I got accepted to the Georgia Tech ECE Grad program. But it is a conditional acceptance, the condition being that i will have to stay for the first two semesters at Georgia Tech - Lorraine, the GT campus at France. I can do the last semester from Georgia Tech - Atlanta.
The offer letter also mentions that the degree I will receive will not mention any of this but will simply state that I have graduated from Georgia - Tech!
Is it a good decision to accept this admission offer?
Will I be considered at par with other GT students for jobs or further admissions?
There are strong professors and research opportunities at GTL and at the affiliated French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), but you may be limited on the breadth coursework you can take. ECE research at GTL is limited to the fields of Microelectronics, Optics and Photonics, Systems & Controls, Digital Signal Processing, and Telecommunications. It will obviously also be harder to interview for any jobs or internships while your abroad, but no one should look down on your degree because you spent two semesters in France. Some employers would look favorably upon international experience. It’s still a Georgia Tech campus and you’ll graduate with the same degree as students who studied solely in Atlanta.
Jobs and PhD admissions will be based on prior experience and performance. Performance you can control, so it’s really just a question of whether GTL will give you the experience you need for whatever your next step is. If your next step just requires an ECE masters, you’re fine with GTL, but if you need research experience in a field GTL does not have research opportunities in and you’ll only have one semester in Atlanta, that would be a bigger concern.
Look over the Lorraine France faculty to determine if you are interested in the research work being done there.
. Are you doing a thesis masters degree? Have you found an advisor,
and how would that work, to move to Atlanta in the middle of your research work? Are the classes you want to take available in France? Ask a lot of questions about the curriculum in France, its not nearly as many class options over there, but if you find the classes you need, it may be fun to spend a year in France.
Are you planning to pay cash for the masters degree? If you are in Atlanta you could work as a graduate assistant in a living group and earn your room and board, potentially. I don’t know if you can do that in France. . Can you get a teaching assistantship in France and do you want to learn to teach? There are a lot of teaching assistantships available in Atlanta, but you may not be guaranteed one, but you can apply. Some lower level undergraduate classes even use payed undergraduates as teaching assistants, and there is a competitive process to win that job. It will take time out of your studying and research work, to teach.
Can you get an RA in France, a research assistantship? How will that work if you leave to take some classes in Atlanta? Would the RA cover your tuition in Atlanta?
If you want to share your other grad school options, people may weigh in on them.
ECE is a good program at GaTech and well ranked, so in that sense you cannot go wrong so much.
Also do you need a summer job? Can you get a summer job if you live in France? Probably you can use Indeed like any GaTech student and still get a job in the USA if you need that. Are you interested in working in France instead? That might point to this program being a good fit, as you can make connections in France if you live in France for nine months, I bet. The job placement office in Atlanta may be able to help you understand what job placements are in France, for your field.