<p>The shameless bashing of Duke is unnecessary, especially on a thread that has nothing to do with Duke. OP is trying to decide between Georgia Tech and Umichigan- lets keep it there.</p>
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If you adjust for the number of engineering faculty members the schools have in the first place, then Duke does as well as Michigan and Georgia Tech. You can’t understand that Duke focuses on providing a hands-on and intimate engineering experience for its undergrads rather than providing a lot of breadth in its offerings can you? It doesn’t make sense to compare Duke and Rice to Purdue or Michigan.</p>
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Duke is top 10 for undergraduate education and prestige; no one says its neccesarily top 10 at the graduate level in a number of disciplines. Its a good thing most Duke alums go on to Harvard and Stanford for graduate school though…they get the best of both worlds.</p>
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Show me the math…</p>
<p>“The shameless bashing of Duke is unnecessary, especially on a thread that has nothing to do with Duke.”</p>
<p>Perhaps if the Dukie weren’t contstantly recommending other peer schools over Michigan, his alma mater wouldn’t be brought into the conversation.</p>
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Well, Georgia Tech is obviously no MIT or CalTech.</p>
<p>CalTech is almost 100% STEM. I would never recommend anyone to go there for undergrad. It’s a great institution if you want to do your PhD.</p>
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You don’t have to go to schools like Georgia Tech to be “surrounded” by math/science nerds. There are plenty of very smart students in your STEM classes at schools like Berkeley or Michigan. And you have access to the best professors, research, facilities, and career opportunities.</p>
<p>Besides, do you have to be “surrounded” by math/science nerds 100% of the time in college? Do you prefer to go to ball games, parties, concerts, dinner or social events, or engage in social, political or philosophical debates with your fellow math/science nerds?</p>
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Perhaps you are the exception here, but most people would agree that a liberal education is an important part of your college experience.</p>
<p>Besides, how often do college students change major?</p>
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CalTech is definitely not right for 99% of people but if you crave to be around people who are aiming to go into academia in STEM fields and be challenged by the most rigorous coursework possible, then it would be like heaven on earth. CalTech students have fun too-students play pranks on one another and mess around with car parts/machinery. Its a different kind of fun than going to a Michigan Football game but to each his own.</p>
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MIT and CalTech have required Humanities/Writing classes that all students are required to take. The Critical Reading and Writing test scores for their incoming classes far exceed those of any state school, liberal arts college, and perhaps any other private school besides HYP. Believe me when I say you won’t be shortchanged in those classes at MIT/CalTech that are non-STEM…the education will be just as good since the students are brilliant.</p>
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Liberal Arts majors at Berkeley, Michigan, and Georgia Tech will find themselves in am equally difficult position employment-wise as their Engineering/Business students will gobble up a lot of the premier jobs. That’s the peril of attending a school with a renowned Undergraduate Business School and a large, established Engineering program.</p>
<p>Everyone…Thanks for all the great info. GT and Mich turn out to be pretty much the same cost for me since I have some VA dependent benefits. Both schools looked great, but in the engineering field only BME really interests me, with a goal of going on to graduate school to do BME research or try for medical school. Cons are that GT seems very engineering structured, maybe an issue for me…and Michigan is really cold.</p>
<p>Since this thread is already off-topic I’ve always wondered why schools with the strongest GPA and SAT/ACT student body pools don’t always have the best engineering programs. </p>
<p>For example, Princeton is #10 and UPenn unranked for Engineering is USNews which is lower than GTech, UMich, UIUC, Purdue, and UCB. I mean it doesn’t sound look like there is really a considerable difference, but I would still assume that Princeton and UPenn would be higher than those 5. Especially when there is a fair amount of difference between the strength of the student bodies in those Ivies vs. Top Publics. I predicted that this would allow the instructors to cover more material thoroughly at a faster pace. Also all 5 Publics quite a bit larger in population size, so UPenn and Princeton have a better faculty:student ratio.</p>
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To be fair Mich and GTech Engineering Schools are like 5times larger than Duke’s 1200 Pratt</p>
<p>Contrary to what some have claimed, GT is not better in Engineering than Michigan. Being ranked 3 or 4 spots higher does not make a program better. According to the latest rankings, GT is #5 overall and #2 in BME, while Michigan is #7 overall and #6 in BME. In other words, they are identical in quality. One should focus more on the intangibles when choosing between those top 10 Engineering schools.</p>
<p>ForeverAlone, go down the list of schools with the largest number of NAE members on faculty… it follows USNews engineering ranking almost exactly. As it probably should since engineering academics are being polled about which programs are most distinguished… ones with highest amount of faculty distinction makes the program distinct in research faculties eyes.</p>
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There is a BIG difference taking your poetry classes with non-English majors, philosophy classes with non-philosophy majors, history of arts classes with non-Art majors, etc. Worst, you will be taking those classes with all engineers!</p>
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What liberal arts majors? You mean the 0.78% psychology major, the 1.73% social science major, the 0.03% language/literature major, or the 0.92% history major?</p>
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Only if they are looking for IB, management consulting, or premier engineering jobs. There are many equally successful and meaningful careers in other industries.</p>
<p>You have a good problem OP-two great school for BME!</p>
<p>Yes, Georgia is ranked slightly higher. Does that translate into a slightly stronger BME program? That’s debatable, and truthfully known of us can say it does or doesn’t with certainty. What I can say is that both will provide you an excellent education and it would be far wiser to make your decision based on other factors- social environment, campus setting, location, weather, extracurricular interests, overal fit, ect.</p>
<p>One big difference is location. Umichigan is in Ann Arbor, a small/medium sized college town, while GIT is in a more urban environment, Atlanta. Would you rather be in a college town or be in a more urban setting?</p>
<p>GoBlue, it should be noted that LSA and the CoE do not usually attract students keen on careers in IBanking. You may have a few Econ majors and IOE majors interested in IBanking, but those will not be many in number. Most qualified LSA students interested in IBanking will also be enrolled at Ross.</p>
<p>Consulting firms (especially McKinsey and Bain, but also BCG and Booz) actually recruit as many LSA and CoE students as Ross students. According to someone I know who works at McKinsey (senior HR), the firm hired 11 Michigan undergrads (only 4 were from Ross) in 2012, 10 Michigan undergrads (only 3 from Ross) in 2011 and 8 (2 from Ross) in 2010 and a whopping 14 (only 5 from Ross) in 2009. Although I do not have data, I am fairly certain that Bain hires a similar number of Michigan undergrads. BCG and Booz traditionally hire fewer, but not by much. Altogether, those 4 firms likely hire 30-35 undergrads from Michigan annually, and only 30%-40% will be from Ross. The same cannot be said of Ibanking, where a good 80% of undergrads hired from Michigan will be Ross students.</p>