Is Georgia Tech worth out of state tuition? Need advice

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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Keep in mind that many students take 5 years to graduate from Tech because they take advantage of co-op opportunities. Getting paid for three semesters of co-op can offset out-of-state tuition substantially plus you graduate with actual work experience.

Any engineering or computer science major will have to work hard at any school. As @Rdtsmith‌ said, dig deeper. We talked to a number of current students while visiting Tech (random kids - not student ambassadors) and they all felt that, yeah, it is difficult but the school offers numerous opportunities for kids to get help. The concensus was that if you keep up with your classes and take advantage of tutoring, office hours, and whatever you need, you’ll succeed. One kid actually said, “If you don’t do well with all the help they offer then it is probably on you and not the school.” We’ve found the Tech subreddit to be extremely informative, too. Students post questions about profs and classes all the time and it looks like the majority do NOT grade on a curve. The student my son stayed with for a weekend joked that while other schools are famous for grade INflation through curves, Tech is famous for grade DEflation. And Tech admitted 40% females this year so the gender gap is narrowing!

We visited UIUC and were impressed with their program and the students but it didn’t feel like the right fit for DS. He has chosen Tech over UIUC and UT-Austin for a number of reasons. You really do need to look at the programs plus all the extras that are important to you and your student. I don’t think anyone can decide for you if OOS tuition is worth it - it all depends on what you feel is worth your money.

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Not to be forgotten is that you get instate tuition for study abroad and Tech has their own campus in Lorraine France which offers engineering and math classes all three semesters. That might also be why some take longer to graduate. I will mention again, I know at least three people in industry who hire actively in the southeast. One is from Jacobs Engineering and the other two are from different divisions in Lockheed Martin. Number one choice for hires is GT and second is UF. Auburn is a distant third and sadly, UA is not as frequently mentioned. This is specific to Aerospace, electrical engineering and computer science. They actually like UCF for the optics and photonics specialty but that is a very specific field.

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@apccpa sorry but what you’ve said about paying tuition for an extra year is simply not true. Tech students don’t pay tuition for the terms that they co-op and ALL CLASSES are taught by professors. I don’t know about the other stuff, but, as with any college, the classes become smaller as your major becomes more specialized. All colleges have large freshmen classes.

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I’m very glad to have gotten all this feedback,whether pro or con. Parents — you are all investing amazing thought and energy into your children’s futures. We don’t always get appreciated for these efforts.

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I just quoted from the 2015 Fiske College Guide @IamStruggling and included the 4 year graduation rate from collegeprofile.com that supports what Fiske reported. I can also add that I have a friend who sent his son to Georgia Tech that ended up transferring to University of Florida because of issues pointed out by Fiske. Also, my understanding is that it isn’t the coop, but difficulty in getting required classes, that makes it difficult to graduate in 4 years from Georgia Tech.
Again, I’m not saying that makes Georgia Tech a bad school. You just have to make sure that it is the right school for you.

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@apccpa I quoted from the Georgia tech admitted students info session.

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Just to compare - in 2012 UT Austin College of Engineering had a 31% 4-year graduation rate and 54% took 6 years. And they don’t offer co-ops (a 3 semester commitment), only internships (usually over the summer). If you look closely at most respected engineering or computer science schools they will have similar numbers regarding 4 year graduation. We actually spoke to a few “5th year” students at Tech while visiting and they all had done co-op (and had jobs waiting for them upon graduation in May).

The bottom line is, not all schools fit all students. As @jerseymomof4 already said, kudos to all of you for researching and asking questions. I do think we all need to be careful to keep statistics in perspective of contributing factors such as co-ops, study abroad, students who struggle, etc.

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My son just graduated from GaTech and my younger son is going there in the fall. The older one says if you got in and you work, don’t skip classes go seek help when you need to, you will get out on time unless you switch your major late in the game. He was president of his fraternity and loved GaTech. He cooped and also did an internship so he had 4 semesters of work experience and delayed his graduation on purpose to do the internship. The culture is such that everyone does internships, research, or study abroad. If you don’t people wonder what you are doing with yourself. Don’t underestimate the power of that- these students are prepared for the workforce well when they graduate, but have fun along the way. It’s a great place.

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@m7221, my understanding from the info session is that students that do co ops have to do all three at the same company. What if the student doesn’t like that company? Can they change or get out of extra co ops? congrats to the grad!

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We talked to an AE major who did change his co-op. He started out with Delta in Atlanta but the job wasn’t what he needed to be doing. He was able to switch to Boeing for the last two co-op sessions and I believe was offered employment there on graduation. He said that switching doesn’t happen very often but it can be done.

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Just as a data point for you…my UA son (computer science) is interning with Lockheed Martin this summer.

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“Also, my understanding is that it isn’t the coop, but difficulty in getting required classes, that makes it difficult to graduate in 4 years from Georgia Tech.”

DS is an EE major. So far he hasn’t had any problems getting into the classes he needs. maybe not the time/days that he wants them but that is a different issue…

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Idk if this will help anyone but here’s my situation. I was accepted OOS to GT BME, but I ultimately chose UCONN over GT simply because of cost. This was the hardest decision I ever had to make, but remember…just because you start at a college doesn’t mean you have to finish there. I’m starting off a UCONN because my parents can’t afford to send me to GT right now, but I will do everything in my power to get a really high GPA and transfer to Tech. The point of this: if your worried about cost, start off a less expensive school (like your state flagship) and transfer to GT because either way you’re still getting the same degree as someone who spent all four years at Georgia Tech.

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That’s very good thinking and I hope you like UCONN and are successful there until you transfer.

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We are faced with the same dilemma for our D. We are from IL, my D didn’t get her first choice CS at UIUC. She was accepted to her 2nd choice of EE (at UIUC, if you chose CS as the 1st choice, you can’t choose CE or BME as the 2nd choice). We have been told that she can easily switch to CE once enrolled since both EE and CE are in the same ECE department, but switching to CS is almost impossible (this year only 2 students with a 4.0 were allowed to switch). My D simply doesn’t want to do EE. She absolutely wants to do CS, so much so that she doesn’t want to accept CE as a reasonable alternative to CS. We visited GT and liked the campus, the fact they have a college dedicated to computing and everything about their CS program, but the single most deterrent is the distance. Cost (OOS GT is 10K more per year compared to instate UIUC) is a factor but not enough to not consider GT. If we had UIUC CS, it is a no-brainer, geography+cost+ the fact both schools are pretty much similar when it comes to Engg and especially CS would have made us commit a while ago. We also love UIUC campus and college of engineering in spite of the location and weather. Weather and location are extremely small factors (i.e. we would be happy if these are great having decided the college after all primary factors, but not something that would influence our decision). My D didn’t get North Western, we would have committed in a heartbeat if she had been accepted at a comparable cost (sticker price of NU is not something we could have afforded), so this should indicate how important distance is for us even though NU’s engg and CS doesn’t compare anywhere near (NU is 45 minutes from our home).

As we are getting closer to the decision date, it is making us nervous and this is perhaps the single most hard decision we would have had to make in our lives, it seems like. We have been breaking our heads for the past 3-4 weeks trying to decide but we have agreed to not delaying our decision past this coming weekend.

At this point, my D is leaning strongly towards GT but UIUC hasn’t been ruled out yet (90/10 GT to UIUC). I am usually a decisive person and go with my intuition and under most other situations I would have given my blessing but weirdly this has been difficult. I know it is ultimately my D’s decision but as parents we are helping her make the right decision and as a good kid, she is considering our input (and also possibly because I am paying 100% of her college costs :-))

Any thoughts, any one going to GT from OOS has any perspectives?

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@cmd7131 - You should post this on GT’s reddit page. There maybe kids on there that are from IL and can give some insight.

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Hello, I am in same situation as most of you for my daughter. She has been accepted for BME undergraduate as an OOS with no aid. She has 100% scholarship at Univesity of Texas at Dallas and no aid at UT Austin. I am good decision maker, but it is proving that very difficult for me to help my daughter take right decision. I want her to study at GT, but logically doesn’t make sense to pay close to 180K for undergraduate. I am explaining her that if she goes to UT Dallas, she can have these money for her masters and/or to buy assets like a car or house when she is in the field. As such she will not have to take any loans if she decides to goto GT as I will be paying all, but thinking that will it be worth if someone have to take a loan and study there. I agree that GT can give you extra opportunities and possibly enable you to find a job quicker, but is it worth of paying 180K. I think that she would be far better off GT graduate who took then loan and have no savings left when you jump into field vs. if someone saves approx. 150K and not have to pay loan. My daughter is convinced some and thinking of UT Austin where I have to pay approx. 100K. I am discussing with her to explore option of doing 2 years of almost free study at UT Dallas and then take transfer to college like GT. Any suggestions? Do you guys know if GT provides credit of Biomedical major related courses done at other school especially UT Dallas. Thanks in advance.

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You can look up individual classes that would transfer here: But I don’t see any BME classes listed for UT Dallas

https://oscar.gatech.edu/pls/bprod/wwsktrna.P_find_state

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@dtharwala https://oscar.gatech.edu/pls/bprod/wwsktrna.P_find_state ; this is a date base GT has for all universities and what credits will transfer. Follow the instructions and see if UT Dallas credits will transfer

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I actually created an account just to reply to you as we are from IL and were facing the exact same situation last year.

My son’s 1st choice was UIUC CS in COE but was offered Math/CS LAC instead. Although he is good in Math, he absolutely hated the thought of having half of his time in school doing Math. So GT became a real consideration for him. Our initial concern too was the distance, then the safety. Price tag, like you said, about $10K is not a big factor.

He is almost done with his freshman year in GT, so this is what I can say:

Campus/dorm is easily accessible with Marta($2.50) and trolley(free) running frequently to and from the airport. Our son flies back and forth easily with us waiting at the midway airport. When we travel there, we actually do not need to rent a car if we stay around GT. The only time we will need a car is moving in/out time. We drove for 11+hours last summer and it wasn’t that bad. Since campus/dorm is so accessible, ie. you can almost hop in and out to places without having to roam around that much, the safety concern is reduced somewhat, though we still constantly remind him to be careful all the time.

GT CS students choose any 2 threads out of 8 based on their interest. The scope of these threads cover students of all sorts, from Media(artistic/liberal) to hardware like Systems or Artificial intelligence(some engineering) to Math oriented Theory thread. It is a great program with a lot of flexibility. All freshmen have to take a class called Freshman Leap where these threads are introduced to them before they declare their interested major/threads. This class also guide them on how to write their resume, how to do interview, how to dress for interview. (The internship/coop is big in the CS department, 2 events plus multiple online ones). We really liked that. As far as I know from other parents, UIUC does not have such attention/requirement.

GT is very generous in transferring of credits, be it AP/IB/dual enrollment/college credits. My son transferred a whole lot of credits and now even though he is still a freshman, he will start fall as a Junior. So, technically he could graduate in 3 years, though our hope is he takes some time doing internship/coop or undergrad research. To add to that, he may apply for the fasttrack Master program, that will safe him another one year.

He is so far enjoying all his CS classes. The professors he had were very caring and great. He can’t wait to jump right into all his computer classes in fall.

So for us, we definitely feel he chose the right one.