<p>I got in to Georgia Tech for Mechanical Engineering, and I wonder what you guys know about it.</p>
<p>Please DON'T quote rankings; I know them already, and I think they're a poor indication of what I'm looking for.</p>
<p>What I want to know is:
-Who teaches the classes?
-Does the school produce students with practical and common sense?
-Do students come out with a good theoretical grasp of the material?
-Do employers like Georgia Tech Graduates? Why?
-Is it a school you go to to if you plan on getting a PhD or if you plan on entering the work force?
-I live in Ann Arbor; to provide a frame of reference, how does it compare to the University of Michigan?</p>
<p>GPA - 3.687 uw w/5 AP
SAT - 800 m/690 v
EC's - Boy Scouts, Cross Country/Track, tons of music stuff, church</p>
<p>However...
I'd like this thread to steer in the direction of what makes a good undergrad engineering school, and how Georgia Tech falls against these standards. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that most rankings are from the perspective of the educational and research circles - even the undergraduate rankings. </p>
<p>A person entering the work force should consider other perspectives as well - these are what I am seeking from you.</p>
<p>Hey I applied to GA-Tech too for ME and got in a couple days ago. No PSP though. Anyway I decided I'm not going unless I get into nowhere else. They way the admissions web site is set up just seems to show a lack of caring. Also in my correspondence with the admissions office all I got was info that looked copy and pasted with half a line of handwritten stuff.</p>
<p>Anyway, what you need to realize is that it is the student who determines what they get out of college. What school you go to really doesn't matter all that much unless you max out what the school can offer you; like taking all advanced courses and having an easy time at it.</p>
<p>What I reccommed doing is going on a college visit to the top few schools you get into. Choose a school you like for it's community, not for it's rankings. (I hate ranking too)</p>
<p>But FYI, Blackbaud a medium sized software company down here in SC regularly tries to recruit programmers from GA-Tech. (They get paid good money too) What the businesses (Blackbaud anyway) look for is where they get their best employees from. Signaling does play a role, but I think that a business would rather hire someone from a school where their 10 best employees come from than from a school with a slightly better rep.</p>
<p>I currently attend tech, and know quite a few GT graduates, and I think it's an awesome school. To answer your questions, most of your classes will be taught by Phds who are masters of what they teach, and most are leaders in their respective fields. Many of the teachers do create somewhat of a language barrier however, but despite common talk, most of them do care about teaching and their students, even when some classes have 200+ students (early calc, physics, chemistry and CS will have large class sizes). Our graduates have extensive knowledge in both practical and theoretical terms, we teach lots of theory but include projects and presentations in most classes, and most majors, including mechanical engineering include many design courses. Our graduates are in high demand, with very high starting salaries. Every career fair we have fills out our basketball colloseum to the brim with recruiters, and on the average almost all graduates receive multiple job offers with small to large international or local companies. We do have a good graduate school, I think with about 4000+ students...I know most people that come to our grad school come from somewhere else...I plan on trying to apply somewhere else like Stanford or MIT just for a change, but I might stay here because it is in-state for me. As compared to UM...I think we are about on par, but I'm not sure in mechanical engineering, I think we're ranked 9th in that maybe??? so not quite as strong as most of our other majors...I'm civil eng. and were ranked 2nd or 3rd in that I think...the instate tuition would be a big advantage at UM...they're both great schools...Tech is really hard and a lot of work but I really like it...Thats just my 2 cents...</p>
<p>I spent the summer researching at Tech and was quite impressed. Granted, I never took courses there so I cannot comment on that, but the school seemed like a factory that pumps out quality engineering students. The few professors that I met in the MechE department (I worked in the Aero Eng and Mat Sci dept) seemed very accepting of students and generally interested in their progress. </p>
<p>Talking with some of the people in my lab I got that the profs expect you to do a lot of work outside of the classroom to learn the material and that the work was a bit much at times. But seeing the labs/funding received by the school indicates that industry loves their students.</p>
<p>All in all I feel that GA Tech is best suited for graduate studies unless you are in state or your state school doesn't compare, but in your case I would save the money and stay at UM unless you really want to get out for other reasons.</p>
<p>A good quote for GA Tech: "It's easy to get in, but hard to get out."</p>
<p>Basically, the work there is difficult and the courseload is huge (for most people). Go to campusdirt.com and look it up, and you'll see what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>-Teachers are good.
-Most students have common sense when they graduate.
-Employers seem to like GA Tech, especially in Atlanta. (And, I read somewhere that GA Tech grads make more than Harvard grads over a lifetime); Mindspring (which bought Earthlink) was made by GA Tech grads</p>