Materials: Georgia Tech vs. Penn State Schreyer

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>My son has narrowed his choices to Penn State vs. Georgia Tech for Materials Science and Engineering. At Penn State, he will also be in the Schreyer Honors College. At Georgia Tech, he has signed up for the Grand Challenges program but we don't know much about it. Georgia Tech will cost $15K/yr more but we are willing to fund it if it's worthwhile.</p>

<p>He is not a very competitive person, and somewhat idealistic. Will Georgia Tech be too intense for him? Which curriculum allows him the most opportunities to study abroad? Penn State's Materials program is in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - not College of Engineering. Is that an advantage or disadvantage?</p>

<p>Things most important to him include undergrad research, summer internship, study abroad, student interaction, teacher helpfulness, etc. There is a good chance he will want to pursue a master's degree, if not Ph.D.</p>

<p>Any opinion would be most welcomed.</p>

2

<p>I’ve met a few people from Penn State’s MSE program and they all seemed pretty happy with it. When I was looking at places for grad I noticed they were heavily involved with industry. A good friend of mine from HS did the honors college & engineering dorm at PSU (for aerospace, I believe) and loved his time there.</p>

<p>I also have a labmate who did MSE at GT. He enjoyed it, though I don’t hear him talk about it much.</p>

<p>I think GT has a much more “sink or swim” atmosphere than PSU does.</p>

3

<p>I believe Penn State has a better program in MatSE so I sure wouldn’t pay anything more for your student to go to GT. </p>

<p>The PSU MatSE Department has one of the best facilities on campus now with the Millennium Science Center. </p>

<p>“Penn State’s Materials program is in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - not College of Engineering.” </p>

<p>Nothing to worry about with this…</p>