Engineers: Georgia Tech vs Kennesaw State (Southern Poly)

[backbeat57]

Any engineers in the house? One of the kids is going to college for mechanical engineering this fall. The choices close by are

• Georgia Tech
• Kennesaw State University (formerly Southern Poly)

Assuming both are close in price, would you favor one over the other? And if so, why?

 

[Tony2X]

Georgia Tech


That's like comparin Harvard to GA state....lol

You get what you pay for.

 

[lexm41]

Georgia Tech

 

[JBWJr]

Depends. Is he looking to be a practical, build things engineer or a book smart designer of useless crap and a research mule for Chinese companies...

 

[Granite3]

GT touts that the same degree from their school vs most any other is worth a $40k salary bump on the first Job.

A niece and nephew both got six figure jobs right out of GT in 2019 and 20.

 

[spencer60]

I would be surprised if the price for GA Tech is even in the same universe as Kennesaw State.

At the end of the day after his first job, the college that gives the degree doesn't matter much.

Sure, GA Tech has a 'name', just like Cal Tech or MIT, but it's probably not going to make much difference after he gets hired that first time. After that it's on-the-job performance that will make or break a career.

 

[rumrunner55]

Georgia Tech


That's like comparin Harvard to GA state....lol

You get what you pay for.

Wrong …tech puts out the most unpractical engineers that are not ready to enter the workforce, I will hire a poly kid over tech any day. All the tech grads I’ve hired have been not worth the effort save one employee …tell them if they want the name go to SPSU (KSU) then transfer to tech

 

[sav4]

Tech if that’s the choices….if his ACT scores high, check Missouri S&T, went there with kids from KY and GA that had in-state tuition reciprocity (early 90’s though)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Brian.547]

As a former SPSU student, I can personally recommend going there. KSU offers more hands on training and graduates more qualified students and tuition is far cheaper and the area is much safer on both campuses. If they want to attend Tech for their bachelor's or masters, go ahead, but I believe your children will have a safer and better start by attending KSU. Hope this helps!

 

[87KJH]

Have family who are Tech grads and they received higher out of college offers than other family members who went to lesser known colleges. However, after a few years the salaries within the same general field seem to normalize.

Somewhat antidotal, but still relevant and mirrors rumrunner55 post.
As a young pup, I worked for an engineering firm where the manager was a Tech grad. He could talk the talk ... until things went sideways and then he was worthless.
He was replaced by a down to earth guy from KSU who did not have the presentation skills, but knew how to communicate and work through problems with his engineers and turned the company around within a short time.

Not engineering, but comparable results in other disciplines. Our daughter's best friend went to expensive, private, out of state university and was $150K + in debt at graduation. Daughter went to GA State on Hope/Zell Miller scholarship. Within 2 years of graduation they were both working for the same company doing the same job making around the same salary.

This is a long winded way of saying your value to an employer is based more on what value you can add than what school you attended.