<p>I got accepted into UT Austin, Gatech, UIUC and McGill, and I am having a hard time making a decision. Any words of wisdom? It would be great to hear from college undergrads attending any of the colleges afore mentioned. </p>
<p>Thanx</p>
<p>UIUC and UT Austin are much more complete as universities than Gatech. People need to remember that wanting to do engineering now doesnt mean you wont change your mind. Your other options are a lot better at UIUC and UT than at Gatech.</p>
<p>Also, you’ll be recruited not only for engineering, but for finance/trading/consulting firms at UT or even UIUC. probably less of those opportunities at GAtech</p>
<p>I agree with bearcats</p>
<p>“Also, you’ll be recruited not only for engineering, but for finance/trading/consulting firms at UT or even UIUC. probably less of those opportunities at GAtech”</p>
<p>oh btw I am saying this not because I believe there is a difference in prestige/quality, but the fact that UIUC has the chicago (trading) exposure, UT has h-town (big corporations) nearby and gatech has what…atlanta…</p>
<p>gatech has many big companies come to recruit and the undergrads are in high demand. Just something to consider. </p>
<p>And I dunno what you mean when you say atlanta…it’s not like a couple of shacks arranged in a cool pattern.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Fortune 500 Companies by City:</p>
<ol>
<li> New York (44)</li>
<li> Houston (23)</li>
<li> Atlanta (14)</li>
<li> Dallas (11)</li>
<li> Chicago (10)</li>
</ol>
<p>Atlanta isn’t that small of a city. One of the biggest advantages of GT is that it’s a top school with not a lot of competition around. In Chicago, in addition to UIUC, you have Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Minnesota all in the Top 25 and very close together. In Houston, you have TAMU, UT-Austin together (with Rice, Houston, the various other UT’s and TAMU’s, and SMU nearby).</p>
<p>In Atlanta, the closest Top 25 engineering school is Florida, and that’s 8 hours away. As a result, many of the large Atlanta-area corporations and consulting firms are full of GT graduates. There’s no shortage of positions in business consulting or finance. Based on my experience, you’ll have an easier time in these fields coming from Tech (vs. UIUC or Michigan) for that exact reason.</p>
<p>you missed the point. </p>
<p>chicago provides a LOT more opportunities than atlanta to engineering students looking for other career path because chicago is known for trading/finance activities, which is where engineering students often end up at (especially quant trading, or simply normal S&T), only second to NYC. Trading is almost non-existent in atlanta.</p>
<p>Houston is kind of an exception because the there are many huge oil corporations that hire a lot of engineers for roles outside of engineering but still require technical skills.</p>
<p>Also, as i said, UIUC and UT Austin are simply more complete universities that excel at a broader level.</p>
<p>"Based on my experience, you’ll have an easier time in these fields coming from Tech (vs. UIUC or Michigan) for that exact reason. "</p>
<p>that’s also not true, at least not GA tech vs Michigan. Compare the on-campus recruiting list on the annual report on both career office’s website, michigan engineering gets a lot more on campus recruiting from the most prestigious BB or low first tier ibanks (MS,GS, UBS, DB, ML, LB[no longer exists]) and top tier consulting firms (M/B/B) . I dont see that many on GA tech’s list (all i see is DB, BCG and citadel(hedge fund)). UIUC probably dont get all the most prestigious BB ibanks (as they are less represented on wall street, same for Ga tech) but they also have a lot of regional boutique ibanks recruiting there, not to mention all the quant trading funds that are all over chicago.</p>
<p>obviously if OP is 100% staying in engineering field the points are irrelevant. but never say 100% because there is no 100% in the world</p>
<p>I am 100% certain that I have no clue what most of your acronyms mean. There is an example of a 100% in this world. ;-)</p>
<p>I’m a little confused, is the OP going into engineering or finance?</p>
<p>lol
MS = morgan stanley
GS = goldman sachs
UBS = UBS
DB = deutsche bank
ML = merill lynch
LB = lehman brothers</p>
<p>M/B/B = mckinsey, BCG, Bain</p>
<p>Personally I’d rather be an engineer than a banker if I graduated with an engineering degree.</p>
<p>it’s always good to keep options open.</p>
<p>Also, and if the engineering exit opportunities are around the same, it maybe wise to compare alternative exit opportunities should you ever need/want them</p>
<p>Haha, well at least I recognize all the names once you spell them out for me. Can you tell that with my engineering degree, I don’t intend to come anywhere remotely close to the banking industry unless it is to open a checking account?</p>
<p>I just heard back from Career Services on the consulting firms:</p>
<p>Of the major consulting firms, the following hired from GT in 2007-2008: Technology: Accenture, Deloitte, Bering Point, PWC; Strategy: Bain, Booze-Allen, McKinsey, Boston; Auditors: PWC, E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG. So all the major firms hired there (and I’m leaving off the smaller boutique operations since you only listed the big ones).</p>
<p>I replied about the i-banks. I can see a few just looking at the career fair website, so I know there were at least some. They only replied about consulting firms.</p>
<p>“Of the major consulting firms, the following hired from GT in 2007-2008: Technology: Accenture, Deloitte, Bering Point, PWC; Strategy: Bain, Booze-Allen, McKinsey, Boston; Auditors: PWC, E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG. So all the major firms hired there (and I’m leaving off the smaller boutique operations since you only listed the big ones).”</p>
<p>That’s not the point. We are talking about on campus recruiting. They emailed me a pdf of the list of companies that showed up at one or more career fairs during the 2007-2008 recruiting season. </p>
<p>Looking at who got hired at what firm is not a good way to judge things. There are always kids with connections. There are always kids that get lucky and get the interview from online recruiting. It is how active the firms recruit the school (ie. on campus recruiting) that matters.</p>
<p>and I hope you are not going to debate about wall street presence of Michigan (or even Illinois) vs Ga tech.</p>
<p>Did they transfer you to cynthia when you call the career office btw? I wonder what she thinks about 2 people calling on the same day demanding a list lol</p>
<p>It’s pretty sad, though, that you care so much about being “right” that you’re investing so much time in this issue. The fact is, you have no idea who recruits or how much they recruit at other schools. Let it go. </p>
<p>If you really care, I have access to the system now. So tell me what company, and I’ll tell you the date they interviewed on campus.</p>
<p>thanxs for the replies.</p>
<p>Actually burdell, you are wrong</p>
<p>3 out of 6 major consulting firms have Michigan on the core school list.
0 out of 6 major consulting firms have Georgia Tech on the core school list.</p>
<p>To top that, the 3 out of 6 are Mckinsey, Bain, BCG, which are definitely the top 3.</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Recruiting at Vault’s Top Six Consulting Firms: Vault Management and Strategy Consulting Career Information](<a href=“http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=252&article_id=14364421&cat_id=1223]Undergraduate”>http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=252&article_id=14364421&cat_id=1223)</p>
<p>And how many of them are just recruiting the MBA program and not the undergraduates?</p>
<p>That’s also just strategy companies.</p>