To put it bluntly: those factors aren’t considered in college rankings.
So if they are important to you, then you cannot rely exclusively on college rankings. You will have to supplement the rankings with other sources of info. And you may have to sacrifice numerical ranking points in order to get improvements in these other, less tangible factors.
Many college applicants can’t bear to do this – they value rankings and prestige over everything else. Other applicants would rather be happy at a lower-ranked school than miserable at a higher-ranked school. You may have to figure out which category you belong in.
@Corbett, that’s why I always caution anyone who uses USNWR rankings for evaluation UG engineering. Reputations are formed by the money brought into doctoral programs and the researchers they employ. There’s nothing anywhere in any USNWR ranking that speaks to how well schools prepare students for future employment and success. It’s all easily manipulatable smoke and mirrors.
@Corbett@eyemgh, I totally get your point on rankings. I never realised the fineprint on how they ranked till you pointed me to that. It’s a learning to know its predominantly geared towards Deans rating Deans, Doctoral programs, research $$ et all and does not reflect the life of an undergraduate in those institutions. Many thanks.
In vetting programs, it’s important you decide what’s important to YOU. Is that class size? School size? Location? Extracurricular activities? Hobbies? Clubs? Coop/Internship opportunities? Etc? Once you know what you want, then you can narrow down your list. Then visit them and develop a list of ones you want to apply to that you’d be happy at. Good luck!
@eyemgh , Absolutely agree. Im preparing a comparison checklist with attributes and their respective weightage in my viewpoint. Will fill up the scores based on my homework, site visits and speaking to students. Hope to share it with CC once done. Thanks
“What is up with you kids nowadays when you see city/lifestyle scenarios that you are not accustomed to ?!? Do you think you will have so many options with your future employer?”
That’s a little harsh, the kid is in high school and wants to go to a college where he’s comfortable, and guess what, kids and adults as well like familiarity. If you visit a college and you say that’s not for you, then the college is not for you, even GTech admissions officers will agree with that.
I think you are putting way too much stress on yourself at this point. Look at lots of schools that are strong in your area of interest. Apply to the ones you could see yourself attending (eventhough you may not love everything about them). Once you find out where you’ve been offered admission - then assess the various factors for the best fit.
Put together your list, then try to visit as many as you can (particularly the ones higher on your list). If, during your visit, you don’t like the vibe, or are concerned with the facilities, move them down on your list or completely delete them. In the end you’ll have a list that you can “live” with. My son axed some schools that I know many other think highly of, but his final list was one that he felt comfortable with. There are many fine schools out there that you will feel comfortable in.
It’s no different at MIT, Stanford, Texas, Rice, UPenn, Berkeley, Harvard, RPI, CMU, Princeton, Duke. The buildings are run down from use. GT is definitely nicer than MIT. Even Stanford buildings are run down. The Stanford CS depth looked filthy inside. … worn carpets. … empty outdated display cases, discolored hand mottled walls. … so what? It’s who you are surrounded by. Texas engineering buildings are terrible and ugly from the outside, worse on the inside. If you want new facilities, try an upcoming school like UCF. However in ten years those buildings will be dated too. The campus tours normally take you to the new facilities, but when you visit your desired department you’ll get a different vibe. There is no correlation between nice facilities and an excellent education.
Look at more programs before you rule out GaTech. Look at some smaller tech schools as maybe you’d like a smaller school better - Embry-Riddle, Florida Tech, Alabama Huntsville, Illinois Tech (although the south side of Chicago may be too urban for you). Look at some in your area like RIT and Buffalo. The more you see, the more you’ll know what matters to you.
I think you’ll find a school you like so much that you won’t notice the dorms or the distance to the Starbucks.
Stopped reading around the time you started taking about you’re black friend. If you have a fear of black people, however unreasonable, Atlanta is probably not the city for you.
Look at Case Western and U of Colorado Boulder for Aerospace, as its easier to get in and many students will get into MIT’s masters program in aerospace, from Case’s or CU Boulder’s program. You will need a graduate degree in Aerospace if you want a top job, so don’t dwell so much on the undergrad portion of your education.
As far as how run down the school is, U of Michigan Ann Arbor and Carnegie Mellon are both run down, dog eared look to campus, more than Georgia Tech, in my visits from 2015 to 2017. I know Michigan has done some work on north campus since my visit. Georgia Tech has some of the cleanest freshman dorms of any major engineering colleges. Georgia Tech maintains the campus, and its green with a lot of flowering trees. Georgia Tech has nice weather, but given you are from Rochester, you may not be afraid of cold. Georgia Tech is a very organized school. You will learn most of what you need at internships and you get the theory, math and classes as an undergrad at your college. So while wind tunnels are great, GT has those, and lots of research options too. @orry a lot less about how things look and a lot more on: do they have the classes you want to take? GT will have every class known to mankind in aerospace and aeronautics both.
Don’t focus so much on the city, focus on the SCHOOL and what it offers. Study the websites more, and don’t worry about stuff like “how it looks”. Do worry about the students, will you fit with them? Can you afford the school?
Can you fly there from Rochester?
The faculty, the curriculum, and the other students, the engineering library are top at Georgia Tech. Also, for a public program, Georgia Tech has superb freshman support and undergraduate support, similar to Purdue. Not all large public programs offer that. Finally it offers a fantastic OOS price, it will cost you less than programs at U of Michigan, U of Cal, or even U of Illinois Aerospace. It for certain deserves the rank it has.
The OP hasn’t been back since June 23. Can’t tell how old/what grade OP just finished, but if OP is not comfortable with an urban campus, then look elsewhere.
Students walk around there all the time. Its a pretty lively campus. They walk to midtown regularly. Yes, there are homeless people in the surrounding area and yes there is crime. However, its a city school. If you are uncomfortable with diversity you would not like GT even if it was located in Buckhead. If you think the classrooms are bad you havent seen the housing. I thought the classrooms were rather nice. Housing admittedly sucks on and off campus. Housing in midtown is very expensive.
Georgia Tech housing is identical to freshman dorms all across the USA. Its a room with two beds, two desks and two closets. Its not like Georgia Tech freshmen spend much time indoors! The weather is fantastic all year round and the room barely matters. A student sleeps there thats it. Its a nine month experience, and the summer, the student will have a great summer job or take a summer at the Georgia Tech campuses in Europe or China. So don’t worry about a freshman dorm space. Upper class housing is OK, the same as other universities. In fact Georgia Tech housing is much cleaner and newer looking than Carnegie Mellon’s older dorms and Case Western’s older dorms. Dorms do not matter that much, what matters is the student body, facutly, curriculum, and extracurriculuar options. Georgia Tech gets an A+ in all those important measures.
Rankings are largely the result of very large research programs at the graduate level. This can, and often does have a positive impact on undergraduate studies, but should not be used as a measure of the quality of all undergraduate programs. Check out https://www.wpi.edu/news/mars-curiosity-rover-approaches-5-years-exploration
Atlanta isn’t very walkable and public transportation is not good even by us standards. Depending on what OP is used to, it may have seemed jarring.
Another aspect is that OP may be used to private colleges (we don’t know what s/he’s visited.) GTech is public and its resources are limited; these resources most go to equipment and facilities.
Another aspect is the college’s ethos, which favors ascetism: just read the GTech graduate upthread… GTech students are proud of the time spent everyday on difficult problem sets, classes where the instructors have no qualms failing a third of them or more, of surviving what is very very tough courses and requirements. The focus isn’t on comfort, support, fun, balance, or design.
So,money wouldn’t be spent on nice dorms, nap pods, landscape design, anything that indicates physical comfort or even relaxation.
All of this adds up to a specific college experience that is very different from the one at other public flagships or tech schools. That’s why rankings don’t mean much - all top 10-12 ABET accredited aerospace engineering programs will offer high quality courses and peers. The “vibe” at each will be different and may “fit” you well or not.
In addition, someone who wants to work in aerospace engineering can broaden the search by looking into other engineering specialties, right?