<p>I apologize in advance for posting this in the Ga Tech section, but I can not find an objective opinion of Southern Polytechnic in Marietta. Does anyone have a clue about the institution's reputation in the industry? Is the coursework challenging? Are students from SPSU competitive in academic competitions?
I'm a computer science student at a CC looking for a viable transfer option within the state of Georgia. While Tech is my plan A; I'm looking for a quality plan b and c. If not SPSU, then how about Armstrong Atlantic or Ga State's Comp Sci programs?
Any help would be much appreciated</p>
<p>A good option for a “Plan B” is the Regional Engineering Transfer Program (RETP): [College</a> of Engineering at Georgia Tech](<a href=“http://www.coe.gatech.edu/academics/retp.php]College”>http://www.coe.gatech.edu/academics/retp.php) The advantage of that program if you qualify is that if you meet certain objective requirements (GPA and classes completed) you’re guaranteed admission to GT. If you’re going to try to enter while not in the RETP program, there’s always a chance that GT will reject your application. Since the RETP includes a community college (Georgia Perimeter), you’re guaranteed to get into at least one of the schools. </p>
<p>If you are not going to pursue that program, keep in mind, that you don’t need to transfer from an engineering program. Your first 30 hours are mostly just Calculus classes (8 hours), lab sciences (8 hours), CS (3 or 6 hours), English requirements (6 hours), and electives/government requirement/health requirement (2-5 hours). You can take those at almost any college, with Georgia State being a popular option.</p>
<p>If you want to attend Georgia State (or any other college), pull the curriculum for your intended engineering major at Tech and find a major that closely matches that at Georgia State. That may be CS, or it might be something else (we had someone on here previously that was looking at Chemistry at Ga State for a Biomedical Engineering major at Tech).</p>
<p>Thank you G.P. for your response. I actually attend Georgia Perimeter and have thought about the RETP. The only problem is Comp Sci is not one of the accepted majors and the closest majors, EE and Comp Eng, are a little more hardware focused than I think I’m interested in.</p>
<p>My question, in a nutshell, is “is Southern Poly a good school?” I’ve read some pretty negative reviews on other sites from former students, but I can’t decipher if their reviews are accurate or just the writings of a jaded student.</p>
<p>Would you happen to know anything about that school?</p>
<p>Your title referenced engineering, so that threw me off. </p>
<p>For CS, have you looked at UGA or Georgia State? I’ve seen many students transfer in from GSU, and they seem to be fine.</p>
<p>Going from the flagship program in the state to another research program (UGA, GSU) is a drop off in academic quality. Going further to a state school (like SPSU or AASU) is another drop off. I don’t have any statistics, but in my experience, students coming from SPSU and AASU struggle more than students coming from GSU (I would assume UGA is similar to GSU). </p>
<p>Is the concern that you might not be able to maintain the GPA to transfer to Tech and might have to graduate from the other school?</p>
<p>Sorry about the poor title choice.</p>
<p>I’m in a position where I must work and I’ve heard from friends at Tech that working 32+hours/wk and trying to stay on top of the workload is a recipe for disaster. So, I thought I’d look into the other options GA had to offer.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your response. It was exactly what I was looking for (and pretty consistent with those former student reviews).</p>
<p>I’ll probably have to make some sacrifices and put my energy into scoring a co-op once I get to Tech, because it’s obviously the right school for what I want to do.Thanks again.</p>
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<p>I obviously don’t know your situation, but have you looked at Co-oping? That would earn you some very nice income every other semester (about $8000-$9000 after taxes, depending on where you work) and you could still work 15-20 hours/week while in school.</p>
<p>Otherwise, to work fulltime, you really need to look at going to school part time. Just 3 classes / semester.</p>