<p>I'm kind of put off by GTech's huge engineering program because I feel like I won't be able to distinguish myself amoung all the incredibly bright smarties, and I heard that the weed out classes are incredibly tough... I'm also considering Vanderbilt, but I don't know much about their engineering program, so input please???</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has a strong engineering program, currently ranked 42nd; it is smaller and may offer less in the way of undergraduate research, etc than Georgia Tech(depending on what your interests are). However, unless you have some strong passion for engineering research that GT fills with one of its current research focuses the quality of an undergraduate engineering degree is less varied from institution to institution than rankings would lead one to believe. Certainly, some schools have unique teaching methods, such as GT’s BME problem based learning, but generally an engineering degree is an engineering degree.</p>
<p>As far as distinguishing yourself goes, if you are willing to work hard, put effort into meeting your professors, and show genuine interest in your chosen field you will not have a problem. There are not so so many ultra-brilliant research oriented super nerds at tech to prohibit those who want to stand out from standing out. That said, it would likely be easier to stand out at Vanderbilt simply because the program is smaller. Weed out classes do exist, but if you truly are interesting in your field it shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not like weed out classes make it impossible to get an A; you just might have to put in a little extra work. I’m sure these exist at Vanderbilt as well.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt states the following about it’s engineering program:
"Of the School of Engineering’s 43rd place ranking, in a tie with four other schools, Dean Kenneth Galloway said, “We are pleased to have our school recognized as one of the top 50 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation. We have great company in our ranking of 43 with Yale, Lehigh, Notre Dame and Michigan State University. Our approach is to fully integrate a first-class engineering education into Vanderbilt’s superb liberal arts program, which gives our students depth and agility along with engineering expertise.”</p>
<p>“Rankings of engineering schools are strongly skewed by several metrics that are directly related to sheer numbers of engineering faculty. If you compare Vanderbilt Engineering with others in our category of Ph.D.-granting programs with fewer than 100 full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty, our school consistently ranks in the top 10 nationally.”
<a href=“http://frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/vuse_web/news/Releases/USNewsFall2006.htm[/url]”>http://frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/vuse_web/news/Releases/USNewsFall2006.htm</a></p>
<p>Thank you so much! That was very helpful, and I get a better sense of both engineering programs!</p>
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<p>The big difference there is that different companies come to Top 5 engineering programs to hire, and you’ll be viewed differently by graduate schools.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the economy when you graduated. In the terriable economic like today, companies tend to only go for top engineering schools for recruit and internship.</p>
<p>Even in a normal economy, different people go to Tech.</p>
<p>For the Top 5-10 schools, people will travel internationally to hire.
For the Top 10-20 schools, people will travel cross-country to hire.
For the Top 20+ schools, people will travel to their local “good engineering school” to hire (e.g. just Tennessee).</p>
<p>You’ll see exceptions - an executive works her way up through a country then tells the recruiters to go to her school, for example. But that’s generally the way it works.</p>
<p>Well, I got a really good finaid package from Vanderbilt but $7000 + $23000 loans from Georgia Tech, so its really not feasible for me now to go to Georgia Tech… oh well</p>
<p>Yeah, that seems to be the way it works out in Public vs. Private schools. Good luck at Vandy!</p>
<p>thank you!!! i’m going to make the best of it, i’m actually pretty excited!</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is extremely Difficult to get into, more so than Georgia Tech. Unless you make a 34 or higher ACT or a high SAT you won’t get into Vandy. I live in TN and can tell you that I got into Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Tulane, Yale and NOT Vandy so I wouldn’t not waste the money…they are extremely picky on who they take.</p>
<p>I don’t think that is quite true James. Picky, yes. However, I don’t think you need a 34 ACT, though it or your SAT needs to be high to attend most top 20 schools. Arguably, admissions to top 20 schools are weird. Some deny admission out of fear that the student will be admitted to and matriculate at a higher ranked school such as Yale.</p>