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

Always wanted to study abroad in another country? Here's your chance....

Before I came to college, I had heard of exchange programs and some other opportunities to study in other countries. I guess being in a diverse country like India my whole life has made me an admirer of different languages and cultural traditions. Coming to a college with a great deal of diversity and students from tens of countries around the world has made me even more of a sucker for linguistics and variety in culture.

Study abroad programs are specialised programs in which a student goes to another country for a specific time period to study language, and/or experience the culture and society. Many US colleges have mutually beneficial affiliations with many colleges abroad and also a ton of scholarships for study abroad programs. One may have options like :

1) Work in an African country like Tanzania with an NGO and study part time with that. This combines studying and an internship. Reason for stating Tanzania is that my roomate is going to do that program next year.

2) Go to Asia to a place like Japan if you're into oriental cultures and languages (Although i must confess that I never really was attracted to pictorial language scripts like Chinese and Japanese because I suck at art and anything remotely related to drawing scares me.). My second roomate is going to Japan in his last year.

3) Go to Europe to a place like Germany. This is what I want to do because I'm taking German language courses and always wanted to speak more German than just the common words they speak in German movies like "Schnell" and "Jawol".

At college, I discovered a vast array of study abroad programs in countries in almost all continents. (Well im pretty sure they dont have colleges down in Antarctica, so exclude that one. Also they say its pretty cold down there and all you'll get to eat is moss, penguin sandwiches and ice).

Well, people may raise a question - Why study abroad when we already know english? Its because every passing day, the firewalls between economies are disappearing and one needs to be a global citizen. Employers especially look at varied traits like proficiency in languages and cultural experiences positively.

I am posting the link to the Ohio state university study abroad site. Interested in how it works and what sort of programs are offered? check it out.

http://oia.osu.edu/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

And surely there is one thing that a person can claim after studying abroad; global citizenship, which, unlike a national passport, doesn't expire after in 10 years.

Harit

Engineering @ Purdue (US University)

I hear this many times that apart from MIT, Stanford and Berkley, getting into a decent engineering college in US is not difficult. I agree to that notion but the reality is surviving the engineering courses at those schools.

I think doing an undergrad engineering degree at Purdue, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UT Austin, Texas A & M, UMICH, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech is more or less the same. The curriculum of these colleges overlaps as much as 75%. So if you get an admission into any of these (or equivalent colleges) and are going to be 100% dedicated thereafter, only then it's worth spending $35k per annum. Also not to forget the drop out rate of engineering students in public schools like these are the highest in the nation. Hence this proves that just getting in is not important, surviving the classes is more important.

Unlike IIT wherin they expect every student to have mastered all the concepts of Physics, Chemistry & Calculus before entering the colleges, in US remember that if you like a program they will start basically from scratch and grow on that. (Though i am not saying that IIT are not good, they are good in there own sense). It's like looking at a pyramid from the top. Your course in Calculus may start with limits and 1st order differential equation but by the end of 16 week semester they would have covered vector calculus, partial differentiation and multiple integrals too. The same thing is applicable for the rest of the engineering courses in a decent University.

The first year has got some FYE course to be finished. These are the basic tools for succeeding in the professional engineering school. Only after finishing these courses one can be admitted to the desired engineering school. The courses are Calculus I, II, III, Physics I, II, Chemistry I, II, CAD modeling/GDT, Seminar Engineering series, English Language (writing), Communication (writtent and verbal), Computer engineering problem solving tools. Even though some of the first year classes may have class strength of 250-300 students, but these are just the lectures in which the instructor is one of the best in his/her field and would be actively involved in some ground breaking research; but along with these are recitation/labs consisting of 25-30 students taught by graduate/Phd student. This is just to give you a feel of what engineering classes in first year really are. From second year onwards the class strength reduces.

In a good engineering school, there will be a dozen specialisation like aeronautics, mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, biomedical, construction, industrial, material, agriculture, and etc. Not to forget along with this, a student can also pursue his/her area of a secondary course like management, entrepreneurship, economics, foreign language, mucis/performing arts, humanities & social science courses. Basically one can get a second degree or a minor degree in almost any field.

One of the greatest advantages offered by some good American Engineering Universities is the Co-Op and internship program. In a traditional Co-Op program (Cooperative education program) a student is hired by a company and is offered 3-5 internship alternating with the academic semester. This is a typically 4.5-5 year program but the extra year is worth the time. Apart from getting $2-3k per month a student gets valuable work experience on his/her resume realting to his academic major. This not only makes you more marketaeble after you graduate but also give you an exposure of the real engineering projects, functioning of a global company. I personally had a good experince working with Robert Bosch LLC. I was in the Engineering Developement of the Gasoline Systems Fuel Injection for the North America. Our plant was the biggest in North America. Even though it was my first internship, i got an opportunity to be a part of tele-conference with other engineers from Germany, Michigan. It was the real engineering work because whatever work i did, meant something to our department. I got to do some design and validation testing on developing products not yet launched in the market amd write some developement reports. This is a rare opportunity which is available in US. These are the programs that give you an edge in the early phase of your career. In India, average work experince of a high school graduate is nearly zero, so something like this is very helpful to us.

Also there are many engineering clubs in which you can join. Something like SAE would build a car and race with other clubs from various colleges across US. Such things give you a real feel of working in team with a diverse group of students. That is the case in real life, as thomas friedman says, "The world is really Flat", because in the life after college you would be working in an American company, with Asian engineers, product being desgined in Germany, parts imported from Mexico or Brazil and manufacturing happening in Australia. As the globalisation has become a crucial movement in the last decade having a good internation exposure is essential for all the students.

Apart from the undergraduate degree, US colleges are known world wide for their Graduate programs and Phd research programs. They have got all the world class facility with million dollar funding. Some colleges like Purdue, even have their own particle accelerator. Even for the undergraduate students there are research opportunities available rigth after the frehman year.
The research would be actually be done in some research park with some professor. Hence this is definitely something big for a student at such a young age.

Good Luck to all for your professional career. If you need any further guidance, i can be reached at patel57-at-purdue-dot-edu(Hope that screws up lots of web crawlers!).

999

(Note: Although I have shared my experiances at Purdue University, I am presuming that any other equivalent University would offer similar exposure to the students)

US colleges - Academic and other aspects

Deciding the right college and location is a major decision for most high school students. Many of you might be in the process of taking that decision right now or within the next few years. But before you choose its important to know some aspects of both.

I'd like to sketch a rough picture of how college in the US can be. Like almost every situation it has its pros and cons although different things might be applicable to different people. Some points of interest are :

• Many colleges have exploration programs which let the student explore different subjects for a certain time interval before having to decide on a major (main field of study).

• Most colleges in the US follow a liberal curriculum and one has the opportunity to take courses which are unrelated to the main field of study. E.g. An engineering student can take up economics, arts, dance or foreign language classes based on his/her own interests.

• Possibility of pursuing a minor(secondary field of study) simultaneously with the main field of study. This adds to the skills of the student.

• The experience of studying in a different culture and country is also rewarding.

• Usually well endowed colleges give a lot of importance to international students and their needs. Special activities and programs that are organized will help you get adjusted quickly!

• Chances to get involved in clubs, interest and social groups.

Most colleges in India admit student for pre-decided degree programs which have a regimented and specialized curriculum as opposed to liberal and broader ones that US colleges have. Its for you to decide which one you want.

Some points of possible concern :

• Distance from home - Yeah, its a little far but nowadays with video calling and other internet services, you wont feel too far from family and friends. And you can always visit them during breaks!

• Stronger financial commitment - College in the US can be expensive.

So don't let the American Pie movies be your source of info about US colleges! They display a very narrow and exaggerated viewpoint!

College in the US can be an enriching and rewarding experience.

Applying to US colleges

Most colleges in India rely only on your exam scores, where as colleges in the US look for a well rounded student. Good exam scores are of course needed, but a strong application will also need the following:

• Consistent academic performance throughout high school (9-12)
• Decent SAT I, SAT II and TOEFL scores
• Outstanding application essay
• Stellar teacher recommendation letters
• Leadership qualities
• Extra-curricular activities (art, dance, music, theatre, debate etc)
• Sports achievements
• Social service
• Work experience

Of course, all students cannot excel at all things. A reasonable subset of the above should be enough to make a strong application. Plan ahead - say from the 10th grade onwards and try and take part in whatever activities/competitions that interest you. Do not be burdened - enjoy your time in school, but do not be too laid back!

A growing trend these days is to hire an admissions counsellor - I do not recommend it. Creating a decent application is not rocket science, save money and do it yourself. However,  you will need help choosing the right college - and the best person to talk to is Kiran Sir. The guidance I received from him was extremely useful (and free!).

Also, be sure to read this.