<p>My son is considering either UCSB or GT for chemical engineering. He's in-state for UCSB. No aid from GT. Any input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>No sense paying out of state tuition for Georgia Tech, whose chemical engineering department is ranked lower than UCSB’s anyway. Both good schools, you can’t go wrong either way.</p>
<p>UCSB has a fantastic chemical engineering program. There’s no need to pay out of state tuition for GT. </p>
<p>But you should think about whether it would be beneficial or harmful for your son to go all the way to the other side of the country for college. I know that I would probably have a difficult time adjusting to a move from California to Georgia, but everyone is different. Many people would relish such a move.</p>
<p>see if you can find UCSB and Georgia Tech ChE Departments here:</p>
<p>[National</a> Academy Membership | UCSB Chemical Engineering](<a href=“http://www.chemengr.ucsb.edu/honors/nrc.php]National”>http://www.chemengr.ucsb.edu/honors/nrc.php)</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. Putting money to one side, anyone believe Georgia Tech has the better engineering training and/or experience for undergrads than UCSB?</p>
<p>^^^it again depend on what type of engineering.</p>
<p>As shown above, UCSB has the high ranking ChE department and its Materials Science Department is second to none:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.materials.ucsb.edu/points_of_pride.php[/url]”>http://www.materials.ucsb.edu/points_of_pride.php</a></p>
<p>Firms tend to not choose where to hire based on one major. A chemical manufacturer will come to campus to hire electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineers (sometimes also industrial, business, etc - it’s lower cost to recruit more majors at one campus). This creates what I call the “Delaware Effect” where there’s a very highly ranked program that is well respected but that’s not a high-demand destination point for high-prestige employers. For that reason, it’s important to look at the overall engineering ranking instead of the specialty ranking for undergrads interested in industry. For grad school-bound students, it really does not matter.</p>
<p>Another key concern that I would have with UCSB is that it is lower on the totem pole in its region (granted, that’s because there are so many top schools in the area). This creates a situation where the most in-demand employers might bypass UCSB for Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, UCLA, USC, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, etc. National employers want geographic diversity from their limited set of target schools, which works against co-located engineering schools.</p>
<p>US News undergraduate chemical engineering rankings</p>
<p>[Chemical</a> | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-chemical]Chemical”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-chemical)</p>
<p>Banjo, excellent and reasonable points</p>
<p>thanks again</p>