<p>Any thoughts/recommandation for a transfer student choosing U of M - Ann Arbor or Georgia Tech majoring in Industrial & Operation Engineering? Yes true Georgia Tech is ranked # 1 vs UM is ranked # 3. I'm out of state status at both school anyway.
Thanks</p>
<p>It doesnt really matter, these rankings change every yr anyways so UM and Georgia Tech will prob remain in the top 5 or 10 in next 10 yrs. so choose watever u like best: campus, money, town, etc...</p>
<p>If you're OOS, UM is probably going to be a whole lot more expensive than GT.</p>
<p>You can't go wrong with either school when it comes to engineering, so it's up to you. Personally, I'd pick Georgia for the weather.</p>
<p>GaTech has been ranked #1 in IE for about a dozen consecutive years, so it's not likely that will change soon. But there is not really a significant difference between a #1 ranking and #3. What might be significant is the list of likely employers for graduates of each school, and the list of likely places for internships. In general, both engineering schools are ranked about the same ( #5 or 6, after MIT, Stanford, CalTech, UCBerkeley).</p>
<p>Here are some differences as I see it.</p>
<p>UM is a much larger school, has a separate campus for engineering, offers many more majors (other than science, engineering, and management) so there is more variety of students. There are more majors to potentially dual major in or minor in, but UM is restrictive about changing majors (it is difficult to change to engineering or business from LSA). The UM engineering school though, is half the size of GaTech's. The UM engineering campus and facilities are fantastic and new. The travel and distance between the 2 campuses is a downside IMO. UM is in a college town. There are not enough dorms for all undergraduates. UM is very expensive for out-of-staters. Engineering has even higher fees. It seems being just a number is unavoidable at the huge UM. The UM engineering education is very effective though.</p>
<p>GaTech has 11,000 undergraduates on a city campus which can be walked across easily. It is not a general university and only offers majors in sciences, math, engineering, and management. They model themselves after MIT, so the workload is notoriously heavy. Another difference from other tech schools is that GT has division 1 sports and belongs to the ACC. Being a state school, GT accepts a broader range of students than MIT, and they are trying to change their reputation for low freshman rentention, which was well-deserved. They have done a lot under the current president to recruit a broader student body and to help freshman students succeed in the classroom. They offer slews of tutoring, help, etc. GaTech still has about 70% male undergraduates. Changing majors is not a problem at GT. If you are interested in Co-op, then GT is your place (earn $ and get real experience while going to school, but it takes 5 or 6 years for a BS). The GT campus is haphazardly laid out - not as bad as MIT - but also has some very new amazing buildings, notably Computer Science, biotech, and nanotech (under construction). The SAT ranges of admitted GT students is higher than you probably expect.</p>
<p>GT is in booming midtown Atlanta, so there is a lot to do, but it is not the classic collegetown environment of Ann Arbor either. The Rec center at GT is just amazing - the pools were used for the '96 Olympics, plus there are courts, weight machines, a huge lighted turf field, etc.</p>
<p>There is a city transit/rail system to the Atlanta airport. The Detroit airport is about 45 minutes drive from Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>As for out-of-stater's costs, GT is about $12K less a year for tuition, tuition is fixed for 4 years at GT (no increases), and room & board is cheaper at GT too. If you study abroad, you pay in-state tuition rate at GT.</p>
<p>GT has a reputation as being less fun than UM, and students are less happy according to the guide books. Somehow, even non-co-ops take more than 4 years to graduate. UM has a reputation for strong school spirit. Ironically, GT alums have a strong allegiance to the school, help grads get jobs, and donate at a high rate to GT (compared to other state schools).</p>
<p>I'm also looking at both Michigan and Tech for IOE. I live near Tech so I'm pretty familiar with it. I know mainly the negatives because of all my older friends' complaints about it. It's sort of in the ghetto...my boyfriend's classmate missed class because she witnessed a murder out of her dorm window and had to go to court...My boyfriend was also approached by male prostitutes about 2 blocks from campus. There are numerous strip clubs, etc. around the area. However, Tech has barbed wire around its campus and lots of campus police, so it's not that unsafe. There are some parking lots you don't want to be in at night though. Other than the outside location, the campus is adequate. The CRC- Campus Rec Center- is really nice as someone already said. There are also lots of trees, athletic fields, etc. that you wouldn't expect in the city. Unfortunately their new jogging path goes along the edge of campus so it isn't really safe at night. I've only seen the inside of one dorm and it was pretty typical, nothing horrible but not great. Work load is intense...people with 1400+ on the old SAT are struggling to keep a 3.0 with the crazy calculus and other weedout classes...I'm not sure if it's the same at any engineering school though. I definitely want to go to Michigan rather than Tech, but I guess it depends on your personal preferences...college town or city, college with lots of majors or one focused on engineering, etc. Even though I said some negative things about Tech's location, Atlanta as a whole is fairly nice, it just comes with the bad things that are present in every city.</p>
<p>I think the biggest difference is that Michigan has a place for everyone and Georgia Tech is (<strong>sigh</strong> this is becoming way too cliche about UofM) a lot less diverse. My friends at Georgia Tech all want to transfer out, but it's more because they don't fit in. At UofM, you can hang out with just engineers or everyone, as you wish. One of the biggest things I've heard about Georgia Tech is that their math classes are in 3-hour blocks instead of separating them into separate days. Also...something about how their parties consist of drummers and robots?</p>
<p>I read the USNWR 2007 rankings today and Georgia Tech and UMich's engineering programs share the same rank. I believe it's number 4 in the country.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think it comes down to where you fit in best.</p>
<p>I like 3 minutes away from Georgia Tech and go up to Ann Arbor about every year. I would say that if you like big cities, you would like GT because it walking distance from downtown and Atlantic Station. If you might switch majors, i would pick UM because they have higher rankings in most other deparments. Also, Michigan has better sports teams and a MUCH MUCH better social aspect. GT was rated by some college magazine to be the school "where you would be least likely to strike up a conversation with one of the students." Also, there are a lot of robotics/science olympiad/chem club people at GT. I would personally pick Michigan</p>