Should i even look beyond Ga. Tech?

<p>hi guys, i'm a junior and just starting to look at colleges. i live in georgia and wanna do some kinda engineering. right now i have a 3.8ish gpa but that is brought down by all the stupid history classes. i took my sat's last year and got a 800 math and 550 on the verbal. but i'm taking the new one later this year so hopefully my verbal will improve. as for sat 2's i took both math and physics and aced 'em both.
my ec's prolly wont be that good but i work 25 hrs a week. </p>

<p>but the catch is that my family has financial constraints cos we gotta pay for my sister's med school. so considering that ga tech is supposed to be awesome for engineering and i will only have to pay instate tuition, are there any other engineering schools that are better but would offer me significant financial aid?</p>

<p>You might want to look at RPI (Rensselaer Polytech in Troy NY). They give quite a bit of merit money. You might want to see if your school awards the Rensselaer Medal at the end of junior year. If you get this it's $15,000/year. If your school awards this you can talk to your counselor about considering you for this award (explain your situation). Rice Univ. has a good engineering school that's getting better all the time (from what I've heard and read). Also look at Case Western Reserve. They offer good merit money, although I'm not that familiar with their engineering dept. There's a new school in Massachusetts called Olin that offers free tuition I think. </p>

<p>If you'll be a national merit finalist look for some threads about that here. Some state schools give full or almost-full rides for this. Some of them may have good eng. schools. Some of them also give a lot of merit money based on grades, rank, SAT's, etc. </p>

<p>I'll post again if I think of any more. But I think you could get a great education at Ga. Tech. And working 25 hours/week is just as good as EC's (or maybe better), so don't worry about that.</p>

<p>You might want to look at some other schools in Georgia like the University of Georgia and Mercer. Georgia Tech is definitely the best as far as engineering goes but you may get better aid from another school. UGA has a pretty good engineering program and they have some great scholarships. Mercer also has a pretty good program. Even though its private and costs somewhere around 30K a year, they offer great financial aid. I got a full scholarship there this year including tuition, room and board, and a laptop. If I were you Tech would be my first choice, but if the aid doesnt come through UGA and Mercer would be good alternatives.</p>

<p>I would look at other schools and consider what your fafsa will look like with two students in college. You might find a great needs blind school that will be perfect for you.</p>

<p>I believe UGA offers only Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Besides Ga Tech, you could consider Southern Tech. They are very interested in strong students and might have $$ to offer. I am assuming you will be qualifying for the HOPE scholarship, so your costs should be very low for in-state schools. Over30 has mentioned other good schools. Keep in mind that if you apply to Ga Tech before... Nov 1, I believe (it might be mid October- you'd better check) you'll hear something by mid December, so will have it to campare to the other schools you will be considering. And yes, if you get National Merit, lots of doors open up to you. Here is a list of schols with free, or almost free rides for national merit finalists <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"There's a new school in Massachusetts called Olin that offers free tuition I think."</p>

<p>All students admitted to Olin receive a four year full tuition scholarship. This leaves you with the cost of laptop, books, room, and board. You might be able to find some need-based aid to help out with those expenses.</p>

<p>If you want to keep travel costs down and stay in the South consider Duke, Vandy, Rice...not free but good engr and maybe you can get need based aid.</p>

<p>GT would be a great option for you. I highly recommend it. Also, since you are facing financial restraints, my advice is to apply to many matches/reaches(e.g. Case, RPI, Rose Hulman) which you stand a good shot at merit aid.</p>

<p>Definitely check out Rose Hulman.</p>

<p>If you ask me, GA Tech is the best option for you. Apply to some other places, but honestly tech is excellent for what you want. 'Tis cheap and one of the best engineering schools.</p>

<p>There have been many suggestions for other schools, but none of them are nearly up to the quality of georgia tech.</p>

<p>Just be warned of GT's reputation of one of the nation's most unhappy students. It may be a highly ranked school, but it has many drawbacks.</p>

<p>"GT's reputation of one of the nation's most unhappy students." </p>

<p>I've often heard this. But, I wonder if most engineering schools rank high on the "most unhappy students" lists? It's something to look into.</p>

<p>This link contains offensive material, but it is written by GT students who explain why they are...unhappy. Discarding the rough manner in which it is presented, one can grasp a specific viewpoint of the bureacracy (lots and lots of red tape), food quality, and eduation.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.geocities.com/gtsux2002/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.geocities.com/gtsux2002/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>