<p>If costs are similar and you’re definitely set on engineering, I’d choose between Georgia Tech or Cornell based on the environment you prefer. If it were my decision, I’d lean toward Cornell for reasons Alexandre and others have stated.</p>
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<p>Yes, that’s definitely true. That report doesn’t refer to *internal *transfer rates though…It simply looks to see if a student that originally enrolled in the engineering school was retained by GT as a whole, not the specific school. “This report tracks retention through year seven and graduation through year six for each cohort in total, by gender, by ethnicity, and by college of entry.” This sentence makes it clear: “Students entering the Ivan Allen College most frequently graduated at higher rates, while entrants to the College of Engineering most frequently graduated at lower rates”</p>
<p>Looks like about 84% of GT students who *enter *as engineers stay at GT through the end and graduate, but that doesn’t mean they stay in engineering. Also, the report tracks retention out to the 7th year! haha, what?</p>
<p>Actually, looking at Table 4, only 31% (!) of GT students that entered in 2005 graduated in four years. That’s shockingly low to me. I bet Cornell is significantly higher. 72% graduate in 5 years and 79% graduate after 6. Looks like GT is likely at least a 5-year program to get a bachelors and that includes all the schools, not just engineering.</p>
<p>Duke’s engineering to arts & sciences transfer rate appears to be 21% for the class of 2009. A decade ago, it was 39% percent. Duke arts & sciences students transfer into engineering at a 10% rate so the net attrition rate for engineering at Duke appears to be 10-15%. Nationwide, the national average attrition rate is ~50%. Can’t find these numbers for GT anywhere…I’m sure Cornell has them somewhere too. <a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/truth-and-fiction-about-intercollege-transfer-rate[/url]”>Truth and fiction about the intercollege transfer rate - The Chronicle;
<p>Getting back to GT, Table 10 has the graduation rates by college and only 27% of students that begin in an engineering program graduate in 4 years. 79% graduate within 6 years. Sorry for getting off track…GT is a great engineering school, but I had no idea how few people actually get a degree within four years there. So, if you’re comparing costs, I would take into account the extra year of tuition and lost income in your calculations.</p>
<p>Edit: Just to verify this, U.S. News lists the four-year graduation rate as 33%, so that closely matches the above.
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/georgia-tech-1569/academics[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/georgia-tech-1569/academics</a></p>
<p>Sam Lee’s list above looks pretty good to me…I would just add the likely extra year or two in school as a con for GT.</p>
<p>One reason for the “low” 4-year grad rate is due to the co-op program. At Northwestern, the participation rate is 30% or so; I think the participation rate is higher at GT. Like the one at NU, the co-op at GT alternates semesters between on-campus study and full-time employment. This is unlike other so-called co-op that’s more like a summer internship.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, the retention rate for female students was 95% (2001) and the rate for URM was 79% (2000). </p>
<p>[Engineering</a> Career Day Challenges Young Women: Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences : Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.iems.northwestern.edu/news/article5.html]Engineering”>http://www.iems.northwestern.edu/news/article5.html)</p>
<p><a href=“http://coeweb.fiu.edu/sites/athltrn/ArticlestoShare/No.%201%20in%20retention%20of%20minority%20engineering%20students.pdf[/url]”>http://coeweb.fiu.edu/sites/athltrn/ArticlestoShare/No.%201%20in%20retention%20of%20minority%20engineering%20students.pdf</a></p>
<p>Much of the attrition is due to engineering being too hard. The national SAT average for prospective engineering students is proably in the low 600s. There’s only so much you can make Calculus or differential equations simple, assuming a professor even tries to make it easier; when one has a score lower than that average, the only option may be to quit.</p>
<p>If cost is not a factor and you are willing to venture up north (it gets cold in Ithaca), I think Cornell presents the best combination of being an overall strong university with a great engineering program.</p>
<p>I think I am definitely set on engineering since I have taken Calc III, Differential Equations and Linear Algebra already in high school and found that I could handle them well. Yes the Co-op program is one of the main reasons why GT seems so attractive to me. I have known many Tech grads who were able to take full advantage of that program and therefore earn a very high paying job after graduation. Does Cornell have anything similar?</p>
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Looks like it…</p>
<p>[Cornell</a> Engineering: Co-op Program](<a href=“http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate/special_programs/coop/index.cfm]Cornell”>http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate/special_programs/coop/index.cfm)</p>
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It’s important to keep in mind that Duke has a much smaller engineering population than Cornell and definitely GT. Furthermore, the fact that most Duke engineers major in BME compounds the size difference and you’re left with very few Civil or Electrical Engineers at Duke looking for jobs in the industry (if you remove those aiming for a PhD, going to law/med school, becoming bankers/consultants, etc.).</p>
<p>Cisco, Google and Microsoft all recruit heavily at Duke on the ECE end while Skanska and Clark Construction hire multiple Duke civil engineers annually for their Project Manager role. Duke is located in the Research Triangle so it’s location is actually better suited for engineering jobs than Ithaca or Atlanta.</p>
<p>I think the supply/demand equation for engineering jobs would work out in Duke’s favor. If you throw in consulting, Duke is by far the better option. There’s simply no way you will graduate out of Duke Engineering unemployed, whether you end up an engineer in industry or not.</p>
<p>I would go…
1.) Cornell/Duke
2. GT (much less prestigious)</p>
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Ummm… seriously? Metropolitan Atlanta and surrounding environs have plenty of engineering opportunities. If you want to remain in the research triangle in rural NC, fine. If you prefer to be in a metropolitan city, lots of great opportunities exist in and around Atlanta.</p>
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I doubt it. Project managers are those with at least few years of experience and preferrably PE license. No reputatable construction firms will hire fresh grads, who don’t even have the EIT certificate, for that role. I don’t know where you pulled that from.</p>
<p>OP-
College website FA prediction calculators are not too terribly reliable. Best is to wait and see what you actually get. Are all schools going to meet 100% of need or will you be gapped?</p>
<p>@jym626 Well for Georgia Tech I have the hope scholarship since I am instate which covers the full cost of tuition plus a couple thousand dollars in merit scholarships. And Cornell and Duke both meet 100% of need according to their website so I figure the cost will be roughly the same between Duke and Cornell</p>
<p>pete-
I assume you’ll qualify for the full 100% tuition (Zell Miller) Scholarship rather than the now slightly lower 90% tuition HOPE, yes?</p>
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<p>I would guess goldenboy accidentally mixed up the project manager and project engineer roles…the project engineer certainly assists the project manager, though. It does seem like civil engineers at Duke have really good placement for whatever reason. There aren’t very many of them, so perhaps the less competition yields a favorable result for them. This is probably not applicable to the OP since he doesn’t know if he wants to go into civil.</p>
<p>[The</a> Chronicle](<a href=“http://dukechronicle.com/article/alum-helps-restore-intrepid-museum/print]The”>http://dukechronicle.com/article/alum-helps-restore-intrepid-museum/print)
<a href=“http://www.pratt.duke.edu/node/2171[/url]”>Page Not Found | Duke Pratt School of Engineering;
[Where</a> Students Go | Duke Civil and Environmental Engineering](<a href=“http://www.cee.duke.edu/undergrad/where-students-go]Where”>Where Our Students Go | Duke Civil and Environmental Engineering)
[Where</a> do Pratt undergraduates go after graduation? | Engineering at Duke University, Pratt School](<a href=“http://www.pratt.duke.edu/where-our-students-go]Where”>Page Not Found | Duke Pratt School of Engineering)</p>
<p>I would definitely wait for financial aid offers (and acceptance offer too) and then compare costs. Hard to make a fully informed decision with a key component missing from the equation. But no matter what, can’t go wrong as you have great choices.</p>
<p>Yes that is what I mean’t, sorry! Yea I think I will wait 2 weeks to see all the financial statements before I make any decisions. </p>
<p>On another note, Cornell seems incredibly isolated? Is that bad from a recruiting or internship standpoint???</p>
<p>Thanks for the links and info Bluedog, It definitely gave me a better sense of the Duke and Cornell from an engineering standpoint</p>
<p>No worries- Cornell has job/career fair and start-up career fairs on campus [Cornell</a> Engineering: Startup Career Fair](<a href=“http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/resources/career_services/employers/recruiting/startupfair.cfm]Cornell”>http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/resources/career_services/employers/recruiting/startupfair.cfm) </p>
<p>[Cornell</a> University Career Fair Days](<a href=“Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University)</p>
<p>and summer internship fair days <a href=“Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University;
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<p>It would be really more useful if they quoted these numbers in number of semesters or quarters of school. Schools with a lot of engineering majors tend to have a lot of students doing co-ops which involve taking a semester off of school; this makes graduation rate measured in calendar years worse, but is not really worse as it would be for students taking extra school semesters due to repeating failed courses, needing to take lighter course loads, etc…</p>
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<p>If that is the case, then high attrition is not surprising. A study at the University of Oregon found that students with SAT-R Math scores under 600 had very little chance of success majoring in math or physics; although engineering was not included (due to University of Oregon not having engineering majors), the authors hypothesized that engineering would be similar in this respect.</p>
<p>ucbalum is correct. Taking a semester off to do a co-op or paid internship will throw off the graduation rates</p>