Georgia Institute of Technology

There are definitely several other institutions that offer similar or better opportunities than Georgia Tech. But as I’m at Tech here’s what I like about it.

1. The variety of majors that it has to offer. Seven of its schools are ranked in the top five for their discipline. It thus gives you the opportunity to switch a major without compromising on the level of the academic program being offered. You might think you know what you want to do but people usually have second thoughts after they start their major related courses. And its just about keeping your options open I guess. There’s Emory University in Atlanta too, and Georgia Tech shares a program with it where you can take certain classes at Emory. This just enables you to come to Georgia Tech undecided about what you want to do and just explore around. (And there’s always UGA).

2. It has a wonderful cooperative education program and a great career services department that is willing to help you find a suitable internship or co-op if you show the necessary interest.

3. Georgia Tech has fabulous study abroad programs. They offer programs in the UK, France, South America, China, Singapore, Australia-New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean (its called A Semester at the Seas or something like that), and several other places. What’s amazing about these programs is that the professors are from Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus and the whole program is tailored keeping in mind that the students shall be traveling while they are there. So it’s a wonderful way to get through a couple credits and see beautiful places. I can personally vouch for the fact that studying abroad is a very interesting experience. Let me put it this way, you’re going to travel so much, that you’re going to look forward to a weekend where you can just laze around. Study abroad programs are an awesome way to spend a meaningful summer semester. And they usually turn out to be cheaper than actually studying at Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus.

4. Atlanta being a huge commercial center and home to several companies, leads to several work related opportunities for Georgia Tech students too. I see a lot of students interning with Coca Cola and Delta airlines, two huge companies based in Atlanta.

I’ll try to keep updating this thing with more information but feel free to email (patelsaagar@gmail.com) me with any specific questions.

Saagar Patel

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Addendum:

Hey guys/gals,

I know Saagar has already written about Georgia Institute of Technology, but I wanted to add some more stuff to it. Something about me, I was always into biology and wanted to do something related to it. But I did not want to be a Doctor, I therefore chose Biomedical Engineering as my major. There are not many schools for Biomedical Engineering in India, so if you wanna pursue this major that you might have to travel abroad to US, Europe or Australia for the same. For some of you who don't exactly know what Biomedical Engineering is; A career in the field of Biomedical Engineering(BME) is to be of service to people; for the excitement of working with living systems; and to apply advanced technology to the complex problems of medical care. You work with marvelous devices like Body Fat Monitors, Heart Valves, Pacemakers, Pedometers, MRI Scanning Machines and all those devices that work to provide a better health and life for us humans.

Here are some of the benefits you would have if you come to Tech (most of them are related to Biomedical Engineering):-

1. Georgia Tech is ranked the second best in the United States for Biomedical Engineering.
2. We collaborate with Emory University with all our research programs.
3. THE-QS World University Rankings ranked Georgia Tech as the No.8 university in technology in 2008, which fell to No. 12 in 2009
4. Georgia Tech has been No. 8 public school in USA and ranked in the top-ten since the last ten years.
5. Georgia Tech's BME Program is very different from many other BME Programs out there. We here at Tech have a Program in which we rarely use textbooks and are supposed to gain knowledge by digging out information from the net. For example, we have many classes in our curriculum, where we meet in Personal Based Learning (PBL) Rooms. In these rooms we have 8 students and 1 facilitator. The facilitator provides us with a real problem faced by the world. Our group was given a problem about Diagnosing Lung Cancer. We had to read articles, perform experiments, and find out ways by which it would be easier to diagnose and treat Lung Cancer. If the groups research was really good than we could also patent it. Overall I personally think that’s awesome.
6. As Saagar mentioned earlier, we have some great study abroad programs. I, Saagar and Chirag did a study abroad in France in the summer of 2009. It was a great experience and I visited countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Vatican, Luxembourg and Holland.
7. Atlanta is a growing commercial center and it shelters many fortune 500 companies, like Home Depot, UPS, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines(Saagar is a co-op here), Mohawk Industries Inc.(Chirag is an intern here) Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, Genuine Parts, AGCO, Newell-Rubbermaid, Asbury Automotive Groups, Aflac Inc., and many more.
8. One more benefit is that the university is situated in the center of the city, which helps out a lot as you would not be isolated from the outside world.
9. There is so much more ....... log on to www.gatech.edu for more.

Harit Patel
Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology