<p>Ok, so here's the nuts and bolts of the situation. I go to Southern Polytechnic State University, which is about 20 min. north of GaTech. Until recently it has been primarily a commuter school specializing in 4 year, abet accredited engineering technology education. A couple of years ago however, they began to offer full engineering programs for the "working adult", ie night classes as well as day. These programs are not yet accredited like their ET programs but most likely will be as soon as they have some graduates. Here's the deal. I'm a 30 year old parent of 4, yes 4, with no time to waist. My origanal plan upon starting school last summer was to get to the point to where I could transfer to GaTech and finish my degree there. I just completed my second summer semester which fulfilled the transfer requirements for GaTech, still maintaining my 4.0. My fear is that if/when I get into GaTech, I won't be able to cut it, and I'll waist the next year figuring that out, and have to run back with my tail tucked between my legs to Southern Poly. I wonder if I would learn as much or more at a school that's not obsessed with being a prestigous research institute. Given that most people say it doesn't matter from where you graduate, what are your opinions. Go for it and risk failure at my age, or stick with the "easier", more convenient way out?</p>
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I am sorry , I didn’t quite get it. You mean you are afraid that you can’t afford the education at GaTech?</p>
<p>ABET credited is extremely important for majors like EE, CE, ME. What is your major? Those you want to obtain license, and ABET is needed.</p>
<p>You don’t have to go to GaTech, but a good school with its ABET degree is a life-saver, unless you are talking about BME…</p>
<p>I’m a mech e major. My fear is not the cost. My fear is that I won’t be able to stay afloat academically. I’ve heard so many horror stories about Tech I just don’t know. Somewhere in the back of my head I’m afraid that even though I’ve done well at my current university, Tech is so much harder that I won’t make it. As I’m typing this it sounds stupid, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>Oh.
First of you all you are truly amazing. 4 kids and can maintain 4.0. I mean even high school graduates can’t maintain 4.0. I didn’t.</p>
<p>I see your concern. I can’t say Tech is harder than your current school, but there is an expectation. If Tech accepts you, it sees your quality and knows that you deserve to go there. They don’t just accept everyone to be there.</p>
<p>As you progress the materials become more challenge, even if it is at your current school. The one reason that makes your concern valid is certainly the program nature. Your professors could be a lot easier because the program is designed for continuing adults, and not high school graduates. Certainly professors at Tech don’t really care about it, although you are not the only one there who has a family and children to raise.</p>
<p>You should definitely go to Tech if you can’t go to the non-adult program (which is not ABET-CREDITED). </p>
<p>Don’t be afraid. If you really have hard time to adjust, or you feel that you are not doing well, don’t look down on yourself just because you are an adult. It takes a huge “man” courage and confident to return to school, and decide to become an engineer. There are kids who graduate from high school and not many of them make good money. You are older than I am, and you certainly know that when there is an obstacle, you have to endure the pain and fight to get over it.</p>
<p>The first thing I am worry is adjustment. You have to adjust yourself to fit into the expectation there, which can take some times. Even if you got C after you transferred, you probably would have a good idea how to adjust and how to be a student at Tech. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Hey, Saraleigh117, how are you? We are in a similar boat. I’m 27, with a newborn, working full time and studying full time. I am also concerned about my future academic performance even though my current academic performance is outstanding. Fortunately, academic fears are a great thing; they will keep you on your feet and force you to study and excel. We have no time to waste, neither mentally worrying about uncertain futures nor engaging in wishful thinking.</p>
<p>Your best course of action is to begin preparing yourself, now, for GaTech. Check course syllabi, contact professors, and prepare a plan of attack that will allow you to succeed academically. Little things like reading the course material before class and/or searching for extra info not covered help you in the long run. You already know this but let me remind you, discipline and perseverance get you very far in life.</p>
<p>Edit: so, to answer your question: yes, transfer, as long as you are 110% certain you will apply yourself.</p>
<p>Your situation is definitely riskier than the average Tech undergrad. Tech’s advantage will be giving you access to jobs across the nation, but I do not know what your stance is on uprooting your family to accept one of those jobs. Southern Poly will probably get you fine jobs in the Atlanta area; there’s GE in Duluth, Lockheed in Marietta, and so on.</p>
<p>I have to say though that you will not experience the full difficulty of being a Tech undergrad because you will be transferring after fulfilling many of your requirements such as Physics (get that CS credit out of the way too!). Those are typically the killer classes. The 2000 and up classes are graded more easily and simply require a lot of work.</p>
<p>A couple of people have told me about the CS credit, but when I look at the catalog for the ME program, the programming I have to take isn’t offered at SPSU. CS 1371 I think is what it is, which is MATLAB. I guess I’ll just have to muddle through it at tech.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not against moving across the country if the right opportunity presents itself. I just don’t want to be limited by my degree.</p>
<p>I think you should do it. You’ll be haunted by the what-if’s if you do not at least try, and even if you fail miserably that’s only one semester or two out of the 8 or 9 that you will need to graduate.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much what I’m thinking.</p>
<p>Sara I got my undergrad in CS as a single parent to four children. I graduated when I was 39.</p>
<p>You can do this!</p>
<p>Know how to spell “waste” before you talk about not doing it.</p>
<p>Thanks…smart ass</p>
<p>Why not finish at S.Poly and goto GaTech for grad school? Grad school is only 10 courses.</p>
<p>Something to note about the GT: they are a top college AND they accept a lot of “imperfect” students. Contrast this with, say, Stanford, all those horror stories don’t come from anywhere. Why? Because Stanford kids are picked so that they don’t fail. Not only that, but kids who get into Stanford have put in considerable effort into maintaining grades as well as getting everything in order; thus they are accepted to such prestigious schools. GaTech is a big public university, and they accept a lot of kids (of course they have to have reasonably high GPA’s, SAT/ACT scores, etc.) but this also means that there will be a lot of people who aren’t prepared for the kind of workload GT puts on its students. MIT and Caltech students go through the same thing, but none of them are complaining.</p>
<p>Also, someone else noted that the first year courses are the killers. That’s pretty accurate. From what I know, calculus I/II, ochem, biology, and maybe physics are the real killer weeder classes. When you do your transfer with GT, you will not even be taking any of those courses, only engineering courses.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about those horror stories. The people who write them… well you can clearly see why they’re not getting good grades, they’re ****ing around on forums all day writing about how crappy the school is instead of studying. It’s difficult, but if you try hard and have effective study habits, you will pull through it. It’ll give you a really a good education, therefore is inherently tough, so that means you really have to put everything into it.</p>
<p>global traveler, I’m not sure if I will go to grad school. I’ve just finished Calc 2 and Phys1. I don’t yet know what I want to do after a bachelors. Plus, the engineering program at SPSU isn’t accredited yet. I don’t know how that would affect getting into GT for grad school.</p>
<p>hadsed, I know GT is very difficult but my good grades at my current school were not gimmies. I’m ready to work as hard as I have to to be successful. I’ve often been curious if some of those posters were just being whiny.</p>