<p>Hey there! So here's the deal. I got into Georgia tech and UGA honors - I picked UGA over tech because I wasn't yet sure what I wanted to major in and I just liked the campus life a lot more. I'm still unsure of what I really want to do with my life, but I enjoy mathematics and potentially want to have a lot of options in the future... with that said, I wound up as a biological engineering major at UGA. Did I make a mistake? Obviously UGA engineering majors aren't as good as tech's but can I still go far with this major? I want to go to grad school for sure (potentially looking at a premed route). I feel like the opportunity to get a higher gpa as uga could be good, but ah this is frustrating. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I wouldnt say a mistake. You going to be at college for four years. Might as well pick the campus you like more. Nothing is worse than being somewhere and you hate it.</p>
<p>If you work hard and study, There is no reason for you to lack opportunities. </p>
<p>As far as your major. A bachelor doesn’t get biomedical engineers far. So grad school is good thinking</p>
<p>Transferring to GT is very easy (unless you’re going into Mech. or Ind. dept.). You only need to keep up a 3.5 and you’re basically in, if you’re going to consider that. Career-wise, you could benefit from that greatly without having to totally give up the campus and lifestyle you wanted (you could transfer after two years, first two years you won’t miss much in terms of classes anyway).</p>
<p>Just a thought… I mean GT football is better anyway…</p>
<p>EDIT: If you’re going to med school, why major in engineering anyway? If your primary concern is getting a high GPA then maybe you shouldn’t major in engineering (but I can’t really say, you’ll have to find out how hard UGA engineering really is).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use the word “mistake”, but you’re choosing a different route for your future. UGA engineering is considered a third tier program, while GT is a Top 5 engineering school. Practically, this means that a good GPA from GT makes you competitive for grad schools like Stanford, MIT, UC-Berkeley, etc. A good GPA from UGA engineering makes you competitive for grad schools like USC (So. Carolina), Alabama, and Mississippi State. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a different life path. Salary wise, you basically cut your salary by $20,000 - $30,000 per year out of UGA engineering compared to GT. </p>
<p>If your goal is something like pre-med instead of an engineering master’s degree, UGA might not be a bad choice. It’s fairly easy to keep a high GPA at UGA (in the 3.8+ range). At GT, the programs are much more difficult and demanding, and you need to a real top notch student to stay in the 3.8+ range.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. You’ve all made some good points. Transferring is something I suppose I should keep in mind. -it’s always an option. At this point I see grad school as a must. I would like to be successful/rich and a college diploma is turning into what a HS diploma used to be worth. With a biological engineering degree from UGA - what are my options for grad school? Obviously pre-med is an option, is business a potential grad path? Ha obviously I’m trying to “find myself”. Will I really not be able to get into a good grad school from UGA? If that’s the case should I just change my major? Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t consider a MBA right out of undergrad first. You will need and want some good work experience first. If you get a MBA right out of undergrad. You will be overqualified for regular engineer jobs. And underqualified for management because you have no experience.</p>
<p>It will not be impossible to get into a good grad school, but certainly more difficult. Most Tier 1 and Tier 2 schools have abundant research opportunities. Research plays a big part in getting into grad school.</p>
<p>Good point. Research is actually the reason I came to UGA. Being a part of the honors program, I’ll most likely be getting involved in CURO/research spring of this year if all goes well. I just need to figure myself out and pick a major that works best for me and my interests. I don’t really know who to talk to about this though. I’m considering: well staying biological engineering of course, genetics, chem, biochem, etc. My main concern is: does my undergrad major play a huge role on what I can do in grad school?</p>
<p>The problem with research is that… well there is hardly any at UGA in engineering. Now if you have done research, you’re good to go for most graduate schools. Top tier I’d say might require you to publish or atleast be an author. That’s for the sciences though. I can’t comment on engineering research since I don’t know that much about it, but the general consensus seems to be that if you can get some research done (probably during your 3rd year, and the summers before and after) then you’ll be good for grad school.</p>
<p>Your best bet, for sciences that is, is to go and talk to the researchers there. Knock on a few doors, talk to them, most of the time they’re willing to help you if you show genuine interest in research. Make sure you at least look up some of their published works and be familiar with the area they’re researching in, otherwise they’ll brush you off. Typically you can get started with research in science earlier than engineering because scientists aren’t jerks like engineers. Actually the real reason I think is that you don’t start real engineering courses till about your third year, whereas in sciences you start probably in your first semester even.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve heard of physics majors going on to engineering in graduate school and I even posted a topic here once about it. That route is possible, but I think that’s about as far as you can go with the pure sciences in engineering. I highly doubt you can do that with a biology, chemistry or math degree, but it may be possible if you get a minor in engineering.</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school for engineering. You would need an engineer or physics major.</p>
<p>If you looking into law or business grad school options, major generally does not matter as much.</p>
<p>The best thing I could recommend, If you sold on engineering. Transfer to tech.If you looking into other majors. UGA is not a bad choice</p>
<p>@hadsed: yes agreed; my current plan is to fall under research in whatever I can get that interests me - it doesn’t need to be engineering. Good idea to start contacting professors now. I think I’m either going to do that or sign up for the 1hr credit CURO gateway seminar.</p>
<p>@mjmj824: Understood. Thanks, you’ve been really helpful. I think I’m going to change my major, but I really don’t know what would be a good fit for my interests in math/science and desire to go to either business or med school :/.</p>
<p>Your first job is to figure out what you want to do with your life. Then work backwards from there.</p>
<p>Let me go on the UGA site. I was always under the notion that UGA did not have a real engineering school.</p>
<p>OK wait…not to take potshots but when a department offers only Agricultural and Biological engineering degrees, I cannot really classify them as an overall “engineering school”.</p>
<p>…but you want to take Biological Engineering…seems like to decent program.</p>
<h2>I’m only 18! I don’t get how everyone already has everything figured out…</h2>
<p>Yeah it’s under CAES (college of agriculture and environmental sciences)</p>
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<p>The University System of Georgia is notorious for not duplicating degrees. That’s why UGA doesn’t have a medical school and GT doesn’t have a law or medical school.</p>
<p>The regents allowed UGA to have the engineering degrees that GT didn’t want. In the next board meeting, UGA is proposing a strategy to add ME, CE, and EE degrees that will probably fail (too expensive and it’s a duplication). However, of note is that in their proposal UGA claims that they want to be like “Clemson and Auburn” to create engineers “willing to work for lower wages” which is roughly $35,000. There’s a need in rural Georgia for a low cost work force and GT isn’t filling that need (that’s the reason Southern Poly and Georgia Southern now have engineering programs). </p>
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<p>The longer you wait, the more it will cost you. Even if you have free college under HOPE, you’re losing salary by being in college. If you want a technical or business degree, go to GT. If you want a liberal arts degree, stay at UGA. That will put you in the best position moving forward.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Thanks. I did not know that about Georgia and their approach to engineering degrees.</p>
<p>I wonder if Indiana has the same thought process since Indiana Univ does not offer engineering and Purdue does.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that about UGA engineering either. Well shoot, it looks like I better get out of this major and quick…</p>
<p>That bit about the University System of Georgia is news to me as well, thank you for that information. Some things make a little more sense now because I think I heard about GT people trying to open up a medical school (or might have been law school, can’t be sure) and I guess that explains why they’ve been unsuccessful.</p>
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<p>I get that those schools are not MIT and Cal Tech, but how insulting. I doubt Clemson and Auburn engineering students are working their asses off with dreams of a cushy $35,000/yr job.</p>
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<p>here’s a link to UGA trying to get engineer program which I think it is huge waste of tax money for creating another second rate engineer program in Georgia (I don’t know why Gatech send this to all techies) :
[GT</a> | President’s Letters & Bulletins](<a href=“http://www.gatech.edu/president/lettersbulletins/bulletin092110.html]GT”>http://www.gatech.edu/president/lettersbulletins/bulletin092110.html)</p>
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<p>I have never seen a ‘WOW’ breakthrough in any of Gatech research just mediocre step up from previous technology unlike MIT/Berkeley/Stanford/Caltech (least in ECE department anyway. Not speaking for overall Georgia tech research group). In my opinion, it’s true that Georgia Tech’s curriculum and coursework load can’t compare with Clemson and Auburn but at the end of BS degree, all you get is theoretical background knowledge and brand name of your college tag on your resume. You get all the necessary training in work force and work experience determine who you are in long run but graduating from better college gives you more credential that you will have better analytical skill and will be great employee in long run. (Interview chance is higher with better college degree) </p>
<p>well for OP, I think you need to decide whether what you wanna do with your life before you decide to transfer to Georgia Tech. Do you want to be MD or biomedical engineer? UGA have great vet / pharmacy program. From what I heard from my friends about getting into MCG (medical college of Georgia) is that you have higher chance of getting admit to MCG with Emory/Georgia Tech degree than UGA degree. But all is depend on your GPA/MCAT score i suppose. Biomedical is still new degree program and most of job positions are R&D. (meaning master and above) I majored in compE for undergraduate so I don’t know much about biomedical but two of my friends who got 3.8 GPA and 3.6 GPA in biomedical engineer at Gatech tells me that B.S. in biomedical degree teach you little bit of Mechanical/Electrical/Biology/Chemistry and end up with no strong skill in one particular area. I don’t mean to undermine Georgia Tech’s biomedical program. There are many successful graduate who got position with big corporation with master/PhD degree in R&D. </p>
<p>One of my friend who majored in DSP decided to go into Biomedical Engineer master program for MRI DSP image processing. There are many possibility in biomedical engineer but like biology major, biomedical engineer degree with BS is really useless in my opinion beside sales engineer/pre-law. (this is strictly my opinion)</p>