There was a thread last year with people asking for advice between choosing between University of Maryland vs Georgia Tech. Reading that thread, I felt like my son could have written that exact post. We are now at the same crossroad. We went to the admitted students day at both schools. University of Maryland’s admitted students day outshined Georgia Techs - but we did not get to see everything we wanted to at either school, so we would appreciate other people’s perspectives. @threeofakind @priya2015 @qow100 @CU1986 - what school did your child choose? and now that they are their respective colleges, what do they like and what do they dislike? Anyone else want to chime in? I would appreciate it.
What do you want to know about GT as I have one who graduated. I can’t compare it to Maryland.
They are both good programs with significant strengths. Your student won’t make more money choosing one over the other. Is one appreciably cheaper?
@scubadive what did your child major in? Georgia Tech has such an amazing reputation but the two professors my son met were so unimpressive (that’s saying it nicely). He would be in one of the smaller engineering majors. I’m not sure why GeorgiaTech choose those two professors to meet the accepted students. Wondering if it was just really back luck.
@eyemgh one is less expensive but not a significant difference. My son will be an engineering major. He is still trying to figure out what type of engineering he will major in. But he does know that he has no interested in computer science. Would you happen to know which career services department is “better”? I realize a lot of getting a internship or coop is up to the student but I’m wondering if one college has more companies coming on campus to recruit.
GT has one of the largest career fairs in the country. http://career.gatech.edu/fall-2019-all-majors-career-fair-0
GT was one of the talking points on the Purdue tour because they vie against each other for getting the most companies to come to campus.
UMD and GT are great schools for engineering. You really can’t go wrong.
I really don’t know about career services at either. I’d say if he goes with his gut, he’ll be fine.
As for large career fairs, they are a blessing and a curse. Yes, you’ll see that they are bringing in 350 companies, but you’ll also see, 5000 students are vying for their attention. That means long lines, for a little time, likely interfering with classes and competition with many of your institutional peers.
My daughter had really positive experiences at her school’s large career fairs. They have an app for that to make it easier. She was able to sort by her major, who was open to hiring first years, the specifics of the internship/co-op opportunity, where their tables would be located, and then map out her list of who to talk to. The big guns definitely had long lines but you could also sign up for time slots to talk to those recruiters outside of the fair and often they hosted their own events. My daughter went to one company specific event and while well attended, got good time with one of their recruiters. Definitely is an effort on the part of the students but also effective in landing jobs.
“GT was one of the talking points on the Purdue tour …”
Purdue should have a larger one simply because it has 22,000 more students.
@Greymeer, Purdue has 12,477 students in their COE, GT has 13,299 in their COE. Usually, Engineering career fairs are separate so probably are at these two schools?
https://coe.gatech.edu/about/facts-rankings
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/FactsFigures
Industrial Round Table aka Purdue’s career fair is indeed engineering specific. 400 companies last year. https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/News/Spotlights/2018/industrial-roundtable-review
Georgia Tech has their career fair for “all majors.” Wonder if there is also a separate one geared to engineering majors? Between GT and UMD, I would focus mostly on fit, finances, logistics. Both are very good schools and will have lots of employment opportunities for engineering students.
@collegemom2023 This is actually a good time to reflect on my daughter’s experience at UMD Clark School of Engineering since she’s almost finished her freshman year - it does go by quickly. First, one of the primary reasons we chose UMD over Georgia Tech was the in-state tuition plus a large scholarship. With that said, her gut feeling was that GT wasn’t a good fit for her. She spent a lot of time on both schools admitted students facebook pages and didn’t feel she had a good fit with those on the GT facebook page. I can’t say this is the best method to choose a school but this is what teenagers do these days. Also I think she was looking for a more balanced student population which is more difficult to find at a tech school. I was very impressed with the GT facilities and programs and thought they were probably a small step, relative-wise, greater than those at UMD. However, I didn’t think this remotely justified the substantial $ difference for us over a 4 year period. Interestingly one negative I’ve heard more than once about GT is the quality of their lecturers/professors - teaching-wise. However that’s the case at every large school including UMD - my daughter prepared her upcoming schedule trying to avoid the sections with reputed bad professors (and for the most part these reputations are accurate). Obviously there are plenty of excellent profs at both schools.
My daughter is quite happy at the school and especially likes the school spirit at UMD. I can tell you almost all the freshman we know love the school and are quite happy with their experience so far. My daughter likes the school so much she joined the UMD Images tour guide group this spring and communicates her enthusiasm to a lot of prospective families like yours. Although she is doing very well at school, I don’t think she quite expected the level of difficulty of several of the required intro stem courses (Calc sequence, Chem for engineers, etc). Although some may think the engineering student body at UMD may not be quite as strong as GT, I don’t think that’s the case at all. The mid 50% ACT range for her incoming engineering class was 32-35. I suspect very few schools including GT have much higher. Both schools have large engineering programs with a lot of opportunities so if your son is undecided engineering , he won’t go wrong in either program. One negative with UMD is most of the freshman dorms are lacking - this is being nice. They are getting ready to build new dorms but several years off. Ultimately the dorm experience is good for meeting other kids in the same dorm and sharing the experience together. I’ve always felt a student shouldn’t be choosing a college based on the quality of the housing in their first year. Also the students really like the close proximity of downtown DC. They typically ride on the metro with friends on nice weekend days - not really at night. They went last weekend to see the cherry blossoms and enjoy the nice weather around the tidal basin. Most of the evening social activities are on campus or in College Park.
Ultimately, you and your child need to choose based on what you think is the best fit, personally and financially. Both UMD and GT are great engineering schools and neither one is a bad choice. It’s unlikely that your son’s employment or grad school prospects will be much different with either degree.
As in any school its hit or miss with profs. Industrial engineering was my child’s major. One of things I appreciate about GT is what they expect you to learn. For instance modern physics expects students to know python, so while it is not taught in class you learn it because you really don’t have a choice.
If you look at their course catalog there is not much in the way of humanities and those classes still tilt towards the quantitative side. If you don’t like calculus you probably will not like the coursework.
GT while nerdy does not mean the students study 24/7. There are plenty of parties and lots of clubs where students are engaged out of the class. Because it is located off to the side in midtown they have easy access to the city of atlanta and major employers. The campus is not overwhelming in size like many big state universities. You can walk to the grocery store, pharmacy, restaurants and the park if you so wish.
Probably the most unique thing about GT is the campus is bustling all year round with students. Taking classes during the summer is fairly typical.
You can actually walk to places at many bigger colleges as well . UMD, UVA, VT ,(the ones I 'm most familiar with) for instance , all have shopping and dining areas right off campus within walking distance. None of those campuses seemed overwhelming to me. I only saw GT once and remember eating years ago at The Varsity . UMD, GT are both great choices. Good luck with the decision!
My daughter picked GT, and she couldn’t be happier! She loves the campus and the academic challenges at GT. She feels she made the best choice as GT is challenging yet she doing so many other things she never imagined. It’s been a nice balance of school and social experience. The most important thing she says is that she feels that the professors and other students are always encourageing and supporting, there isn’t a cut throat environment as other schools. Send me an email if you have specific questions or if your son would like to talk to her about her experience.
@collegemom2023 …Sorry for the late reply…my son picked UMD and has no regrets…in the end the financials, distance from home and a strong quizbowl team( his passion) all helped him make the choice. He has made a lot of friends and is very happy. Which one did your kid pick?
@priya2015 It was a really tough decision. He ended up choosing University of Maryland. It was a really tough choice. Both UMD and GeorgiaTech had different things he liked. He will be a Mechanical Engineering major so if your son (or anyone else) has any suggestions on how to navigate his freshman year (including choosing classes), we would appreciate it.
@CU1986 Thanks so much for your point of view. What is her engineering major? How did your daughter go about picking her schedule? and avoiding the “bad” professors.
@collegemom2023 - This thread may provide some some useful info