Is Georgia Tech OOS Tuition worth it?

@Coloradomama Are you referring to the GT satellite campuses or the study abroad programs overall?

D is planning on majoring in engineering, and GT participates in the GE3 program (Global Engineering Education Exchange). My understanding of GE3 is that it’s designed to allow students to take courses in their major. For example, DTU (Denmark Technical University - about 20 miles outside of Copenhagen) is one option for Chemical and Biomoleculary Engineering.

One thing that I noticed with the GT satellite campuses is that they do apply an OOS differential, so you still pay more for being OOS. For example, the GT Lorrain campus charges $3,000 more for OOS students each semester. The DTU program only charges $200 more.

@Shortnuke

I was referring to the study abroad and satellite campuses to study computer science so yes, I should have said that. In CS, there are three main options, that I know of, but please correct me !!!

Barcelona, France Lorraine, (the GaTech campus), and a program in Hong Kong, at HK University of Science and Tech, which does have a lot of advanced CS classes, but its a newer school, not ranked as well in CS as Georgia Tech, and may water down the degree some to go there, but it will transfer at least. All three or these programs teach in English, with the French program being GaTech professors over in France, teaching classes. But on any given semester, very little is offered for CS majors in France, so careful planning is needed to make it work out.

Barcelona works for CS, but almost everyone we know takes a SUMMER in Barcelona, adding additional costs over
the four year degree program! So for certain, its not less expensive.

From all three, credits will transfer, but the only program that will work well for students with a lot of AP/IB credits is the one in Hong Kong. GaTech students are free to try to arrange other study abroad programs, like for CS, in Tokyo Tech, but it turns out they do not help students arrange that, and one needs to make contact with Tokyo Tech professors in advance, get a lot of stuff sorted out on your own, and then I wonder if its really worth it. In other fields, the study abroads may work out better, but for computer science, not so much. I am not remembering the OP’s major…

You will be sadly disappointed in your job prospects if you graduate from GT with a 2.9 GPA and a ton of debt, and a lot of students do exactly that.

One other GaTech study abroad program that College of Computing endorses, is focused on Digital Media, not really CS, and that one is at U of Copenhagen in Denmark. That will work for the CS Media major but not well for the CS threads that are related to mathematical modeling, theoretical computer science, or intelligence threads. So for many of the CS majors, studying in this particular GaTech program in Denmark will set them way behind, if they were to take entire semester to study media and whatever else is offered at U of Copenhagen.

Its fantastic for Zell Miller winners, who can take six years to graduate and still get funded! Its terrible for out of state students who are not rich and cannot afford to go to Barcelona for a summer of play !

So for in state students, study abroad is fantastic and very affordable, as their tuition is way lower and Zell Miller awards can go on for up to seven years! Its truly amazing for Georgia Students. They do need to keep GPA up though to keep their tuition scholarship.

I did a search and came up with a few more programs at GaTech for CS majors,
, some are working or internships and not
study abroad, for CS, in Korea, Switzerland, and China.

You can use this link to search for programs in your major.
However, notice the fine print and look at what classes are offered and
be sure you can graduate in four years, if your parents are only paying for four years of
your GaTech education.

Its not a huge list for computer science, it bigger for other engineering majors though. Good luck!

https://oie.gatech.edu/study-abroad-programs

One other warning about studying at Tokyo Tech, their academic calendar does not line up with GaTech’s so you
have to find a job or find something to do, for part of a semester, to study in Japan at Tokyo Tech, as Tokyo Tech’s semester ends in the middle of a GaTech semester. So you will not graduate in four years, if you study at Tokyo Tech, you will be taking one full year to go there for a semester, and then you will find fill in work as you will miss
the beginning of the semester in Atlanta. It will take 4.5 years, unless you come in with tons of AP credits.

The Zell Miller (for those instate students who qualify for it and are able to maintain the GPA necessary to keep it) covers instate tuition ONLY. Students still pay room, board, lab fees, books, etc. Instate students do NOT attend for free. And there are maximum semester hour limits on the scholarship. After a certain # of semester hours, the scholarship is exhausted.

Georgia’s HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships covers TUITION for 127 attempted hours - Zell Miller at 100% and HOPE at a varying percentage. My daughter is a senior that has kept Zell Miller all 4 years. It’s wonderful and we feel very fortunate to have had this scholarship provided for her. But, her school has not been free. We still pay room/board, fees, books, etc. - which has averaged approximately $13,500 per year. She has lived on campus all 4 years. Again, we feel very lucky and I know this amount seems small for OOS students. I do understand that it’s quite a bargain. I just wanted to clear up any misconceptions. She was able to add a couple of minors and still graduate in 4 years because she started with 30 hours of AP credit. But, many students lose the scholarship because their grades fall below the required minimum (3.3 Zell Miller and 3.0 HOPE) or they exceed the number of hours that the scholarship will cover before completing their degree.

@bogeyorpar Stevens has a very unusual ED committment. You have time once you see aid package to accept or reject, well before you hear from RD schools. Not like any other school we considered.

I agree about comments re: gpa.

But that is a short term issue.
Longer term people drop gpa from their resume.
May have to settle for a less glamorous employer at first, but then again, Stevens does not guarantee As.

@blevine - Isn’t that ED policy on the part of Stevens a service to the applicant? They are giving the applicant time to consider their offer before accepting or declining.

I wanted to mention that Georgia Tech has an active study abroad program and agreement with top notch universities throughout the world. Out-Of-State Tech students pay in-state tuition (plus a few hundred extra) while they study abroad. Georgia Tech even has their own campus in France with all classes taught in English.

For certain majors, its very hard to study abroad and finish in four years. Computer science is one of those majors. Even students with a full year of AP credit will struggle to get everything done. So you have to be AHEAD to study abroad, or it will cost an extra semester of tuition, and its not quite in state tuition, for France, plus the airplane tickets.
For a computer science major, its not a bargain to study abroad. For other majors it may work out. I don’t see the study abroads as a way to save money. We checked into it carefully, and its hard to make it work. The reason is the campus in France offers about 3 classes in CS and if you do not need those, it will not help a student make progress towards a degree program at GaTech. Many CS students take an extra summer in Barcelona, to get ahead but it costs a full extra semester, in state plus the airfare. There are some scholarships to study abroad. Also, the Tokyo Tech program has lost its contact with GaTech. One CS student we know is trying to arrange it himself, and has to make contact with Tokyo Tech professors, who are not responding to him. He is at a loss, and GaTech is not helping him.

Its very hard to complete GaTech degree programs because they require more in subject classes than say a degree at MIT. So if one misses any sequence, say the thermodynamics sequence for chemical engineering, it will cost a full extra year, and you may need to take a spring semester off entirely to get back on track. GaTech is not designed for students who are exploring different majors. Its designed for someone who knows exactly what they want to study. It is a great school, IF the student stays on track, time manages well, and works very very hard. One reason students go abroad, is not to further their educations, but to take a much needed BREAK from the Atlanta campus to avoid burnout.

Engineering and architecture students at GaTech have better options to study abroad than computer science majors.
Look at the course offerings at GaTech in France. Students who are far ahead may benefit. Many students will have to take an extra semester to study in France:
http://lorraine.gatech.edu/spring-2018
Note that summer session is available in France as well. Each session offers a number of engineering, and CS classes, but if the student does not need that class, it will not work out!

In Computer science, students further specialize by choosing two threads, such as modeling, networking, or devices,
and those degrees have specific course requirements.

So in practice GaTech in France, will only work for certain majors, and will cost an OOS student more, typically an extra semester plus airfare.

The program in Hong Kong typically works better for a student who has AP credits, in CS . Its a newer college in a British barracks, but students will meet Korean and Japanese students, if they want to study over there.

I think its good for parents to study the details about study abroad at GaTech. It may work for some students, and if a student wants to study world languages, its a good program. The architecture programs are really very good, I believe.

For computer science, only the Hong Kong program might work for many students, so they are not likely to study abroad, unless its the summer in Barcelona, set up for students to get ahead after freshman year, so it costs extra and
not a discount off the four year price.

For completeness, Hong Kong School of Science and Technology has plenty of CS classes that will count toward a GaTech CS degree in any thread. Those that study computer media, have other options in Europe as well.
https://oie.gatech.edu/content/hong-kong-hkust-exchange-program
http://www.ust.hk/eng/index.htm
There is no need to learn Chinese to attend this university.

Some study abroads, like Tokyo Tech, require two years of Japanese language training.
Tokyo Tech’s academic calendar is on quarters. It does not mesh well with GaTech’s calendar
and you may lose a semester where you will need to work, as you cannot get back to Atlanta in time
for classes.

@Engineer80 It is the most student friendly ED program I saw when look at schools for my 2 sons.
It helps both parties. The school gets early answers from their top choice students, and if the answer is NO,
they can move on to ED2 and RD. The student who is anxious about merit scholarships can see if affordable and make a decision. Theoretically you can back out of ED at any school for financial reasons, but if you are not qualified for finaid based on the calculator and relying on merit, that seems sketchy to turn down based on getting what you expected, zero aid. Nobody is owed merit, but Stevens realizes this is an important consideration and makes it plainly understood. I think it’s just formalizing what people are thinking anyway, just gives clarify to a vague detail at most colleges. Overall I really like Stevens, and they ended up tied for top merit package among one of my kid’s list of schools, but he took the other one (for multiple reasons, but I think Stevens was an excellent option for him).

Hi, I just wanted to let you all know that after financial aid, scholarships, and grants directly from Georgia Tech, I got about 40% of the cost covered. This is much higher than the 15-20% that I was quoted at the Financial Aid department. Although the cost of attendance is still higher than what I would be paying at Stevens, it is a much smaller gap than I originally thought. I have applied for many outside scholarships and will post an update here again once I have the total amount that I will have to be paying for Tech for next year. Thankyou once again for everyone’s input!

We are little lost at how award letter is numbered. COA and different grants, loans doesn’t add up. Also they are using word semester but offering grant for summer 2019, for fall 2018 and Spring 2019 no grants are offered. So its confusion, had left a message for fin aid and waiting to hear back.

We are confused as well. We were offered a 14K grant for Summer. Will be be able to have that for Fall/Spring if he does not go summer?

Most likely it’s just the figure not aligning correctly on the letter. You should see a line beneath: “The total of your awards for the 2018-2019 aid year is:”