<p>Don’t lots of MIT students end up in business or doing something different than going straight to an engineering job. Caltech students very, very often go into academia. Those two are amazing engineering schools that end up being kind of oddball (at least if you look at an engineering school as some place that should actually produce a bunch of people that go into more traditional engineering jobs).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, both of those schools send a high percentage of students to academia and non-engineering positions (like venture capital). In addition, they’re both small schools with relatively small alumni bases.</p>
<p>BanjoHitter “So, at the end of the day, if your goal is to live and work in NC, VA, or a neighboring state, those schools [VT or NC State] make sense. If you have interest in more flexibility or interest to work elsewhere, a higher tier school like GT makes sense.”</p>
<p>My son will be deciding between GT and VT (among others) for CS so I’m very interested in this debate. But, I think the regional limitations of VT, to the extent they exist, have been overstated. I looked at the companies attending CS career fairs at GT and VT and you see many of the same companies, e.g., Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM etc. It may be that companies in CA or TX that don’t recruit at either GT or VT may be more aware of GT if the student were to send them a resume.</p>
<p>It’s not overstated. Keep in mind that there are many companies that “do the rounds” at career fairs, but they’re not necessarily there to hire. I used to also visit Virginia Tech as a hiring manager and even occasionally interviewed there. But I never hired a VT student. For me to hire a VT student, that student had to be exceptional - a top 1% student. For me to hire at GT, that student needed to be top 30% or so (and I hired for a very well known and desired top engineering firm). So why did I go to VT if it was so rare for me to hire there? First, to keep up appearances. We wanted our name on campus for advertising purposes. Second, I might find an exceptional student.</p>
<p>If you’re an exceptional student, you can go to any school and do well. But most people aren’t exceptional. A student who’s looking at Top 30% at VT or Top 50% at GT (about the same) will be better off at GT because of the number of employers and quality of employers that visit.</p>
<p>To give you an idea of the career fair differences, GT has a 3 year wait list for employers to get into the career fair. In fact, GT has companies set up booths across campus as “overflow” throughout the year because of high demand. VT’s career fair has no wait list. GT has 350 companies (excluding the “overflow”) visit for 13,000 undergraduate students, VT has 250 companies visit for 24,000 undergraduate students.</p>
<p>BanjoHitter: I think you were making a reasonable case in your argument until the statistics you presented in your last sentence. I am pretty sure that all parties throughout this discussion have been talking about comparisons of engineering programs at GT, VT, and NCSU. It is well documented and acknowledged that the criteria for engineering at VT is different than the other colleges there and the caliber of student is different. VT itself acknowledges that if you are not accepted when you apply for engineering, they may still accept you if you are will to attend a different school. However the stats you presented for comparing VT to GT talk about the entire student population (24000 students) which calls into question whether the 250 companies you mention are for engineering career fairs or for all colleges/students on the campus. In fact, I’m not sure what to make of your earlier comments now based on this misrepresentation. When you compare top 1% to top 30%, for example, are we talking engineering or arts and sciences…or ag? I think the data has muddied the waters.</p>
<p>The 250 companies referenced by BanjoHitter would likely be the combination of Engineering Expo and CompSci recruiters at VT (not the university as a whole). I think there are somewhere around 6,000 undergraduates in the College of Engineering. I found the comments regarding top %s of students at different universities to be plausible but I’m not sure about where different recruiters might draw the line. It would be most interesting to have hiring information available at GT and VT to see if some national companies come for a look-see but never hire. BanjoHitter - did you attend GT as an undergraduate? If so, I’ll have to discount your position a bit because you’d have an understandable bias towards the school.</p>
<p>Exactly my point Chris, in which case 250 companies for 6000 students at VT is more impressive than 350 for 13,000 at GT.</p>
<p>Your second point was also rattling around in my head: There probably is a quality perception difference, but is it really top 1% (VT)= top 30% (GT) or more like 10% VT = 30% GT, or even 10% VT = 20% GT.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m also still wondering if anyone knows when GT accomplished it’s ascent to the #4 or 5 slot in engineering schools and how it ranked 5, 10, and 20 years ago. This just helps me paint a better picture, both of understanding my personal blind spot for the school and of whether there was a recent meteoric rise that warrants further investigation.</p>
<p>GT began its rise from #25 starting in the mid 1980’s. It’s highest ranking was #3 in 1999 (ahead of Caltech, behind Stanford and MIT). It has been top 5 since 1996.</p>