OSU (Honors, Morrill Scholarship, IBE) vs GT (nothing) for ME

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For better community input, please provide the below details about your college offers:

Net price per year at each college, after applying scholarships and financial aid grants.

OSU: $26k/year

GT: $54k/year

Major/division admitted to at each college, if applicable to the college. Also, any special programs like honors programs or combined degree programs (e.g. BA/BS->MD).

Mech Engineering at both OSU and GT’

OSU programs I was admitted to: Engineering Honors, Morrill Prominence Scholars, Integrated Business and Engineering

GT programs I was admitted to: None

Desired major and post graduation goals (including if pre-med, pre-law, etc.).

Desired major: Mechanical Engineering

International or domestic student (and state of residency if domestic).

Domestic student from NJ

Preliminary assessment of each college based on the above.

Considering Georgia Tech over OSU because of the name and program ranking for ME, but OSU seems to have great opportunites/experiences as well.

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I do not think that any of us can comment on what the difference in price means to your family. For some of us this difference in price would be devastating. I know a few families that would not care at all about the difference in price, but only a very few. A lot of us would be in the middle somewhere.

Would you need to take on any debt to attend GT, or would this represent any significant hardship for your family?

Both universities are very good. Both universities can help you to get a successful career as a mechanical engineer (as could Rutgers of course).

Highly ranked universities such as Georgia Tech are a lot of work. You need to be ready to work very hard and want to work very hard for this to be a good fit. Engineering tends to require quite a bit of work at any university. I would expect GT to be a bit more work than most. This leads to the obvious question: Do you want to do it?

To me the biggest issue is just that you can do very well with a degree in ME from either of these very good universities. You do not have to attend Georgia Tech just because it is famous and highly ranked. You should attend the school that you feel would be the best fit for you, as long as it is affordable.

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First consideration is finances. Are both comfortably affordable (no hardship, no or minimal loans)?

If the answer is yes, then the decision shifts to personal preference. You can be successful in ME from either school. In your post at the start of the process, you had GATech as your top choice and OSU was not on the list. Do the benefits of the OSU Program pique your interest?

Assuming affordability, go where you feel you will be happiest. No bad choice here. Congrats .

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How meaningful is the difference to you and your parents?

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In my opinion, tOSU has as much to offer you as GTech. Ohio State rewarded you with a few wonderful honors and a great scholarship. I’m not sure why you would turn those things down based on “name and program ranking”. tOSU is a terrific and well regarded flagship university.

In your thread a year ago, it sounded like you had some financial limitations. Can you afford to attend GA Tech without taking loans? IIRC, tOSU is within your stated budget (before you deleted it). Is GA Tech affordable for your family?

Are these two colleges your only acceptances, or are they just what you have narrowed down your choices to?

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Georgia Tech arguably has something like a top ten MechE department in the US, and Ohio State’s is something like top fifteen.

That to me is not nearly enough of a distinction to consider “name and program ranking for ME” an important factor, particularly at the undergrad level.

So absent some other consideration in Georgia Tech’s favor, I would consider your Ohio State offer much more attractive.

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Money matters and both will have strong outcomes. When you look at US News ranking, realize it is a popularity contest amongst academics. Deans and profs rate the schools on a 1-5 school. There is no formula using data like selectivity, salaries or job success rates.

For Ga Tech in the 24/25 career report, they show 71% of MechEs who wanted a job found one. They don’t state that I see when the data was last captured. Their overall knowledge rate (not MechE) is 35% so they have data on a lot 1/3. Right or wrong, my hypothesis is if you’re not reporting, you likely didn’t do as well. The average salary was $82.5K.

OS U in 23/24 shows 73% employed wiith 13% seeking. So a much lower percentage seeking a job than Ga Tech. They don’t show a knowledge rate.

Neither shows when the last capture came - such as 3 months or 6 months after graduation. OSU shows about 10% less - but it’s a year earlier - $75.3K. But again, fewer people seeking.

Neither says when the snapshot was taken.

I’m not a huge fan of ranking for reasons listed above. To show you why - UMN in 2023 - so older - had a $78K average. Alabama in 2025 - $78.7K.

Companies often hire by location - but pay similar salaries.

There will be kids at OSU that outperform Ga Tech kids in life - and vice versa. Life is not linear to rank - such as all GT kids will outperform OSU kids - this one is more well known, therefore will do better. My Bama kid interned with two Ga Tech kids one summer. He got a return invite. Neither of them did. The point being - you can kick butt from anywhere - but it will be on you, not the school name.

Now - OSU is enormous - but the engineering school isn’t. When I say enormous, I’m talking about the campus.

Ga Tech - less so and a focus on engineering.

And you are a Morrill Prominence Scholar. It says it comes with enrichment but doesn’t say what? Are you aware of what it offers? Does it appeal to you? Does the Honors program interest you - not just that its Honors but what it entails? Not everyone wants what Honors offers? But these might be reasons to choose OSU, plus the cost savings.

I don’t think there’s a definitive answer. Yes, Ga Tech is the big name but career outcome wise, it doesn’t seem to do great based on data they show vs. others.

Ohio State is offering you extras - but that doesn’t mean you’re interested in those extras.

No matter what you choose - you’re oin a great place.

Best of luck.

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Except that fabulous scholarship! Betting the OP IS interested in that!

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Great responses thus far.

If COA is not a concern, then, in addition to the OSU honors, consider Columbus versus Atlanta (especially given Georgia Tech’s top ranking for your preferred major area of study–mechanical engineering).

Assuming COA is an important factor to you & to your family, then OSU is the easy, and correct, choice especially in light of the additional, substantive perks.

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Hello,

Thank you for your response; I’ll definitely be taking your insights into consideration!

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Thanks for helping me out. I really appreciate it!

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Hello,

At this point I’m just deciding between OSU and GT.

Thank you for your advice!

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Thanks for your advice, I’ll definitely be taking it into account while making my final decision!

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Thank you so much for your detailed insight, I’d not really known much about these statistics until now. I will definitely come back to this before I commit!

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Hello,

Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate your advice!

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As others said, I can’t help you with the money part, you need to think about that with your parents and what it means for your family. This could be life changing amount or negligible to you all (and based on your post, I am guessing somewhere in the middle).

Ignoring money, I would take a hard look at what the actual perks of the honors bits are at OSU- sometimes these are great, sometimes not so exciting (depends on school).

I think looking at day-to-day life is an important differentiator between these 2 since both have great academic programs – location, living on/off campus (how-long, which do you prefer?).

Especially for mech-e majors, look at teams/clubs! What are the SAE or robotics similar clubs like? Both schools will have tons given their size, I am sure, but probably slightly different. Dig into their Instagrams and webpages, rankings(for the teams, not the overall schools), etc.

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There’s not enough difference between tOSU and GT for MechE, especially considering the extra perks, scholarship, and professional flexibility afforded by the IBE admission, to justify GT, unless really the cost differential is pocket change for your family and you don’t care about the other benefits.

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Please come back and let us know what you decide. Truly two excellent options so congratulations on your success in the college admission process.

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