<p>I've heard that for engineering Georgia Tech is clearly a better choice between these 2, but in Materials Science Cornell is ranked 3 places higher. The difference is probably so small as to be negligible, but is Georgia Tech really that much better for engineering as everyone says it is?</p>
<p>well, are you planning on majoring in materials? GT has all 8 engineering programs in the top 8 nationally, and it's what, 6th best engineering school overall... don't really hear much about cornell's engineering...</p>
<p>Maybe <em>you</em> don't hear much about Cornell Engineering... The rest of us do.</p>
<p>They're both good programs. You'd get good degrees and jobs from both. Similar rankings mean that the programs are both good, and it's hard to pinpoint which is better than the other because it really depends upon what you <em>personally</em> define to be "better". Smaller classes? Getting to know your professors? Fabulous labs where cutting-edge research goes on? Ask questions of people in the department at each place, determine what your priorities are, see where you get in and what aid you get, figure out whether you prefer Ithaca or Atlanta (Georgia Tech and Cornell have ridiculously different environments!), and go from there. Beyond separating schools out into general tiers of academic quality, rankings aren't all that helpful in choosing the right college for a specific person.</p>
<p>One of my friends here at grad school went to GT for undergrad in materials, and he said he really liked the department there. He missed the close-knit environment he had with his classmates in undergrad. Apparently the size of the department has been growing a ton recently, but I think that's true in just about every materials science department out there.</p>
<p>I visited Cornell for graduate MSE and loved the school, but their facilities are a little small, and, unfortunately, I didn't find a professor that matched my research interests. I see a lot of published works coming out of Cornell, and they coordinate the summer MRSEC REUs which is a pretty huge program that lets students study in various MSE labs at schools all across the country for the summer.</p>
<p>I'd say both schools are fantastic places, and it really comes down to personal fit.</p>
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I visited Cornell for graduate MSE and loved the school, but their facilities are a little small, and, unfortunately, I didn't find a professor that matched my research interests.
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<p>Hunh! That's pretty much the same reason I turned down Cornell for structural grad school, too. Fantastic campus, loved the people, lab space was mildly unimpressive (I'm told that they've since gotten rid of ALL empirical research in structures there, which shocks me a bit), and research was niche and not really what I wanted to do. Interesting that it seems to be a little more universal between departments than I'd originally thought.</p>
<p>GT seemed a lot like UIUC... powerhouse, cool research with great lab space, a little impersonal because of its overall size.</p>
<p>aibarr, I talked with two separate professors there that told me they would have loved for me to be in their lab about 10-15 years earlier, but since then they had changed interests a bit and figured I wouldn't find anything interesting there. :(</p>
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I talked with two separate professors there that told me they would have loved for me to be in their lab about 10-15 years earlier, but since then they had changed interests a bit and figured I wouldn't find anything interesting there.
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<p>Dang. =</p>
<p>I finally found my dream research, studying the wind dynamics of cable-stayed bridges with the department head at Illinois... It was gonna be awesome until I got an e-mail from my would-be advisor six weeks before I moved to Champaign... "aibarr, this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but I've accepted the dean of engineering position at Awesome U, and you're not coming with. You lose your funding after next semester. Sorry."</p>
<p>Aaaand, now I know a lot more about earthquakes! It's funny what you become interested in when you're properly motivated! ;)</p>
<p>Haha, that's terrible. I'm in a perpetual state of fear since my current advisor is a pretty heavy smoker and he's getting into his late-60s. When we first talked, he asked what sort of experiments I had heard about in the past which I found interesting. I said the ones where they played around with homogeneous nucleation on board the space shuttle. Turns out those were his experiments back in the 80s! Sadly, they don't do those any more (though he did offer me the chance to learn how to use our electrostatic levitator, apparently the only one of its kind in the world), but right now I'm working on a different project.</p>
<p>I'm a GT student so I'm partial, but neither are bad choices. If you get into Cornell, you'll do alright. GT weeds out students once they get there rather than during admissions (hence the 65-70% admissions rate and the low GPA reputation). My roommate obviously goes to GT (Civil), and his brother goes to Cornell (Chem E). Though GT is lower in MSE rank than Cornell, once you get to those rankings, the difference is too small to make a difference. GT is a stronger research university, though Cornell isn't far off.</p>
<p>Private schools are over-priced, the reputation isn't much different in this case. Besides, from what I hear Ithaca and Troy and the areas around Cornell are dead-zones. My roommates brother says he just gets wasted every weekend because there's nothing to do.</p>
<p>Thus said, GT is the better choice, in my opinion. Yes, going to an Ivy League school would be cool, but is it worth it in this situation?</p>
<p>Cornell would be the clear cut choice IF your career plans don't involve engineering, especially if you're planning on med school (grade inflation!). Otherwise, it can go either way depending on your preferences.</p>
<p>"don't really hear much about cornell's engineering..."
Haha... you're funny.</p>
<p>Anyway, before I begin, I must say I am a little biased as a Cornell engineer.
Cornell's materials science department is second to none. Some of the nanotechnology are incredibly impressive (such as the nanotechnology labs in Duffield, take a look if you have a chance to visit), and I believe that Cornell is ranked number one in nanotech. Our engineering facilities are nothing to look down upon (we have a nuclear reactor and a large particle accelerator on campus!) and I don't believe you can make a claim that Georgia Tech is a stronger research university than CU. That being said, you probably won't use too many such facilities as an undergrad anyway, so don't base your decision on such criteria.</p>
<p>Your career opportunities as a CU engineer will probably be much broader than those of a GT engineer. Investment banks and large finance corporations recruit Cornell engineers like no other. I don't believe this happens at GT. In terms of engineering placement, I have to say that I believe CU to be at least as good as GT. You can look at career surveys posted online, and you'll see that all the big engineering companies that recruit at GT also come to Cornell (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Lockheed Martin, Intel, IBM, AMD etc. etc.).</p>
<p>If you're out of state for GT, it will probably be just as expensive as CU w/ financial aid so don't be so quick to discount CU because of that. I know I'm trying to convince you to come to CU, but bear in mind GT is in no way harder than CU. If you come to CU, be ready for the hardest 4 years of your life. CU eng. weeds as well, and I think it is safe to say that getting good grades at CU engineering is probably more difficult than doing so at GT (avg. GPA is about 2.7 at CU eng, there is ZERO grade inflation at CU eng). </p>
<p>Just make sure you don't choose your school on rankings... try to choose the school that it a better fit for you</p>
<p>I think it depends mostly on what location you prefer. Both schools are powerhouse engineering schools and you'll receive a great education and degree from both.</p>
<p>I'm actually going to GT this fall.</p>
<p>Brownman..you lost a lot of credibility when you stated Cornell's MatSci department is second to none. I do agree Cornell is an exceptional university however.</p>
<p>You can save like $10,000/yr by going to an out-of-state school versus a private school. My roommate tells me this all of time (see previous post), and he's out-of-state from Mass. </p>
<p>Blah2009 is right on. "Second to none" is pretty hard to back up. </p>
<p>Who gives a crap about investment banks and large finance corporations for engineering? This doesn't happen at GT because we don't do stupid crap (though money isn't stupid). Math and stats majors maybe, but not engineers.</p>
<p>I'll admit that I got carried away by saying CU's matsci department is second to none since such an expression implies that CU is the only school that has an outstanding program in matsci; what I meant to say was that CU's matsci department is superb (I'm sure GT's is as well). I don't think such a claim is unfounded at all considering Cornell's impressive nanotech facilities and the fact that CU consistently places in the top 3-4 schools in the nation for nanotechnology:</p>
<p>Nanotechnolgy</a> program rankings</p>
<p>Nanotechnology</a> rankings</p>
<p>[Rankings[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Even though nanotech is just a subset of matsci, I think that CU matsci does pretty well in general matsci rankings as well (don't have access to US news rankings, I would cite them if I could). As somebody said though, the difference b/w CU and GT in terms of such rankings is probably minuscule. CU has a superb matsci department, as does GT.</p>
<p>Both are equally good schools to get an engineering education, but I feel that CU provides you with broader career opportunities, as I have said before. Plus, if you decide engineering is not for you, at CU you have 6 other superb colleges to choose from. From what I've heard from my friend at GT, most kids who decide engineering isn't for them just go to GT's (not so superb) management program. In this sense, Cornell definitely wins out.</p>
<p>Say what you want Uranium, but if you are offered nearly a 6-figure starting salary as an undergrad, we'll see what you call "stupid crap." I would see this "stupid crap" as an opportunity that exists at very few colleges and that's pretty hard to come by. People's minds change. A student who comes into college wanting to be an engineer might come out of college with totally different interests and I feel that Cornell since provides its students with an equally good engineering education in addition to much broader opportunities , it is the better choice (though you couldn't go wrong at either school). </p>
<p>Also, the average financial aid package for a CU student is about $21,000 in grants and about 5K in loans:</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=15&profileId=2%5DCollege">http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=15&profileId=2]College</a> Search - Cornell University - Cost & Financial Aid](<a href="http://www.ed.psu.edu/cshe/nano/Rankings.htm%5DRankings%5B/url">http://www.ed.psu.edu/cshe/nano/Rankings.htm)</p>
<p>Notice that I said CU w/ financial aid would be at least just as cheap as GT OOS. So, if financing is really an issue for you, Cornell might even be a better option. </p>
<p>If you're dead set on engineering/matsci, GT or Cornell would both be great experiences (number 5th engineering school (GT) vs. 7th (CU)). If you have even an inkling that your interests may be broader than just engineering, Cornell is the better choice.</p>
<p>That package is not the average for the total student body, but the average of those who received need-based aid, which was roughly 1/3rd of the student body. So 2/3 are paying through roughly 50k/yr bill. For an average student receiving aid at Cornel, the bill will be roughly 29k per year compared to the 35k/yr at GT. If you are receiving need based aid at GT, which is unlikely (trust me), you will pay roughly the same amount at Cornell receiving aid (on average). </p>
<p>Basically, if you are not receiving need-based aid, go to GT and save nearly 15k per year for 60k total (assuming 4 years). If you are receiving aid, it needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis, but on average (if you are receiving an average package at both), the cost will be the same.</p>
<p>GT is an engineering school. Brown is right...if you have other interests go to Cornell, but engineering majors should be proud and want to be engineers, not bankers or financial analysts. Sure, there is money there, but go to school and use what you learn. Sadly, it is pretty common that people change careers after getting out of school. Money is nice, but engineering is better. Money is the root of all evil, you know.</p>
<p>still, having more options in your life can't hurt.</p>
<p>True true. Unfortunately, many people cannot make up their mind when present with so many options. There is no dream job where you will be ridiculously happy. Work is called work for a reason. I'm not saying one can't be happy, but if it were fun, everyone would want to do it all the time.</p>
<p>I'm pretty happy right now with the work I'm doing as a grad student. It's not "work work," but I am getting paid to go into a research laboratory and, well, do work, so I think it fits the description of a job pretty well. There's nothing that says you can't love what you do.</p>
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I'm not saying one can't be happy, but if it were fun, everyone would want to do it all the time.
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<p>Also, not true. Playing Team Fortress 2 is a lot of fun, but I don't want to do it for more than an hour or two at a time.</p>
<p>I'll inquire into Aerospace</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is ranked #2 in Aero whereas Cornell is #10</p>
<p>But I don't understand how Cornell is even #10 on the Aerospace list if you can only get a minor in Aerospace engineering there.</p>
<p>Although I must admit Cornell mechanical engineering must be very strong--their SAE car is 9 times World Champions.</p>