT. Emory’s CS program is fairly respected especially in the ATL area. Emory has HackATL which has a entrepreneurial/start-up culture. Many Gtech’s students go there as their school does not have such a program. Everyone knows Emory is not exceptionally great at CS compared to it’s other fields, however it’s name alone will open doors. I personally don’t think Gtech is worth the extra 20 grand simply because your chances of Google are not that much higher, you’ll probably be in ATL after graduation just like the Emory CS grads, and you’ll most likely need 5-6 years to graduate from Gtech because of the very low 4 year grad rate they have. Which eventually means more cost to you. Maybe @bernie12 can give you more insight. Good luck.

Few if any names open doors related to CS - that’s not how the industry works - and Emory is certainly not one of those few. It may open doors in entrepreneurship, but that hasn’t been mentioned by OP and is a small minority of students.

The CS industry is about what you know, what you can do/have done, and connections. GT’s co-op program makes a huge difference there, improving students with all three. No name in will get Google to notice you more alone, but that experience will be a huge part of getting an interview. Tech companies will also focus much of their resources towards GT because of the number and quality of students there.

You said it yourself - if you’re interested in it, you can go as a GT student. Why go to Emory for that if you have direct access at GT?


If the OP is planning to stay in the area, the difference may be negligible. However, most tech people I know don’t stay in the same place. Whether it be the valley, Seattle, or many other tech hubs, they’re also known to hop around more than other fields due to the nature of jobs in CS. Most people advise against staying in the same job for a long period of time, and often that leads to moving around geographically as well.

Graduation rate is a fair consideration, but your claim is a bit misleading. 80% of students graduate in 5 years. Given co-op’s, that makes sense and is a pretty decent number. The rates are only going up. By the time OP graduates, the rates could be near 90% in 5 years if they improve at the same rate.

http://factbook.gatech.edu/academic-information/graduation-and-retention-rates-tables-5-11-5-12/

There’s reasons to choose Emory for sure, depending on fit, certainty in a STEM major, and cost as discussed here, but I think you’re minimizing a lot of the advantages of GT. Not to mention that a difference of 20K for CS is very low - with a good CS salary, you can pay that off in a year or two.

An important question that we all have missed asking here is what the total debt is for these schools. To be honest, I’m not even sure which would make a difference either way - less loans and the difference is small enough to pay off quickly in both scenarios. More loans and the difference might be so small that you might as well at that point, though I think if the OP is looking at two high loans schools they should consider going to neither. Can you answer this specifically @turntimes99 ?

@PengsPhils I agree with SOME of your points as they are fair. However Gtech has an BS employment rate of 78% this dipped as low as 67% in 2012. GTech also has a starting salary avg of $68,000 for it’s BS grads. Considering that amount includes petroleum and aerospace engineers; that amount isn’t that impressive, not something I would pay $20,000 more for @turntimes99.

https://www.assessment.gatech.edu/category/surveys/commencement-survey/

You didn’t account for CS though. Using the same source, here are the employment numbers for the College of Computing as a whole in 2016:

Percent with Offers Upon Graduation: 95%
Percent with Jobs at Graduation: 85%

High: 175K
Median: 95K
Low: 55K

Median Bonus: 15K

https://webapps.gatech.edu/cfcampus/adors/commencement/salary_report_result.cfm?termcode=201608&college=2&level=1&surveyid=105&Submit=Submit

In 2012, despite the low for the school, the placement rate was higher for CS than in 2016 with a similar offer percentage. You can’t generalize the performance of a degree to the performance of the whole school.

@VANDEMORY1342 : I believe they should kind of just pick one. I personally do not think I would pay more for Tech as I think honestly for a decent student the outcomes would be similar. GT has the co-op program and many of the decent Emory students I know just find internships the traditional way or build skills via various fellowships on campus (and they also tend to be more interdisciplinary and not just committed to a single department. Like many CS majors will major in math, a life science, business or even a social science like political science that leans heavily on good quantitative and computational skills. Many more computationally focused courses lie in other STEM departments so Emory could definitely be much more for a person that has less tunnel vision in this case, despite tons of students there having the pre-professional tunnel seen at many elite privates). And lately, the entrepreneurial scene at it has been unusually strong especially when you consider it has no direct access to engineering. I think the direct access to a healthcare system and a business school helps this).

@turntimes99These schools are dramatically different. Perhaps if CS is the only thing you want to do and you ONLY want to be committed to that department and its opportunities, the 20k at Tech may be worth it to you. But if you are the type that plans to or likes the idea of developing the skills in that area using the major and then easily having the opportunity to apply it to a different discipline that is usually viewed as separate from STEM, Emory is hardly a bad choice. Point is, I do not think this is a no-brainer, but would lean Tech if if I were more of a CS or STEM purist in a sense and just want to be more directly pipelined to some sort of Tech company that needs a CS major. Also, depends which one you liked and what opportunities you saw at each to develop yourself whether it be through a single department, multiple, or the whole school.

@bernie12 @VANDEMORY1342 @PengsPhils
Thank you all for the help and information!