<p>Like it or not, BH is pretty much on point with what he said. Sure it’s a good school, but it’s a “2nd tier” school, can’t really compete with the prestige of and research opportunities available at GT/Emory. However, it’s still a respectable school (much better than GSU, KSU, State) and has a lot to offer in terms of academics.</p>
<p>Whether you want to call UGA “second tier” is your prerogative, but to claim that UGA has no ranked programs in the top 25 (other than vet med) is simply incorrect and unfair. I suggest you look back at both U.S. News and World Report and National Research Council rankings. Just to put this “debate” into perspective, UGA is consistently ranked (over the past 10 years) as about the 20th best public school. There are 629 4-year public colleges and universities in this country. At this point, to be ranked as the 20th best doesn’t look too badly. Is UGA “elite”? No, but it’s pretty damn good. Can we move beyond this UGA-GT comparison? It’s getting <em>really</em> old and repetitive.</p>
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<p>Like arguing about which is the best vehicle - a family sedan or a one-ton pickup. The answer is “it depends on what you’re looking for.”</p>
<p>The better comparison is an Acura and a Ferrari. </p>
<p>As far as being 2nd tier, please correct me. In what major field is UGA a first tier program? Let’s exclude animal husbandry and other real estate niche markets with 20 schools and ignore the overly qualified programs like “top public school in a state starting with a ‘g’ below the Mason-Dixon line”. You can’t name any because there are none. UGA’s M.O. is to be a good but not great school in any area and to pump out as many decent, but not great, students as possible. </p>
<p>Like I said before, if you’re satisfied with settling for an average career making an average salary, UGA is a fine choice. But if you have ambition and driv to be the best, look elsewhere. In short, you go to UGA when you want to settle, not succeed.</p>
<p>Please tone down the arrogance.</p>
<p>Yup. Banjohitter is a moron.</p>
<p>Just because you disagree with me does not make the post any less true, nor do the personal attacks.</p>
<p>GT is a fine school, but it isnt as over the moon as you claim. Its fine. But not (sorry to disappoint) better than Cal Tech, and please don’t try to throw rankings around, as they are really not meaningful. If you like numbers, compare the average SATs and ACT scores of the Cal Tech and Ga Tech students. Significantly different. Same for admission rates. And salarys for non engineering majors at Tech are no better than comparable grads elsewhere. Seriously, please stop the school bashing. I know plenty of UGA grads that make very <em>very</em> good money. And the engineering grads make about what any engineering grad would make. Please stop with the silly rivalry stuff.</p>
<p>Thank you Jym!!</p>
<p>Let’s move on…</p>
<p>Of course, Jim, your post is simply not true. As far as non-engineering goes, GT’s business school undergraduates make $15,000 more per year to start than UGA’s and have literally double the rate of employment at graduation (at least in 2011, the last year available).</p>
<p>You can try to impose your opinion on others all you want, but they’re simply not substantiated by fact and aren’t true, no matter how much you want them to be.</p>
<p>These numbers are being thrown out with no substantiation. Dont care. Just sayin.
Whatever your agenda is, it is not giving tech a good name. Sad, really.</p>
<p>And hopefully you aren’t disputing the average SAT/ACT scores of Cal Tech vs GA Tech freshmen. Because that data is easily reported. </p>
<p>Not going to waste anytime with you on this. Please go to the Varsity and have a nice fried pie or something.</p>
<p>These “my school is better than yours” disputes are sophmoric, at best. Your success in work will mostly depend on the results you produce; where you went to school will very quickly become trivial except to you, as your nostalgia and affection grow, which is fine and as it should be. No one, save for a fellow alumnus, is likely to choose someone for a job or other opportunity because they went to one school vs. another, and the relative reputations of those schools. Your own reputation is what matters, not some purported statistical average. Choose the college that offers the best program in your chosen field and is the best fit for you. Want to study engineering in Georgia? You’d be crazy not to go to Tech. It is surely the best value for in-state science and engineering. But if you want to study history, public administration, poultry science, forestry, foreign languages, etc., would Tech be the right choice? I dunno, maybe for you it is. Find the place you can accomplish the most as a student and a person. The rest is just window dressing. Other than displaying your own insecurities, there is really no point in using this forum to run down another school, or boost yours at the expense of the other.</p>
<p>Its not about a dispute, but rather information. Many high school students choose colleges arbitrarily based on friends, football, access to parties, etc. What they do not always recognize is that it is a decision that will fundamentally affect your career and the rest of your life.</p>
<p>I had a chat with DS at his graduation about his college choice and if he’d do differently if he had it to do over again. I asked him about the time he spent at Tech and if he’d have wanted to attend fulltime. His response was “no way- its full of sad, angry people”. Simply his observation and experience. FWIW.</p>
<p>Quality of life is as important, if not moreso, during ones college years.</p>
<p>@BanjoHitter</p>
<p>The idea that a school totally affects the future course of your life is childish. Steve Jobs was a college dropout. Obviously, therefore, he wasn’t successful since he didn’t graduate, by There are plenty of Georgia Tech grads who are unemployed, or not making much, and plenty of UGA grads who are making beaucoup bucks as Doctors, Lawyers, etc. People’s success in the future depends solely on how hard of a worker they are, how talented they are, etc. Tech is great and all, but say someone wanted to get a degree in science, but also wanted to have fun, and maybe study abroad in Antarctica (something UGA offers, and GT does not) then they would prefer Georgia. Did you know that employers don’t like arrogant pricks who believe they will succeed solely based on the college they went to?</p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, I would prefer an Acura to a Ferrari. Owning a Ferrari is overcompensating for something else. An Acura is a reliable car, with better safety stats, and that gets pulled over less I’m sure. The comparison of Acura to Ferrari is Apples and Oranges, same as the comparison of a sedan and a pick up truck. If you want a fast car to take out on country roads and speed, Ferrari. If you want a great luxury sedan, Acura.</p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, I am in the top 5% at my High School and am planning on going to UGA Honors for Mathematics, rather than GT because of the offerings UGA has, and the reputation for not being a ton of nerdy kids who study 24/7.</p>
<p>The problem is that it’s not how how it works. In some cases, you control your own destiny: if you cure cancer, you’ll be famous and wealthy regardless of whether (or if) you went to college. If you invent Windows, you’ll be famous and wealthy regardless of where you went to college. But the vast, vast majority of cases don’t fall into that group.</p>
<p>Where you go to college matters. If you want to be a school teacher, it won’t. But if your goal is to be a CEO, it does. To get on the CEO path, some people start in the mailroom (or any entry level job) and work their way to the top. But that’s rare. The vast majority of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies come from management consulting or investment banking (or both, which is increasingly common). To get into one of those careers, your school matters. A UGA degree won’t get you there, and if you did get your foot in the door, the UGA name would be a black mark on the resume and you would need to be hired despite it (for example, by being named a Rhodes Scholar or achieving some other impressive activity). This would not be the case at top schools, Stanford, Harvard, Georgia Tech, MIT, UVA, Berkeley, etc. where the banks and consulting companies specifically target.</p>
<p>From a northerner who was on a law firm hiring committee for a long time in DC, UGA’s reputation has been climbing steadily in all areas. Plus U-G-A is the coolest mascot anywhere.</p>
<p>[Where</a> the Fortune 500 CEOs Went to School - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2012/05/14/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-school]Where”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2012/05/14/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-school)</p>
<p>Don’t see Tech on the list</p>
<p>BanjoHitter: You have continually ignored my questions about your statements concerning UGA/GT and rankings, yet you continue to comment on here. Is there a reason for not answering the questions? Do you need for me to copy and paste them again (and again)? You continue to make statements that ignore certain details and facts, yet you do not then care to answer questions about your conflicting information. Please review my previous questions, or just stop posting incorrect information (like your most recent post that has only baseless opinions, not facts).</p>