<p>Hi everyone! I've been accepted to Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and Rice and I've been trying to decide which school to attend. I'm interested in Chemical Engineering, but I'm also considering Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering. There are many things that I like about each school, but here are a few in particular:
1) They have access to research (centers on campus or nearby medical centers)
2) They are in cities (Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Houston)
3) For Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon - highly ranked engineering programs
4) For Rice - students are very happy, faculty cares a lot about undergrads, and the residential college system</p>
<p>However, I also have concerns about each school.
Rice: 1) The engineering program is not as highly ranked as those of Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech (though Rice's Bioengineering Engineering program is highly ranked, I'm more interested in Chemical Engineering).
2) Rice is far from home. I live in Pennsylvania and it's not easy to get to Houston.
Carnegie Mellon: 1) I've heard that the social life at Carnegie Mellon is really lacking and students may not be happy overall. Is the school really no fun at all?
Georgia Tech: 1) Georgia Tech is a REALLY big school.
2) I've heard Georgia Tech can be more competitive than other schools and this can be stressful for students.
3) Georgia is also far from home. </p>
<p>All of the schools have great engineering programs and I really do like each school. Any comments about the schools or advice about what my decision should be are appreciated! Thanks for your help!!!</p>
<p>Rice and Carnegie Mellon should cost about the same, and Georgia Tech will cost less. I also have to consider travel expenses for Rice and Georgia Tech (since I live in the North and they are in the South).</p>
<p>when you know how much more one is than the other, let us know. They’re such good schools that you cannot go wrong academically. And engineering is engineering is engineering. It doesn’t matter where you go, chemE is going to suck and you’re going to learn the same material to the degree that you work hard.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech will cost about $20,000 less per year than Rice or CMU. Finances are important, but I’m more concerned with how the colleges compare academically for now.</p>
<p>They compare. That’s about all you can say unless you know your major and can compare each course you will take, the professor in that course, his or her health that semester, the advising you get, the academic opps, etc. You’re not going to make any more money graduating from Rice or CMU than GT. Save your money and go to GT. It is probably the best of them, but when they’re this close the differences are to be measured for each individual applicant. We cannot do that since we don’t know you.</p>
<p>Rice is down around #46 worldwide… but who cares? Rice is still fantastic.</p>
<p>I do see this as a tough choice. Not academically because, as said by jkeil911 says, in the end salaries will be about the same. What is tough is that each has a great strength but also weakness.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is the lowest cost, but the biggest school.
Rice is most pleasant, but the furthest away from home.
Carnegie Mellon is close to home, but will work you hard.</p>
<p>Personally, I would choose either Georgia Tech or Rice, despite being far from home. I like Rice more, because it is small and has the best social scene. Yet $20,000 per year adds up fast, and Georgia Tech is easily the best bargain. Engineering majors often take five years to graduate. Going to GT can save you between $80,000 and $100,000. That is a lot of money!</p>
<p>You can compare the courses and curricula in the catalog, although to get beyond the level of looking at what electives beyond the core courses required for the major are, you probably need to find a chemical engineer to ask to look through the course syllabi and final exams if you really want to get down the which school’s courses teach you more.</p>
<p>However, ABET accreditation is a relatively high standard, so you are probably choosing between “good” and “possibly a little better”.</p>
<p>Full disclosure… my niece went to Georgia Tech and is a graduate of their business school. She is a typical southern girl; sweet, pleasant, and smart. She loved GT, and was in a sorority.</p>
<p>Hey, I just looked and Georgia Tech has only 21,500 students total – less than half the size of Penn State, for example. In fact, Georgia Tech is a bit on the small side for a flagship state university.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon has almost 13,000 students. Rice is half that, at about 6,300</p>
<p>I do not think that the size of Carnegie Mellon is small enough for it to offer any real benefit compared to GT. Especially considering that U.Pittsburgh (28,000 students) is immediately next door.</p>
<p>So, I still think that the choice is between Rice and Georgia Tech. Neither Carnegie Mellon nor Rice can claim to be better than GT, but are considerably more expensive. I would have a hard time walking away from GT.</p>
<p>Huh? While Georgia Tech is next to downtown Atlanta, it’s obviously separated from it. The architecture is completely different than anything in the main part of the city, and there are a ton of open grassy areas inside campus. A quick google image search of Georgia Tech reveals just how separate the campus is from the rest of the city of Atlanta.</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad: “Georgia Tech is a bit on the small side for a flagship state university.” Although GT is a public university, I think of the University of Georgia – which is roughly half again as large as GT – as the flagship state university. </p>
<p>OP: One thing that may (or may not) make a difference is that GT has a male:female ratio of 2:1.</p>
<p>Was curious about Rice rankings in architecture and just did a quick search of 2014 rankings and it looks like Rice still regularly ranks among the top few programs in the country (3rd in the two architecture undergraduate rankings that I found for this year). With such a friendly campus and competitive student body, hard to imagine a place significantly better.</p>
<p>Rice’s architecture program looks amazing (and as an added bonus the Rice campus is absolutely beautiful with fascinating buildings, and being in such a large city, Houston, helps create many opportunities), but Architecture at Rice has a slightly different admissions process from the rest of the University so don’t have any experience with that.</p>
<p>My son is a first year student at GT. While the campus is urban, concrete, cold and harsh are not the words I would use to describe the campus. I’m sure that the GT campus is not as pretty the Rice campus. However, for an urban campus, I think it’s really pretty. There are lots of green spaces and trees. When I walk around campus, I forget that I am in midtown Atlanta. Yet, when I walk into the library, I see floor to ceiling windows with a view of the Atlanta skyline. My son has only been a GT student for a week, but I have been very impressed with the school. </p>