<p>With all due respect,CFB, kids at Virginia Tech are not backwoods idiots. They certainly do know about consulting. Virginia Tech is well known and very well respected in engineering.To my mind ,that is not open to debate. And yeah,Go Hokies!</p>
<p>“It’s not about proving anything. It’s simply dishonest to tell people that they’ll have the same opportunities coming out of two different tiers of schools.”</p>
<p>Correct, which is why we’re telling him that he’s going to be good at either VT or GT, glad you came around.</p>
<p>Methinks this thread has lost its focus, and may be on the verge of losing it’s civility. I appreciate all your input. Rest assured that I’m astute enough to filter fact and data from opinion and rhetoric. Enuf said. ;^)</p>
<p>The recent salary data and hiring stats of the 2 schools was invaluable. Like I said, I wasn’t even aware colleges collected and published this information to the general public.
I also appreciate the correction of the oversight we made on mistaking the grad school rankings for the undergrad.</p>
<p>For now, everyone should take a deep breath and move on…we already have.</p>
<p>Good luck with the decision!</p>
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<p>Let me just clarify that I did not call anyone “backwoods idiots”. My point is the vast, vast majority of students know nothing about consulting. They might know of the nebulous idea of consulting, but they don’t understand what the work involves, what firms do it, what the lifestyle is like, what career options are involved, etc. In fact, I would put you in that category, sevmom, based on your posts. That certainly doesn’t make anyone an idiot, just like knowing nothing about the careers available in the US State Department does not necessarily make me an idiot. The point is that many people don’t know what they don’t know.</p>
<p>Not sure why you continue to engage after mitch has suggested it is time to move on- but good luck to you too, CFB. Very happy for you that you are so well informed. You could start a new thread to share your expertise about management consulting.All the best.</p>
<p>FYI,</p>
<p>I had to make this same decision last year my senior year of high school.
My choices were between:
VT, GT, and Colorado school of Mines.</p>
<p>I was accepted to all of them, and I was born and raised in Idaho (so I have no hometown attachment to any of the schools). I ultimately chose Virginia Tech, and yes, I do realize I chose a lower ranked school, but I ultimately felt more comfortable in rural Virginia as opposed to Atlanta. As a kid from Idaho, the inner city would have been very difficult for me. Cost was also a huge factor for me. VT costs about $10,000 less than GT per year.</p>
<p>I have never regretted my decision, and am extremely happy at VT!!!</p>
<p>Also, to the person is calling GT superior to VT, here are some things to consider:
Two weeks after school started, I went to VT’s engineering expo and got a co-op position with Marathon Petroleum.
I researched my first semester professors bio’s, and they got PhDs from the following schools: VT, GT, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Delft (Netherlands), Colorado State, and UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>It’s a personal decision, and I know it’ll be hard to choose between the schools. It was definitely hard for me to choose between VT and GT, but do I regret it? Nope.</p>
<p>Also, this post reminds me to thank chuy for telling me to go to the eng. expo!!! Now I have a co-op lined up!!!</p>
<p>Yes, go to engineering expo. The only reason not to go is if you’re dead. You’re going to hear a lot of 'no’s if you’re a freshman, but when it comes to looking for a job 100 'no’s and 1 ‘yes’ means yes.</p>
<p>For those not aware, engineering expo is a large career fair open only to engineers. A couple hundredish companies come and set up booths. Some are looking for interns, some are lookin for full time people, some are looking for both. The program book they give you is generally accurate as to what people are looking for, but if you really like a company and they’re not listed as looking for what you’re looking for try anyway. Bring way more resumes than you actually need, and have someone look over it for typos/etc. If you’re a freshman you won’t have a lot to put on your resume but put any work experience you have, and any highschool stuff you did. It won’t count for as much but if it’s all you have it’s better than nothing.</p>
<p>But most importantly GO. Network, learn about companies, learn about what they’re looking for, get used to ‘real’ job interviews.</p>
<p>As chuy says, the Engineering Expo is great. Here is the link from the fall expo with a list of employers who attended(click on students,then who’s coming) <a href=“Engineering Expo | Student Engineers' Council | Virginia Tech”>Engineering Expo | Student Engineers' Council | Virginia Tech; </p>
<p>Also, something that may be of interest to those considering Virginia Tech is their survey of where gradautes end up (those that completed the survery) Salary info was previously posted by chuy.
[Virginia</a> Tech Post Graduation Report: Welcome!](<a href=“http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationReport/]Virginia”>http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationReport/)</p>
<p>Good luck to those applying to Virginia Tech and to those deciding between Virginia Tech and other schools, good luck with making your decision!</p>
<p>Thanks for the placement report. It was very useful to see which companies routinely hire VT graduates. I suspect, based solely on the reported positions, that there are indeed some companies that come to the expos for a look-see but actually hire students rarely. Fortunately, there are other “quality” companies that hire a significant number every year. It would be interesting to see GT’s information as well. I tried typing in some key words to find a link but with no luck. Does anyone know if GT provides similar data, i.e., not just salary information but identifies companies hiring by major?</p>
<p>Not sure about GT. This info from VT is based on only 63% of the class responding ( and of those some don’t list the actual employer so there are gaps there as to who the employer really is). Finance and mechanical engineering especially seemed to have alot saying they were employed full time but did not list their employer.</p>
<p>ChrisTKD, Some companies ,of course, may come to the Expo and not extend any offers. No doubt.Another factor to consider is that there are also companies that come and may be extending offers but they are just not that popular with the students. In other words, the students may not be accepting their offers and therefore, would not show up as an employer.Lots of well respected companies seem to be offering employment to Virginia Tech students so that is always good.</p>
<p>Found some industrial engineering info for Georgia Tech. They are ranked number 1 in that field undergrad and VT is ranked 4 (of 92 ABET programs I believe). [Institute</a> of Industrial Engineers at Georgia Tech](<a href=“http://gtiie.org/careerfairpast.html]Institute”>http://gtiie.org/careerfairpast.html)
The industrial and systems engineers from VT reported many employers-Accenture, Booz Allen and Deloitte as well as many others.
In things like accounting and finance, the big 4 all seem to recruit (and employ) VT grads. Price Waterhouse, Deloitte, KPMG,Ernst & Young.</p>
<p>^ That list is for one of the three career fairs that is held for Industrial Engineers at Tech. They have an IIE Fall career fair (20-30 companies) and IIE Spring career fair (another 20-30 different companies), and a pre-career expo (the day before the large campus-wide career fair, they invite 20-30 companies to set up displays to meet with industrial engineering students). These are in addition to the large career fair.</p>
<p>For IE there is no comparison between GT and VT. GT has been #1 in the country for 20 years, and has only been #2 once since the inception of rankings. If you look at the rankings, it’s the largest gap between #1 and #2 in any field. GT also employs most of the pioneers of the field: Ellis Johnson, George Nemhauser, Arkadi Nemirovski, Craig Tove… they literally invented the field. </p>
<p>As far as employment, GT had an 87% offer rate (vs. 67% at VT) with most of the rest going directly to grad school. The $63,000 median salary was the highest of any industrial engineering program in the country (the 75th percentile for VT was $62,000). GT has special programs with Disney, Home Depot, UPS, Coca Cola, Bank of America, and GE to place graduates directly into special industry programs, which are not available at other schools.</p>
<p>Thank you for that additional info,CFB. Nobody here has at anytime implied there are not also wonderful opportunities for kids going to Georgia Tech.It is not uncommon for certain employers to have close relationships with certain schools. Husband (and his father as well) went to CMU (Carnegie Tech) in engineering. Google has a very close relationship with CMU ,particularly in computer science types of things and has started an office in Pittsburgh. I’m sure a win/win situation for both Google and CMU. I am not at all worried about my son finding employment coming out of Virginia Tech as I also did not have concerns with other son finding employment out of UVa. I find it fascinating that you seem determined to not give Virginia Tech any credit and to dismiss the school at every turn. Frankly, I think you’re doing Georgia Tech no favors with your attitude but that of course is only my personal opinion.
By the way,For the 09-10 data for VT in industrial, I see an 83 percent employment or offer rate.</p>
<p>mitch, I’m going to be the oddball here because I am responding with no bias or connection as to the engineering major at either school (unless you want to count multiple Yellow Jacket engineering cousins as well as an uncle :)…</p>
<p>I am responding because of the second sentence of your OP as well as your last…
If your guy loves the feel of VT, the campus and what he perceives as a student body he can be comfortable with, then the (negligible- imho) engineering ranking differences between these two great schools becomes a moot point. </p>
<p>I have always believed that a happy student makes for a successful student and a successful student makes for a great job applicant. If your son has
expressed his thoughts pretty strongly about the other parts of the college experience that are important to him, that says a lot to me. Good luck to you both as you decide.</p>
<p>Great post,KandKsmom!</p>
<p>Just wanted to clarify something. I stated earlier that ISE at VT was #4. It is at the grad level but is #7 at the undergrad level in rankngs. I wanted to correct this so it would not be a source of continued debate and contention. Most of us have been trying to say the same thing
here-go where there is a financial fit, you feel you will be happy and will thrive. Rankings at this level are just not worth losing sleep over. Just my opinion. The Virginia Tech forum is so supportive in general so for those still looking/deciding ,please do not let this rather contentious thread deter you from asking questions!</p>
<p>And not to beat a dead horse but seriously, they run the triple option. Like all the time.</p>
<p>I have not been on this site for a long time but visited tonite and saw this thread. I do have a son in the ENG program at VT. Double major in Aerospace and Computer ENG with a minor in Leadership Studes as he is in AFROTC and a member of the VT Corp of Cadets. The majority of the almost 1000 member Corp are ENG majors. So those graduates are never in the pool of stats for hires by the large consulting firms, etc. They graduate as officers and serve their county. I don’t know how, if at all, this info makes a difference but I thought I’d throw it out there! I’m sure that if students are bright enough to gain admission to either of these schools, they are smart enough to figure out which one is most compatible with their personal style and goals. :)</p>