Engineering - GA Tech vs. Rice vs. USC vs. U Washington

Parents Forum
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UW’s undergrad is 31K; grad is 15K, total 46K. USC’s undergrad is 19K; grad is 26K, total 46K. In terms of area, UW’s campus (1 sq. mile or 1 mile East/West x 1 mile North/South) is much larger than USC’s. However, many of USC’s grad students (business, engineering, etc.) are part time and also the heath degree students (medical, pharmacy, etc.) are at the medical campus, which is about 10 miles away from the main campus. USC’s enrollment may seem large but the main campus does not feel overcrowded. If you are considering either school for engineering, you might want to visit each campus when school is in session.

UW’s campus is a little like UC Berkeley in the sense that there are quite a few homeless people around the campus area. USC’s campus does not have homeless people around there, but the campus is located in a lower income neighborhood, but well patrolled for security (including free Uber in the patrolled area). But this is just being in a large urban city. .

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Time zones seems like a really odd thing to consider! Travel time yes. We were in Hong Kong in the fall, and my parents were in Africa for most of my college and grad school years, so perhaps I’ve just gotten used to dealing with it.

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We did think about time zones at one point…for things like making phone calls. But we decided that was not an issue that needed to be high on the list of concerns.

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GT undergrad enrollment is 15.5k substantially smaller than UW. Also it has a defined campus in the city.

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Our son has a food allergy as well and we chose between Michigan (local) GT, Rice, and Vanderbilt. We looked at USC, and a few others too. Access to high quality nearby medical care was part of the decision process as he had several anaphylactic episodes over the years. All of the dorm kitchens were accommodating, and food was labeled. Now he lives in an apartment and cooks his own food.

Consider also that at UW she could live at home in a crunch, and you could see her frequently. She wouldn’t miss family gatherings or Grandma visits. Our son comes home to do his laundry or escape from his roommate on occasion. We can take him to the grocery store or Costco. Sometimes when we go out for dinner we text him and he joins us.

In terms of student experience, Rice will be the most personal. They are extremely supportive. Classes are small and the campus is like an Oasis in downtown Houston. Classes are small. She could live on Campus for 4 years and Baylor hospital is kitty-corner to campus.

USC really is the University of Spoiled Children, but they have excellent facilities. The location is sketchy - South Central- nice on campus, a run down nearby, but hey, it’s LA so lots to do. There are lots of homeless around, particularly in nearby downtown LA. It’s an easy and cheap flight to Seattle. The engineering school is about the same as UW in quality. Apartments are pricey.

GT also suffers from bad areas near campus (not as bad as USC), but the campus itself is beautiful and the student athletic facilities are incredible - Olympic quality. It is a real crucible and a very difficult school. It’s top 5 for a reason. Support is good but not at Rice levels. Recruiting and employment support are outstanding, however. Co-op program is a central part of the engineering program and there are many large firms only a few minutes from Campus. Atlanta is booming, which helps too.

Hopkins seemed a bit disjointed to me and is really only good in Biomedical engineering, plus Baltimore isn’t the safest place. I wouldn’t consider it for engineering compared to the others without major scholarship $.

For us , GT was $25K/yr more, Rice $40K/yr and Vandy was $45K/yr more than Michigan. Not worth the difference IMO with an excellent school nearby. But that depends entirely on your finances and individual circumstances. I liked Rice the best of the schools, and for $80K more overall it’s worth considering if she needs the individual attention. How set is she on aerospace? Lots of engineers change majors. The larger schools require a lot more initiative to thrive.

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@TooOld4School Hopkins May not be a possiblity for you due to high expense but it’s not just medicine or Biomedical Engineering, they have several top programs like Mechanical Engineering, International Relations, Cyber security, environmental science etc. Bloomberg donated a billion last year and with generous aid, they are going more selective and pumping money into many already great programs.

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“GaTech is also big, like UW”

Eh?

GT is one of the smaller major public colleges in the country. I think William and Mary, Hawaii, and the military academies are smaller. GT has around 15k undergrad and 8k grad students. GTs campus size is 440 acres, UW is 630. GT does have the largest engineering college ~10k, UW 5k.

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Thank you @TooOld4School for your answer. D also got USC VIterbi fellowship and additional scholarshp so cost is much more affordable now. Also, helpful would be the prestige and advantage of being Viterbi fellow. I really wish D would have stayed at UW esp considering her allergies but she doesn’t like UW for many reasons (difficult to change major, large class size etc). We are visiting GT next week but distance and the fact it is a difficult school already making it a lower choice than USC. Looks like USC has Keck hospital nearby. We are hoping D will stay focused with the extra pressure of being Viterbi fellow will motivate her to not get distracted by party scene there. What major is your son doing at UMich?

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@dmama2019 All the issues identified by your D (difficult to change major, large class size etc) show a mature approach to her college selection process. IMO USC VIterbi fellowship is a great way to go. Not sure what she will be studying, but USC has some great role models and support for women in engineering.

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@dmama2019 ChemE. He’s doing the UG/Masters combined program (5 yrs) The party scene is everywhere in college, (less so at Rice and GT), so she has to be very disciplined. Honestly, partying is not all that frequent an occurrence for engineers if they want to maintain a decent GPA, especially in some of the more difficult majors. The ones that do a little more seem to be in IOE or MechE. But that’s why engineering is more highly compensated, not everyone can do it.

If she has asthma the air quality is not all that great at USC, but it would not be great at Rice or GT either. It’s still worth a visit to all of them.

Congrats on the scholarship, it seems like a good fit and still relatively close to home.

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@Rivet2000 and @TooOld4School Thank you!

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I can say right now in Atlanta it is green with pollen. Pollen covers everything in the spring for several weeks. Never seen anything like it before living here.

I would also say partying is typical on weekends at GT. Do they party every night? No, as they do have to study.

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Was the UW acceptance directly to major?

I would vote for the instate choice.

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@mommdc Not directly to major, she is admitted to college of engineering. So major not assured. It will depend on her GPA at the end of first year.

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My daughter has asthma and Rice hasn’t seemed to bother her. Her asthma was worse when she was younger so I don’t know how good a marker she is. Everything at Rice is well air conditioned.
As far as I know there is drinking in campus. Rice is a wet campus and somehow this actually cuts down on the drinking. I have never had a hint of any other drugs there from what I can tell. Rice is known to be a bunch of nerds and this seems well founded. The reputation of the school locally in Houston is that the students study really hard. I think the Niche review is “study hard party a little less hard”.
In my opinion Rice offers far more teacher access and job and research opportunities then large state schools. My daughter had a research paying job by half way through her freshman year. But there are pro’s to large schools too guess.

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However, USC also has a somewhat higher percentage of Pell grant students (21%) than Georgia Tech (15%) or Rice (14%), and about the same as Washington (21%). Given its size, it may certainly be big enough for both the spoiled children and a somewhat larger percentage of low to lower middle income background students than other high profile private (and some public) schools.

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I’ve always thought USC’s campus was cramped and crowded.That can be good or bad depending on your perspective. If you hate crowds, it’s bad. If you like the energy that comes from crowds, it’s good.

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I would eliminate USC.

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Robotrainbow- I don’t think there is a high school or college campus where drugs nor alcohol do not exist. Now the parents may not be aware but it definitely exists. No group of students is immune from this.

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Just to clarify my earlier statement. Of course there’s drugs, and there is violence, crime, depression. I am just saying I don’t think there is a drug culture. I have walked around campus numerous times and never smelled weed.
My daughter was admitted to Colgate and she went to their overnight . All anyone talked about was how drunk they were going to get at the spring fling. It had a frat culture. After a couple of hours my daughter bailed on the whole thing and we drove back home.
Of course there is plenty of drinking at Rice. There is beer bike after all.
And there are students who went to Rice and hate it. And Colgate students who join fraternities and become incredibly successful in life. But I do believe Rice has less of a drug and alcohol culture then most other universities. Maybe because of the lack of fraternities.