Both schools would provide a very good education. Cost and fit , social atmosphere, will be different. Ohio State has plenty of research going on as well, with over 40 research centers and laboratories. https://engineering.osu.edu/about-college
@SouthernHope, great, isn’t it? I’m the OP and I have to say that everyone has been very generous with their feedback in this thread. There are a lot of links to sites I did not think of checking before.
IMO there’s no real losing position here.
“I’d think that if someone decided not to be an engineer, a likely alternative would be chemistry or physics.” -
I’ve known A LOT of students that dropped out of engineering (including one of my kids), but I can’t recall any switching to chem or physics. (They were often running away from freshman physics). Some did switch to Math and Comp Sci. Most seemed to go to Econ or Business. At my school there was an “Industrial Distribution” major that blended engineering and business… that was a popular choice for transfer.
LOL, mine both switched TO engineering, from physics and chemistry.
Yep. Physics I & II and Chem are the weed out classes that a lot of engineering students are glad to be done with. DS said he was really glad he doesn’t have to take any more Chem classes.
In mine opinion I would definitely choose OSU. I’m also a prospective engineering student who received a full tuition from OSU. (And I’m guessing she received the Morrill) OSU’s program is one of the top in the nation and Columbus is a large city so it definitely will have lots of internship opportunities. But if $ isn’t a problem I would suggest you’re daughter visit both schools and see which is a better fit. Go Bucks!
That’s a pretty small difference (only 10%) and probably largely because the kids at GT will be smarter on average than the kids at OSU. If you took the same kid, unless this is a literal genius level kid, they probably wouldn’t be any better off coming from GT than they would at OSU.
It’s an aberration. The samples are small enough that it doesn’t mean much. If you track year over year for the same school, you’ll see that sometimes the reported averages go down, other years they go up.
The type that would switch from Engineering to Physics is someone who discovered that they really like Physics, not the type that just thought Engineering was too hard.
The salary differences are probably due to cost of living issues.
Someone on another thread said there was less hiring from tOSU than from other universities (including GTech, I assume) with some numbers to back that up, so you may want to follow up on that through their two career centers (internships, hiring - not just salary).
GTech is going to be more technical, with less of a variety in student profiles and majors. tOSU is going to have a greater variety in student types, motivations, majors, etc.
Atlanta and Columbus are very different - one a city, one a college town with a definite football focus.
But overall, I don’t think you can “choose wrong”, there are only good options!
Columbus is a large city. It is not a college town.
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I’ve known A LOT of students that dropped out of engineering (including one of my kids), but I can’t recall any switching to chem or physics. (They were often running away from freshman physics). Some did switch to Math and Comp Sci. Most seemed to go to Econ or Business. At my school there was an “Industrial Distribution” major that blended engineering and business… that was a popular choice for transfer.
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My older son did switch from eng’g to math, but that’s because he LOVES math.
However, many engineering students switch to majors that don’t require much math. It seems that the ones that come in choosing eng’g for the “job prospects” but with little consideration for the math involved, quickly change to business or something else.
Although I agree that OSU is the smarter choice (for money and for changing majors)… the two cities are wildly different. Atlanta is head and shoulders better than Columbus.
I live in Columbus, but have a sister who lives in Atlanta. Of the two, Atlanta is far more cosmopolitan. It also has a sense of history (lacking throughout Ohio) and far better weather unless you really like wearing a parka. Plus, given that the Atlanta metro area is three times the size of metro Columbus, more opportunities of every kind are available in Atlanta. Crime rate in both is roughly similar (however the rate of sexual assault is is more than four times higher in Columbus).
This thread shows some disagreement about the difference in quality between the two schools. My view is that, for engineering, GT is almost elite while OSU is simply above average. I don’t think GT is $170,000 better than OSU, but it is notably better. Remember, this only applies to engineering. For almost everything else, OSU is at least as good as GT.
Pardon me, my statistics about crime were somewhat inaccurate. Further investigation shows that sexual assault is slightly less than three times more frequent in Columbus than Atlanta. However, other assaults are more prevalent in Atlanta by a factor of four.
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Atlanta-Georgia.html
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Columbus-Ohio.html
Sorry about this focus on the dark side, but it seems an important thing to consider.
Totally tangential to the topic but @NROTCgrad let me know when you head west. I can show you some Dayton History (basically anything aircraft).
@NROTCgrad, interesting that the Violent Crime Rate in Atlanta went down from 1,334.8 in year 2000 to 671.9 in 2012. That’s a huge drop! Columbus had 500.0 down to 381.1. The government must be doing something right (I won’t comment much about this.)
We have been to both universities and are familiar with Columbus since we live in Cincinnati. We also stayed a week in Atlanta while my daughter attended the CEISMC camp at Georgia Tech. I can honestly say that both universities are in a kind of bubble, but outside, well… it’s a different world. That area right outside OSU where you have Chipotle and McDonald’s, that’s one scary place, seedy and dirty. I watched a cop accost a non-student inside the perimeter. We didn’t stay too long in GaTech to be able to assess how it is at night and such.
I agree. Probably some campuses elsewhere have even worse areas adjoining them, but I have not seen any. Hard to know how much of a factor this should be, but it is nice to be able to walk off campus with pleasure and in safety.
"Although I agree that OSU is the smarter choice (for money and for changing majors)… the two cities are wildly different. Atlanta is head and shoulders better than Columbus.
I live in Columbus, but have a sister who lives in Atlanta. Of the two, Atlanta is far more cosmopolitan. It also has a sense of history (lacking throughout Ohio) and far better weather unless you really like wearing a parka. Plus, given that the Atlanta metro area is three times the size of metro Columbus, more opportunities of every kind are available in Atlanta. Crime rate in both is roughly similar (however the rate of sexual assault is is more than four times higher in Columbus)."
We live in Atlanta, but my husband travels regularly to Columbus for work. Our 14 yo attends Duke TIP at GaTech, so we have a fairly balanced idea of both cities. Atlanta has some serious issues with crime, but if your kid is smart and careful, the Tech campus is not unsafe. It’s urban; you can’t be stupid. H is not a big fan of Columbus, he calls it a “college town” in comparison to Atlanta. I’m from Boston and he’s from Wisconsin, and we’ve lived here for 30 years, so we aren’t dyed-in-the-wool southerners, but we do recognize that it’s significantly more convivial to live in the south than the midwest or the northeast in terms of how people relate to each other.
However, this is not a factor for everyone. Our older dragon could give two hoots about friendly and would make a fantastic Masshole. Younger dragon can’t imagine leaving the south.
So, if the city and the culture are a very big deal, and you know she won’t be changing a major from STEM to underwater basketweaving, GTech’s a serious consideration.
From a purely cost-benefit analysis perspective, IE at GTech almost certainly isn’t worth $120K more than IE at OSU (maybe a little better opportunities/network, but if you gave me the choice of an education at GTech or an education at OSU+$120K to invest, I’d take the latter option every time).
So then it’s up to you and the kid to decide whether you are willing to pay up for what is essentially a luxury good (the feeling of being in one of the top IE programs, etc.).
Columbus is a wonderful city to live in; I’d say one of the best and most vibrant cities in the nation. It’s also the arts capital of the Midwest; there is a thriving independent arts scene in the Short North neighborhood not far from campus and the OSU Wexner Center for the Arts is a wonder (even engineering students can appreciate the arts, I’m sure). The area to the east of campus, being primarily students, can have the issues associated with large transient populations, but High Street next to campus is perfectly safe, and being constantly developed. With the new second year housing initiative, OSU is transforming North Campus into what will be a state of the art and beautiful student living community, complete with new dining and recreation facilities. This will also relieve the neighborhoods east of campus of much of the crush of students living there currently, which will also help alleviate crime issues there.
Really, I think OSU has one of the best campuses of any college; plenty of green space, world-class recreation and student life facilities, and a student union that is second to none in providing compelling and diverse programming and events for students.
Ohio State is truly one of the premier research institutions in the country (for instance, boasting the largest and most advanced cancer research hospital in the nation). OSU in on track to become the most eminent research institution in the nation within 10 years.
OSU also has one of the largest alumni bases of any University, providing key networking opportunities not found elsewhere and a school spirit rivaled by none.
The choice is easy: Ohio State is one of if not the best University in the country in one of the best cities in the country, you’d be a fool not to go there.
Another interesting thing at GT is that OOS students doing study abroad pay in state tuition for that semester. That was an additional draw for my son. (Started BME switched to MSE) He fell in love w GT when we did overnight visit for accepted students.