Georgia Tech vs Duke in engineering

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am about to apply for Duke in early Decision and I just have to mail the application now.
I live in Georgia and I found out Georgia Tech has higher ranking in Engineering program. Now I do not know if I should go to Duke for Pratt engineering school with tuition fee over $30000.
Which school would give me success in future? Like in terms of getting jobs and career with higher paying.
Duke's Pratt Engineering school students have definitely higher stats in terms of SAT score, rank and others and I want to study in best environment as possible.</p>

<p>Which one should I choose?</p>

2

<p>Unless Duke gives you huge financial aid, I really don't see the reason for attending Duke when GT is very high regarded in engineering world (arguably more regarded than Duke).</p>

3

<p>This depends on whether or not you want to actually be an engineer or not. It's the whole "Ivy league-esque" engineering vs mit/caltech/traditional tech school scenario.</p>

4

<p>An engineer could better answer this question.
However, from what I can see the engineering rankings are influenced by the size of the program/number of specialties.
If you have a specific interest that you could pursue one place and not the other, that might be important. On the other hand, it might be important to keep your options open, in which case I would prefer the experience at Duke, Columbia, or Princeton- all lower ranked in engineering that Georgia Tech.
My bias is to go where the smart people are.</p>

5

<p>Since you're having qualms over the tuition at Duke, I wouldn't apply for early decision.</p>

<p>Both schools will give you success in the future. What particular engineering branch interests you?</p>

<p>If I were you, I'd apply to Duke and Georgia Tech as a regular admit and then weigh financial aid packages. The decision will become more clear when you have all the cards laid out in front of you.</p>

<p>Duke and Georgia Tech engineering grads will be offered comparable jobs at comparable pay. Engineering employment is highly market driven...new engineering grads are paid a similar starting salary, with possible premiums for better grades. The difference between Duke and GT is not large enough for you to command a larger starting salary, based on school quality alone.</p>

<p>If possible, visit both campuses.</p>

6

<p>Does overall prestige matter to you?</p>

7

<p>IMO:</p>

<p>Duke > GT
GT Engineering > Duke Engineering</p>

<p>I think this is the OP's dilemma.</p>

8

<p>Dana is correct according to my understanding. I graduated from Duke with a degree in biomedical engineering. Georgia Tech definitely has a higher regarded/higher ranked engineering school than Duke partially because GT offers 12 undergraduate majors, 20 masters degrees, and 16 PhD degrees in 9 different departments, while Duke offers about third of that - only 4 undergrad/PhD majors in 4 departments. So, it's not really a true comparison. Georgia Tech also has over 7,000 undergraduate students in engineering, while Duke has only around 1,200. The sheer volume of research would clearly be larger at Georgia Tech since they have so many more students and faculty so more people would be aware of GT's program.</p>

<p>However, you should really be comparing on a department-by-department basis. For example, if you are interested in biomedical engineering, Duke is widely seen as having one of the best programs in the nation (ranked 2nd in USN&WR to JHU). If, however, you are interested in aerospace, industrial, or nuclear engineering, it is obvious you should choose GT since Duke doesn't even offer these programs. From personal experience, I can tell you that at Duke, the BME, ECE, and ME departments are top notch with great faculty and research opportunities (more than 2/3 of undergrads do research). The Civil Engineering department is kinda seen as a joke compared to the others and undergrads like to joke that students there are just in Trinity (the arts & sciences school at Duke). Although the Civil Engineering does have a few great faculty members - notably Henry Petroski and Earl Dowell. But civil is seen as a notch below. The Princeton Review just ranked Duke's graduate engineering school second in the nation so it is definitely seen as prestigious. If you aren't sure what type of engineering you want to go into, well, then other factors will have to be weighed. I tend to think that a lot more Pratt graduates go into business than at an engineering school like GT, although plenty still stay within engineering. So if you might be interested in business down the line, Duke might be a better choice. Obviously, cost, prestige, campus culture, athletics, campus, liberal arts academics, job opportunities, graduate school prospects, etc. should play a role.</p>

<p>I think the job placement is probably very similar, although I'm sure there is a more diverse array of engineering firms that recruit at GT since there are just so many more students, while particular niche firms continually recruit at Duke as well as the major ones. But, I'd venture to guess it's not significantly different. </p>

<p>I personally wanted to get an engineering degree in the context of a great liberal arts education. I chose Duke over the engineering schools at Penn, Columbia, Michigan, and Illinois. So, I was kind of in your same situation. Cost is also a factor obviously - I was from IL and IL is widely seen as a great engineering school, but I wanted to expand my horizons more and get out of the state. Plus, they didn't even have a biomedical engineering department (14+ departments and no bme?!?), and Duke gave me lots of fin aid money (obviously, still more expensive than in-state IL).</p>

<p>Anyways, good luck with your decision! I'd probably apply RD to both since it seems like you are undecided. Don't go into ED without being 100% sure of your choice.</p>

9

<p>Um...
"The Princeton Review just ranked Duke's graduate engineering school second in the nation so it is definitely seen as prestigious."</p>

<p>what? Is this a typo? There's absolutely no way duke's graduate program > mit, caltech, stan, berk, carnegie etc.</p>

10

<p>PR does not rank schools or depts on a comparative basis.</p>

11

<p>um yes prestige matters to me truthfully
Also I would work better around brighter students</p>

12

<p>I am thinkin bout studyin computer Engineering/ computer science though not really sure. business also interests me. Since I don't have great stat I want to do early decision so I can have better chance of getting accepted</p>

13

<p>"what? Is this a typo? There's absolutely no way duke's graduate program > mit, caltech, stan, berk, carnegie etc."
"PR does not rank schools or depts on a comparative basis."</p>

<p>No, it was not a typo or misinformation. See <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/pdfs/EngineeringPressRelease_Sept_20_2006.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/pdfs/EngineeringPressRelease_Sept_20_2006.pdf&lt;/a> and for the rankings see <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/engineering.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/articles/find/engineering.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>According to PR,
1. UC-SB
2. Duke
3. UVA
4. Mich St
5. Johns Hopkins
....</p>

<p>I agree that list is pretty strange now that I look at it. Besides the details about the PR ranking, my point was merely to say that Duke is seen as a fairly prestigious engineering program, and is especially up-and-coming. It is not seen as an annual engineering powerhouse such as MIT, Berkeley, etc. because it doesn't have the same history, does not have nearly as many departments or faculty, etc. Of course, MIT and Cal Tech are seen as more prestigious for the vast majority of engineering programs (BME being the exception).</p>

<p>Anyways, Duke engineering rocks. They treat you like gold, the students are very intelligent and motivated, and they give you free beer on Friday during E-kegs....I loved it. But you can't go wrong with GT either. Definitely very different schools, overall, though, so you gotta go with what you like.</p>

<p>Also, note that there is about a 25% dropout rate for engineering nationwide (I think it's about 20% for Duke). So while you might not think you would want to transfer out in a million years, I know a bunch of people who did, and you might want to consider what school would be better for you if that did occur. On a similar note, like 40% of Duke freshman are pre-med (I'm making up this number), and by the end, the number is much less.</p>

14

<p>Georgia Tech is a much better school for engineering. Lots of brilliant students at Georgia Tech. As cost is a concern, apply RD to both. Your concern regarding brighter students at one school versus the other are unwarranted.</p>

15

<p>i'm sorry, that list is absolutely ridiculous.</p>

<p>the schools i named, mit/calt/stan/berk/carn AREN'T EVEN ON IT.</p>

<p>You're seriously going to point to a ranking in which those schools are not considered the top 20 in the country for engineering?</p>

<p>Yes, it's BME is quite well regarded. but overall, duke engineering is not held in highest regards; it is certainly not number 2 in the country. It's prestige comes from the strength of the student body and the university overall, not because of its engineering strength in particular.</p>

16

<p>^ Gee, don't rip on the guy...It's not his list. He was merely pointing out the strength of his school.</p>

<p>He even agreed that the list looked "pretty strange".</p>

17

<p>If your stats are good enough for Pratt, you can go to GaTech free if you are a Ga resident. Maintaining the grades to keep the Hope at GaTech, however, is a challenge. If you keep the Hope for four years, the difference in cost will be about 160,000. My son had the same decision. His sister and brother in law were both Duke grads, the latter BME. Son opted for GaTech for ME. GT engineering can be overly demanding academically and GT certainly does not have the social life that Duke offers due to GT's dismal female/male ratio. If you are convinced that you want to be an engineer, however, GT does not take a back seat to anyplace. When my son interviewed for jobs his senior year, not a single company asked his GPA. It seems that surviving GT engineering was more than enough.</p>

18

<p>alright, I apologize for coming off as a bit aggressive. But if there's a ranking which is irrefutably flawed - in this case, grossly inaccurate - why even reference it? It's very misleading and should not be used to support your claim.</p>

19

<p>I already submitted Duke supplamant A form with Duke early decision checked... Im not sure if I can change it to regular decision........-_-</p>

20

<p>How about GT- Presidential Scholarship. The Presidential Scholarship is very competitive and You must apply by Oct 31.</p>