Why is it such a great school?

hawkette
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:05:24 +0000

Schools in the South, by and large, don’t get much respect from academics and this is reflected in their Peer Assessment scores which go a long way to determining a school’s USNWR rank and, in turn, its national reputation. This ranking influence is particularly so when a student does not know a lot about the school, eg, Georgia Tech.

Of the major Southern universities, only Duke has been able to break the Southern stereotype and is now accepted by many as the truest peer to Stanford. So, now when high school students in other parts of the country put Duke on their application list along with HYPS and other schools with great historical prestige, it appears as a natural fit.

Other schools in the South have not yet reached this level of acceptance nationally and certainly not among academics and their PA scoring. The schools with the historical prestige and the large graduate research centers dominate the top of the Peer Assessment ranks and the only Southern schools beyond Duke that truly get much respect from academics are U Virginia and U North Carolina. GREAT schools with excellent students like Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, Wake Forest, William & Mary, Davidson and Georgia Tech are all IMO very underrated on the national scene.

As a student looking for a great undergraduate experience, I have frequently suggested that a student look for the following:


Great students to have as classmates, to learn from and to enjoy good times with
Small to relatively small classes led by instructors with a minimal use of TAs
Excellent faculty that are accessible and interested in undergraduate teaching
Sufficiently large institutional resources to fund and support the needs of both students and faculty in the undergraduate colleges


On these measures, the aforementioned schools compare very well with virtually any school in the country and several of these offer a full undergraduate experience (academic, social, athletic) that is superior to many (most) of their higher ranked competitors with greater cachet among academics.

For Georgia Tech specifically, its academic reputation is extremely good among those in engineering fields and 56% of its declared majors were in Engineering. There are many very strong students at Georgia Tech, eg, nearly 3.5% of their last class were National Merit Scholars which would rank it 21st nationally. Average SAT scores for the latest class were 1315 (same as U Michigan and NYU and slightly behind RPI, U Rochester, BC and Tulane, among others). However, the school, with 66% of its students from Georgia and a 69% acceptance rate and only 31% women, does not appear selective or balanced to many potential applicants and this hurts its reputation.

Socially, I suggest you look at the College P r owl er book as there are a lot of useful insights therein. The school is very strong athletically and excellent school spirit and a terrific rivalry with U Georgia. This is a great differentiating factor when compared to many schools in other parts of the country.

From a postgraduate standpoint, I think you would be very happy with a degree from Georgia Tech. The name is very strong in the South and students would have no problem competing effectively for jobs or graduate school placement. Among engineers, the name has great power and this would extend well beyond the South. For non-engineers, however, the name does not travel as well.