It’s not about the school it’s about you!
Hers how I see it based on how accomplished you are in college.
GT top vs PSU honors top students = tie
GT middle of the pack vs PSU top = PSU
GT middle the pack vs PSU middle = GT
GT lower quartile vs PSU middle = GT
My family is willing to make up the difference financially if I really want to got to Georgia Tech. I feel like they are both great options. Thanks for all the advice so far.
No, but the honors designation will make you standout from other PSU students.
By SAT scores for public universities GT is #1, PSU is 58th.
GT is an engineering honors college.
Do you really think a new building with the same students will leap frog some 30 schools to land PSU at #2 for BME?
If my end goal is in research (not entirely sure yet), would it make more sense to start at Penn State, then move somewhere else for a masters or doctorate?
Penn state has the five year program I think it’s called the integrated program for a bachelor and masters… I think it’s time for you to decide more than advice from our end… your in a great position with two great schools… get more info from penn state on the research opportunities to better understand how it will impact you… I read somewhere Penn state had 800 million spent on research last year
@greymeer though accurate, using the rankings like that is a bit misleading.
It’s not how employers look at things. It’s personal and individualized. Gpa. The quality of work and person.
Now does it mean better access to on campus recruiting and internships are better at gt.
And is the average student more uniformly better than psu. Yes.
But not the honors college and engineering majors. No way
And gt has instate mandates too. Everyone isn’t the next coming of Howard Hughes or Jack Northrop.
Op. Like I said. Gt has a great reputation. And that’s great for an intro., after two minutes you’re on your own
Honors plus psu plus savings plus effort equals success.
GT minus savings plus effort equals success.
It’s not that complicated. How much does the money mean and where will you stand against your peers.
I would go to GT myself. But don’t choose based on unscientific and self
fulfilling rankings. No one outside of here cares.
if we’re doing “what would I do?”, I admit I absolutely wouldn’t know, so I understand your dilemma.
In the end, I think I’d choose based on the environment I’d want:
GTech is going to be relentlessly intense, which can be exhilarating or a pressure cooker depending on who you are; you’ll be surrounded by fellow engineers (with some business majors) so you’ll be among peers and you’ll experience the trials and tribulations of the notoriously harsh grading and studying all together, which creates a community; the weather will be nice all year round.
Schreyer, on the other hand, will allow for balance, for instance if you do Leadership Jumpstart in the Fall you have a relatively easy, project-based course with off campus retreats to complement Math, Physics, Biology, and the Freshman seminar, and any of those can be Honors or not (Calculus for Engineers in a 300-people lecture hall or Proof-based Calculus in a class of 30?) Your literature class can be Graphic Literature (Persepolis, Maus, My favorite thing is monsters…) Odds are that your roommate won’t be an engineer; if you’re in Global, you may be surrounded by people who love geopolitics and organize events to talk about what’s going on in the world. The weather will be snowy most of winter. There’ll be all sorts of people in your residence hall and your community will be Honors students from across all majors as well as engineers, some of whom you’ll form close bonds with because engineering is tough everywhere.
From what I know about GT not many schools approach their level of rigor. So I sincerely doubt a program is going to suddenly in just a few short years catch up to GT. Engineering is their focus.
In terms if the instate kids they have resumes akin to the out of staters. They tend to do extremely well so discount the ability of the instate population as it is very self selecting. And yes they have ACT’s in the 32-36 range with 4.0’s and many AP’s. Many have already completed BC calc, Linear and Multivariable.
@scubadive. Just to clarify.
I mentioned the gt instate admits upthread.
It wasnt stared as a an issue that should cause the op “to worry” about lower ability than oos students. I was comparing the stats of those gt students to those admitted to engineering honors at psu. You’ll find no drop between -these groups- as suggested by another poster.
Urban-ish? Its in midtown Atlanta. Its got a campus, and has been making it more pedestrian friendly (blocking off some roads with posts so cars cannot drive through— discovered that yesterday, LOL), but it is in a CITY, with all the pros and cons that that brings, as opposed to PSU, in State college, a cute college town. Different Vibes for sure.
@jym626: Isn’t Georgia Tech considered to be located both in downtown & midtown Atlanta ? Expanded into midtown after the 1996 Olympics.
To be honest, its really a moot point, @Publisher. The area GT is in is considered midtown. The area where GSU is is considered downtown. But the areas are contiguous. I think perhaps you are confusing the expansion of GT and GSU, which took the dorm space that was olympic village by GT after the olympics and might thus consider to have expanded to midtown from downtown.
@jym626 and @publisher what would you suggest specifically in this scenario. I always find your input to be helpful.
Thanks, @privatebanker. I think it depends on whether the OP wants to do things like co-ops (lots available via GT, and GT has very bustling R&D/incubator/innovation opportunities). And GT offers the joint BME opportunity with Emory. If $ isn’t an issue, I’d choose GT.
@privatebanker: I have already shared my thoughts in post #15 above.
OP has two great options.
@jym626: Until after the Olympics, I always considered GT to be in downtown as did & do many of my GT relatives. About 10 of them graduated GT before 1996. I have not spoken with the three most recent GT grads who finished well after the year 2000 and, oddly, none of the most recent grads are engineers (MD & lawyers).
@publisher. Gt has really become a tech powerhouse.
And many have trouble staying in an honors program when majoring in engineering. Atlanta is not a cute little college town like State College. If that matters to the OP.
@Publisher- GT has never been “downtown”- its always been in midtown. Downtown is an area that is mostly office buildings and Hotels. And government buildings and GSU. Really sad that they could never get underground to revitalize and thrive. Its also downtown. Maybe this will help https://www.midtownatlanta.org/maps/
Atlanta has changed dramatically over the last two decades. I used to have an office on East Paces Ferry Road & rarely went to Midtown & hardly ever to downtown. Only spent time in downtown Atlanta when I worked at a law firm there. Most of my relatives are in Alpharetta & Forsyth County although some of the younger ones are in Buckhead & Dunwoody & Emory / Northlake area.
Lots of internship opportunities in metro Atlanta which is approaching 6 million in population for the metro area.
@publisher- if you went to the State Bar building, before or after they moved it, you went downtown. If you went to A&B, you were in midtown. But really, its moot and has nothing to do with the OP’s decision! Not sure the Olympics changed the delineation of midtown or downtown, other than with the development of the Olympic park and the decision to move the Coke museum from “downtown” to its current location between Baker St. and Ivan Allen Blvd. (sort of the northern border of Downtown, IMO)
When I worked in midtown almost 40 years ago, it was a lot less developed. Yup, the city has grown.