<p>I'm having a bit of trouble trying to decide on which college to attend for next year. Even though umn has a higher rank in ChemE than gatech, it has very cold winters and is much farther away from my state, Florida. From what I've gathered, the cost isn't much different during the initial years, but if I gain residency, gatech will end up being less expensive (umn's COA is almost the same for resident students). </p>
<p>At the moment, I don't have any financial aid besides student loans, since I am working full-time. This will change when I transfer (I'll be going to school full-time; part-time work or none at all), but I don't know how much to expect from finaid. </p>
<p>I had a bad start in college, quit, but then returned a few years later, so I was only able to raise my gpa to a 3.5. </p>
<p>Simple question: In your opinion, which of the above colleges would make a better choice for studying chemical engineering? </p>
<p>Reasons for choosing a college (in no particular order):
1. Co-ops
2. Education
3. Networking
4. Cost</p>
<p>For undergrad, the overall engineering ranking is more important than the program ranking. Companies will come to GT to hire a group of engineering types (e.g. ME, EE, and ChE) and not one major.</p>
<p>As far as residency is concerned, don’t expect it from GT. Once you start in any Georgia public college, you cannot change your residency classification unless: 1) you work in Georgia for 12 consecutive months without attending college, 2) you marry a Georgia resident, or 3) you are a dependent and your parents are reclassified as Georgia residents. It’s not as simple as moving to GT, getting a GA driver’s license, then applying as in-state your second year. If that was the case, everyone at GT would be in-state after their freshman year (and keep in mind that in-state students get free college if their GPA is high enough).</p>
<p>As far as co-op programs go, I’ve worked with both departments and while UMN has a reasonable program, GT has one of the best in the country. The GT program is literally the model for most schools around the country and has an extremely high placement. If your GPA is above 3.0 and you interview at least reasonably well, you’ll probably see 10 or so offers.</p>
<p>Ga Tech hands down.
The overall engineering reputation is probably more important at the undergraduate level than the specific department ranking.</p>
<p>Getting information about the number of recruiters who visited both universities to recruit Chem Engineers would help make an informed decision. The career placement office at both the schools should be able to provide the following info. For 2009-2010 year & for each school for ChemEs, you can get a good idea from:</p>
<ol>
<li># of recruiters at each school</li>
<li># of interviews held & # of offers made</li>
<li>Avg. $ value of offers for fresh graduates</li>
<li>Of the number of offers, how many had co-op experience.</li>
<li># of annual Co-Ops offered by each ChemE dept.</li>
<li>Which functional area of ChemE are being recruited?(Production/QA, design, consulting, marketing, … etc.)</li>
<li>Which major industries came looking?</li>
</ol>
<p>I will be moving to GA with my spouse. As I will be attending school full-time (maybe working part-time, if possible), my spouse will be working full-time. Would the Economic Advantage waiver apply to us?</p>
<p>==============================================
Economic Advantage.
As of the first day of classes for the term, an economic advantage waiver may be granted to a U.S. citizen or U.S. legal permanent resident who is a dependent or independent student and can provide clear evidence that the student or the student’s parent, spouse, or U.S. court-appointed legal guardian has relocated to the State of Georgia to accept full-time, self-sustaining employment and has established domicile in the State of Georgia. Relocation to the state must be for reasons other than enrolling in an institution of higher education. For U.S. citizens or U.S. legal permanent residents, this waiver will expire 12 months from the date the waiver was granted.</p>
<p>As of the first day of classes for the term, an economic advantage waiver may be granted to an independent non-citizen possessing a valid employment-related visa status who can provide clear evidence of having relocated to the State of Georgia to accept fulltime, self-sustaining employment. Relocation to the state must be for employment reasons and not for the purpose of required to show clear evidence of having taken all legally permissible steps toward establishing legal permanent residence in the United States and the establishment of legal domicile in the State of Georgia. Independent non-citizen students may continue to receive this waiver as long as they maintain a valid employment-related visa status and can demonstrate continued efforts to establish U.S. legal permanent residence and legal domicile in the State of Georgia. </p>
<p>GA Tech is an awesome school for ChemE, and engineering for that matter. If those are your choices I don’t think you can go wrong and would pick the one that suits you best for other reasons other than ranking.</p>
<p>As far as I know, as long as your wife has established residency that should be fine. However, I am not sure how long it takes your wife to establish residency (for example, their form asks for your spouse’s previous year GA-500 tax return, which she may not have).</p>
<p>To verify, call the Registrar and ask to speak to someone about Residency Classification, then tell them the exact situation. Do that ASAP. In addition to telling you if you qualify, they should tell you what forms / paperwork / etc is required to get the waiver approved. GT Office of the Registrar: 404-894-4150</p>
<p>If you can go to GT for in-state tuition or free, it’s hands-down a better option than out-of-state UMN (and I would say the same thing about UMN if it was free).</p>
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<p>You can try, but you’ll probably not get everything that Trinity mentioned. For example, I highly doubt they’ll know the area of ChE that’s being hired. Also, you have to be careful with some stats. For example, GT only shows a 55% placement rate for ChE graduates in Fall 2010, but that’s because most of the “unemployed” graduates are going to grad school. Some schools will remove those students from their stats, and some leave them in, so you need to ask.</p>
<p>Good News: I spoke with the Registrar’s Office and they told me that she should qualify. </p>
<p>I read over the waiver, and it only requests from the independent student the items below:</p>
<p>a.Employment information on company letterhead verifying fulltime employment and start date;
b.Copy of Georgia Driver’s License;
c.Copy of lease or warranty deed;
f.Permanent Resident Card (if applicable);</p>
<p>As far as residency, I believe we will need to change both of our license, voter’s registration, and vehicle registration. I don’t think I’m missing anything else. </p>