Is Georgia Tech worth out of state tuition? Need advice

Sorry, I’m new here. The above thread is a reply to cmd7131.

@cmd7131- While we are not OOS, DS is finishing up his second year. He has been involved in research at GT. He starts a co-op this summer. The co-op money he will make will pay for his housing at GT. He is not a a CS major but there are a lot of CS co-ops. When GT states that students can do research and co-ops they are telling the truth. Your D could make up the 10K difference in the tuition price with co-ops.

@MichiganGeorgia- How long are co ops and I thought they were only during fall and winter semesters and internships were in summer. Could you please clarify since my son will be starting this fall and with high costs he really needs some ways to help out. Also isn’t it true that the co ops have to be at the same company?

@jerseymomof4 - Co-ops start any semester. For example DS is starting his this summer then he will go to school in the fall,work in the spring, go to school in the summer, work fall ,school spring.With Co-ops you are supposed to work at least 3 rotations with the same company. The company is committing to the student to hire them for 3 semesters and the student is committing to work 3 semesters. If the co-op really isn’t a fit for the student then they can back out although I would not go into a co-op thinking that. If a student doesn’t like the co-op idea they can find internships which are just 1 semester. Internships can also be at other times than summer. To me as a mom the down side of internships is that the student has to keep finding new internships and there isn’t the guarantee that you will be able to find one every other semester although for students that want to try different companies or don’t want to rotate every other semester then it can work out well.

If your student has his act together right when they get to GT they can possibly end up with a co-op in the spring of their first year. Some of DS’s friends did. However it’s more likely the first co-op will be after they have been there 2 semesters or more. Mostly because they have put in the effort, to go to the co-op fairs and apply for jobs and given they are just starting college it may be too over welhming. DS really didn’t start looking for a co-op until this semester although he has been doing research. It is very important that your son keeps his GPA above at least a 3.0. While I have seen co-op posting for a lower GPA it seems that 3.0 is the big cutoff. Also some big companies want 3.5 or higher.

Thanks! that was very helpful. How does your son like Tech?

My kid is OOS and we’re really struggling with this as well…its come down to BU, Northeastern, and GT. And some days UNC-Chapel Hill. And Tufts. We’re a mess. LOL . I do think it will be Tech…its higher than our state option, of course, but with the aid, its running a bit cheaper than the others (and a lot cheaper than Tufts). But i agree that it is a very very hard decision.

And i think the question is a bigger one – that is, is School X-OOS worth the difference from School X-IS. it’s truly hard to know.

He likes it. He thinks it was the right decision to go there.The classes are tough but I know he has fun too. However we only live maybe 45 minutes away. He can come home to visit if he wants(although he doesn’t very often. lol). DH works downtown. So if I want to drop anything off DH can easily do it. He rooms with one of his best friends from high school. So he is in a different situation than an OOS student. However his girl friend is from OOS and she loves GT too. She does have a car though ( he doesn’t) and I think she uses it to get around Atlanta and also while she usually flies to go home there have been times when she has driven. I personally don’t want him to have one because of the expense but I can see where it could be useful.

You are lucky to be in state! I wonder if there is storage for OOS students. Since his girlfriend is ,would you know anything about what she does with her stuff after semesters. We will be unable to do much from New Jersey!

She does research at GT in the summers so she doesn’t have to move stuff home. However there are a couple storage companies that kids pack their stuff in boxes that are provided. The companies come and pick up the boxes and then deliver them in the fall. I’m not sure of the prices though. If your DS gets a co-op or internship near GT he could stay on campus for the summer.

OK thanks. another question for you is whether kids have bikes on campus? is there room somewhere for them?

I have an OOS freshman so to respond to a few questions raised by the latest posts:

  1. Yes, kids have bikes on campus and can be a great resource for getting to classes a bit further away. A bike also give the student a bit of freedom for going to other places near campus. We shipped our D's bike from home since it was still in great condition. Intown Bikes near campus and Piedmont Park was great at putting it back together. Plus they outfitted it with important safety lights and tools. I found them the most reasonable priced out of the three bike shops I checked near campus (Woodies which has wonderful philly cheese steak sandwiches nearby and they also carry King of Pop Popsicles which are a must for any Tech student).
  2. Most dorms have a bike room right by the door of the dorm. My D stores her bike there and it is easy access. Plus there are bike rack right outside a lot of dorms. During the breaks the students move their bikes to their dorm room. Students have to be careful not to lock their bikes because dorm staff will cut the lock and remove the bike. There is an on campus "bike shop" and at the beginning of every semester they sell all the confiscated bikes to students. It is a very cheap way of getting a bike.
  3. The transportation department has about 30 bikes they rent to students every semester for $25. It is a first come first serve basis. Around 20 days before the semester a student signs up and on the first day of the semester the lucky students are notified to pick up the bike at the transporation office. My D got one but then changed her mind so we brought her bike out during family weekend.
  4. Uncle Bob's on the west side of campus and Public Storage by North Avenue are two places students rent storage for the summer. My D got a 5x5 for $51 a month. She is splitting it with a friend from Tech. I had a lot of extra points so I am flying out next week to help her pack up and move her things to the storage. My D doesn't have a car but our back up plan was to have her rent from ZipCar (an on campus rental car for students). Since my D is going abroad this summer I don't mind the few extra days I get to see her.
  5. Other students are using companies like dorm movers. My D received emails from three companies which supply boxes and then pick up and store the boxes for the students over the summer. We did not go that option because when we priced out my D's things it was going to cost about $650 (bike and trunk alone were $200). For students with less things this is a good option. Students who are in the greek system might be able to rent basement storage spots for their things over the summer.
  6. Here is how we make Tech "affordable" for our family especially since Tech was one of the few colleges that did not give my D much in scholarships (a small alumni club scholarship which we really appreciated). Normally I know that private scholarships are hard to come by but my D got one in December of her senior year so I told her she had to get at least $10K to make Tech affordable for us. She applied to about 9 of them and got 7 which amounted to $14K. The deadlines were Dec. to March of her senior year. She is almost done for her freshman year with the scholarship applications and so far has received $3K Yeah. The Women In Engineering Dept. at Tech has some merit scholarships for rising freshman to seniors so every little bit helps. Corporations fund these scholarships so the extra helps is appreciated. Especially in STEM there are a lot of private scholarships. Her brother applied to five private scholarships and got none of them (he was liberal arts) but fortunately he received a full merit ride from Ohio State so college was basically free for him.

Since OOS students pay in state my D is going abroad this summer with Tech. I am paying $9K total for tuition (only $300 a unit), her program fees, airfare, room, some excursions and some meals. My D will be taking three classes in her major and these classes will put her ahead for the fall semester. Many Tech students go abroad freshman summer, fall or spring sophomore semesters because that rotation allows them to still do co-ops. Going abroad saves me $11K. My D is hoping to do one more abroad semester.

Salaries average between $15K to $20K per co-op semester. Most out of state co-ops will pay for student housing and shipping their car to them. My D will do the three semesters of co-op she knows that a lot of her income will have to go to paying the following semester’s tuition. She is okay with that because she loves Tech. I probably will do a 75/25 split so she can keep some of the money she earns. I still am saving for her college and set aside money each month so with the combination of all of the above has made Tech affordable for us. We were use to paying around $25K a year in tuition so that was my limit for college. Still a stretch for us but since we are use to paying for it that was our college limit despite having a $53K EFC (my mom lives in our rental so that drives our EFC high but obviously we can’t make nana homeless).

Other cost savings methods we use - get a Southwest credit card. If you charge $2K in the first three months and pay it off, it gives 50K in points which is good for at least two round trip plane tickets from the west coast. Plus Southwest does not charge for baggage and changes are very easy. Our car insurance went down by half because D is listed as a student away at college. Our food and utility bill definitely went down when each child went away to school. I send my D a monthly allowance and she has about 65% saved. She tells me that she would spend it if she wanted to but there is no need. A ton of organizations host events and a ton of corporations sponsor events at Tech so there is always something free going on at campus. My D engages in all kinds of social activities and finds she doesn’t have to spend her entire monthly allowance. For cold weather clothes we have a North Face outlet in our sunny community so I really scored on low cost items.

I am not an advocate for loans and neither of my children will graduate with any. If having your child attend Tech will be a constant stressor for the family, where lots of loans will have to be taken out then I do not believe Tech is affordable for you. Yes I find Tech has opened a ton of doors for my D and I am amazed at the companies seeking her out. One word of advice, getting great grades freshman year has helped my D a lot with opportunities. Although Tech is hard, doing it the right way with attending all classes, seeking professors during office hours, doing homework, attending extra tutoring sessions etc. really can help a student get great grades. The avg. gpa in my D’[s dorm is around a 3.5. In fact my D’s grades are higher than they were for her in high school so Tech can’t be all that bad after all. However if your child was good enough to be accepted to Tech than they have what it takes to be successful at any other college. College has gotten so expensive so don’t do anything foolish like graduate with $100K in loans that you will graduate. I am immensely jealous of Georgia residents who have that wonderful scholarship and I know they take a risk at Tech since it can kill some gpas, but my home state of California offers practically nothing to middle class families for college. It actually is cheaper for our D to go to Tech than a UC. Plus she gets smaller class sizes and campuses where there are no impacted major or inflexibilty in changing majors.

Sorry for such a long post but I thought I could answer some of the questions asked. Good luck.

Sorry, it would not let me edit, the bike shop is across from the park (The flying biscuit is on the way so that is a good place to stop on your way to the bike shop- yum) Back door of the dorm but inside the building for storage of bikes. lock their bikes to public spaces inside the dorm. semester starts is when you sign up for the bike. https://pts.gatech.edu/Alternative_Transportation/Pages/BuzzBike.aspx Out of state students pay in state tuition when they go abroad on any of the 125 programs offered by Tech. Should have read you will regret graduating with $100K in loans.

Sorry for the above grammar and comprehension errors. I must have taken too long to post because it would not let me edit. Any how I hope the above is helpful.

This thread has been really useful!

I’m in the same situation, I live in Missouri and could go to Mizzou for nothing (paid even) but I’m really leaning towards Gatech. Not to say Mizzou’s engineering program won’t get me towards a stable engineering career - from what I’ve seen from my visit, it definitely can - it just pales in comparison to Gatech in engineering reputation.

I also plan on going to grad school afterwards (I know engineers don’t generally do that because it’s not really necessary in the field, but I’m planning on doing it anyways lol), and I feel like Gatech will be more likely to open bigger doors for me than Mizzou (though my parents don’t quite agree with this…)

I know it’s ultimately my choice, but I know my parents are pulling for Mizzou. More than just price, I’d be hard pressed to visit often and going to Gatech would be much more challenging.

Any more insight that can be offered (maybe future graduate prospects or how helpful the financial aid/advising offices are with finding scholarships?) is greatly appreciated!

We visited Tech for Gold Carpet Day and talked to kids from our home high school. It definitely seems a theme that kids stay at Tech (or do Tech-related things, abroad, intern, etc.) over the summer. Since there are 2 semesters plus summer, does that mean that there will be even more tuition in actuality than the Cost of Attendance (adding summer semester?). Or, does this even out b/c Coop semesters cost less. We are being asked to pay full freight OOS. I’m just trying to understand the real meaning of what I’m being asked to pay. IS engineering school costs 1/2 as much and just trying to fully understand the cost difference.

@itsv There is no need to apologize for long and informative posts. Thanks for the info.

I’m from Kansas and could go to Wichita state for free or KU for like $10k a year because of NMF, but I’m heavily leaning towards GT in these last couple of weeks. Great opportunities and co-op program is one of the best. I just feel like it will give me so many more connections than a state school.
That being said, my dad doesn’t want me to go OOS due to cost, but we’ll see what happens

@Skrunch While a student registers for 12 credit hours when they do Co-op/internship semesters you don’t pay any tuition. The only cost for those semesters would be if the company you are working for doesn’t pay for housing.

@Jerseymomof4 - On the bike issue. DS thought he would need to bring his bike however I asked him to wait to see. He decided he didn’t need it. His 3 room mates this year didn’t have one. They lived in the graduate living center and had a hike to classes. His GF is on the west side and she doesn’t have a bike either. So I think it depends on the student with regard to a bike.

I would not count on 15K to 20K per semester on co-ops. The hourly wage is going to depend on your major and where you are co-oping. On reddit the students have posted that in Atlanta the hourly wage is usually somewhere between $18 - $23 / per hour plus over time. So for a 16 week semester with no over time that is between $11,520 - $14,720. CS majors are generally higher and obviously if you can land a co-op at Microsoft or someplace like that its going to be a lot higher than that. But if I needed to count on a co-op to make GT work I would use the $18/ hour estimate to be safe.

One more thing on storage for the summer. I think a number of kids do this. DS has an international friend. He didn’t have a ton of stuff that needed to be stored. About five bags of clothes/bedding and 3 boxes of other stuff. So we just stored it here in DS’s bedroom. Anyway I would bet that there are a number of students who ask their friends to store their stuff if the friends parents live close or the friend is staying on campus for the summer.

Last year my twin sons were in the same place as yours is now. They were accepted to 6 engineering programs in flagship universities. Although we live in Georgia, their scholarships from several of the other schools made their final choice mostly independent of the economic issues. GT was their 3rd choice, but circumstances intervened and they have been at GT this year. We all are happy with how things worked out.

Here are some things I learned from their admissions ordeal:

  1. The education you will obtain from any quality engineering program will do you well to succeed in life. Just be thankful your son doesn’t want to major in medieval philosophy. In that case there may only be one or two schools that will prepare him for a chance to get into the top graduate school he will need in order to compete for the 5 job openings available in the US when he graduates. Fortunately that is not the case in engineering. A bachelors degree in engineering will start you at the same income level as many in other fields with graduate degrees.

On the other hand:

  1. The opportunities and resources available at GT dwarf those at almost all other engineering programs. They should, given that GT has several times the enrollment of other schools. (My PhD physicist sister said ,“GT is MIT without Nobel Prize winners”, my sons replied,“GT is MIT with a football team”). This was important to them, because they both play in the GT marching band. I was relieved when the band director told us that his program is based on the reality that band was an extra curricular activity at an academically demanding school. That was not the attitude at the other schools we visited.

One thing that is an amazing resource at GT is the Invention Studio. MIT sent a delegation this year to find out about it, it is so unique. This is a student initiated and led facility freely available to students to work on projects. My sons can hardly wait to get their hands on the millions of dollars of high tech equipment that they can use on their own, after training from other students. At one school we were told that after a student was checked out on a lathe they were free to use it during the hours when one of the supervising technicians was in the shop. GT expects students to be safe and responsible adults, and trusts them to be so.

3} The horror stories about I and my sons I read on this web site are exaggerated. 94% of GT freshman survive to enroll as sophomores. My sons were top students at a good but not outstanding suburban public high school. They have had to struggle mightily this year. The competition at GT is not of the cut throat, climb the ladder over the bodies type. It is the battle to get all of the work done. GT is not a good fit for students who are still finding themselves or not motivated to work harder than they ever have before. But this experience is what instills the work ethic that makes GT graduates be in demand.

  1. GT has many outstanding learning programs that enrich and nurture students starting as freshmen. Yes, it is a major research university, but educational opportunities for undergraduates are valued as well. My sons have participated in the Challenge and the Grand Challenges programs. The Challenge program is a 5 week summer experience to prepare students for their freshman year. (It is described as “boot camp for GT”.) It is sponsored by the Office for Minority Educational Development (OMED) but is open to all races. It was the best $500 tuition investment (each) I ever made. Applications were accepted last year until June.

The Grand Challenges is a living-learning community which focuses on leadership development through team problem solving projects. This year there have been 1100+ applications for 110 slots. But do not despair.The application states that GPA and SAT are not a consideration, seeing that all students have stellar scores and grades at GT. Selection is based on creativity and leadership potential. Cost= $300 extra per term. (We asked at one flagship school about the accessibility of 3D printers to undergraduates, and were told that if they joined a professor’s research team they might get to use his/hers. In the Grand Challenges dorm there are two 3D printers for student use ! The companies nurtured in the GT business incubator now add $1 billion to the Georgia economy. Grand Challenges is one of the first steps on this ladder for aspiring entrepreneurs.

  1. GT is located in the center of Atlanta. I was surprised when my sons told me this was one of the best things about GT, since they have lived in the area all of their lives. They have taken MARTA to the symphony, the theater, and the SE auto show and the Civil Rights Museum. They have eaten at unique restaurants and gone river rafting. They have gone on tours of Fortune 500 companies. Their world is much larger than a year ago, and they have done it all within Atlanta city limits. I didn’t know that there are over 20 professional music production studios

So – Don’t impoverish yourselves or your son to send him to GT. But, if you can afford it, he has been accepted to one of the top 10 best engineering schools in the world. It would give him the best of foundations for his career. My sons are now glad that their two top choices did not pan out, even with the work load and the lousy food in the cafeteria.