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Public · Urban campus · founded 1885 · full profile

Georgia Institute of Technology

Students certain they want engineering, computing or quantitative business, who value measurable career outcomes over campus breadth — and Georgia residents in particular.

CompareOfficial site
Atlanta, Georgia18,785 undergraduatesMean consensus percentile 5STEM-focusedPublic flagshipResearch university

The short answer

Georgia Tech delivers private-university engineering outcomes at public tuition: median earnings of $102,772 ten years after entry against in-state tuition of $12,058. Its Industrial & Systems Engineering program has been ranked #1 in the country for three decades, and the co-op program places students in paid, multi-semester industry rotations.

The six numbers that matter most

Acceptance rate
14.1%

Below the dataset median of 76%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported entering class, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Average net price
$12,116

75% below the $48,092 published price

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardAverage for full-time first-time aid recipients, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Median earnings, 10 yrs
$102,772

Above the dataset median of $54,053

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMedian earnings 10 years after entry, working and not enrolled, College Scorecard June 2026 release

6-year graduation rate
94.0%

Above the dataset median of 56%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent six-year cohort, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Median debt at graduation
$21,672

Above the dataset median of $23,250

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMedian federal loan debt of completers, College Scorecard June 2026 release

SAT middle 50%
1370–1540

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardSum of reported reading and math section percentiles for the most recent entering class, College Scorecard June 2026 release. Section percentiles added together approximate, but do not exactly equal, the composite score range.

Where Georgia Tech ranks, and why the answers differ

Each publisher's position, the list it belongs to, and how many institutions it was drawn from.

SourceListRank
US News2026National Universities#32of 436National universities
Forbes2026America's Top Colleges#32of 500Top colleges (Forbes)
Washington Monthly2026National Universities#21of 442National universities
WSJ2026Best Colleges in the U.S.#9of 500U.S. colleges (WSJ)
Niche2026Best Colleges (Overall)A+#28of 2,605Overall (Niche)
Money2026Best Value CollegesNot ranked by this source
Princeton Review2026Best Colleges (Overall)Not ranked by this source
QS2026World University Rankings#123of 1,504World (QS)

Methodology sensitivity: Georgia Tech's position moves 7 percentile points depending on which published list you read. That is a moderate spread; the ranking you look at changes the answer somewhat. How we compute this

Ranking positions are the editorial property of their publishers and are reproduced here with attribution for comparison and commentary. Follow each source link for its full list and methodology.

About Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech is the clearest example of ranking methodology mattering. On prestige-weighted lists it sits in the low 30s nationally; on return-on-investment lists it ranks in the 20s, and on earnings alone it performs like a top-10 institution. The difference is that Tech's graduates earn at elite levels while a large share of them pay in-state public tuition.

The academic core is unapologetically technical. The Industrial & Systems Engineering program has held the top national spot for roughly thirty consecutive years, the CS program's 'threads' structure lets students combine computing with a domain specialisation, and the cooperative education program — one of the oldest in the country — sends students on alternating paid work terms with employers across the Southeast and beyond.

The cost is rigor and scale. A 18:1 student-faculty ratio is high for a school with these outcomes, the grading culture is famously unforgiving, and the Atlanta campus is urban and commuter-influenced rather than a self-contained college town. Georgia residents with the HOPE or Zell Miller scholarship see tuition drop further still, which makes the in-state value case close to unbeatable.

Strengths and honest considerations

Strengths

  • Median earnings of $102,772 at a fraction of private-university cost.
  • Industrial & Systems Engineering ranked #1 nationally for roughly thirty straight years.
  • One of the country's oldest and largest cooperative education programs.
  • Georgia HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships cut in-state cost dramatically further.

Considerations

  • Grading rigor is severe and well documented; GPA recovery is difficult.
  • A 18:1 student-faculty ratio means large classes in core sequences.
  • Narrowly technical: humanities and arts offerings are thin by design.

Who this school genuinely fits

Students certain they want engineering, computing or quantitative business, who value measurable career outcomes over campus breadth — and Georgia residents in particular.

What it costs

Published price, then what families actually pay after grants and scholarships.

In-state tuition & fees
$12,058

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported academic year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Out-of-state tuition & fees
$34,484

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported academic year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Room & board
$13,608

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported academic year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Published cost of attendance comes to roughly $48,092 a year, but the average family pays $12,116 — a 75% difference. 13.9% of undergraduates receive Pell grants, the federal marker of low family income.

Net price varies enormously by income band, so run Georgia Tech's net price calculator for your own household before drawing conclusions. Why net price is the only cost number that matters.

Programs and academics

Most popular majors

  1. 1Computer Science
  2. 2Mechanical Engineering
  3. 3Industrial Engineering
  4. 4Business Administration
  5. 5Aerospace Engineering

Standout programs

  • Industrial & Systems Engineering
  • Computer Science (threads curriculum)
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Cooperative Education Program
Student-faculty ratio
18:1

IPEDS / National Center for Education StatisticsIPEDS 2023 fall enrollment

First-year retention
98.1%

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent first-year cohort, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Undergraduate enrollment
18,785

U.S. Dept. of Education College ScorecardMost recent reported year, College Scorecard June 2026 release

Georgia Tech: questions families ask

MIT ranks higher on essentially every list and has stronger research depth per capita. But Georgia Tech produces median earnings of $102,772 ten years after entry at roughly a fifth of MIT's tuition for Georgia residents, and its Industrial & Systems Engineering program outranks MIT's. For a cost-sensitive engineering student, Tech is often the better financial decision.

About 13% overall, but in-state and out-of-state applicants face very different odds. Georgia residents are admitted at a substantially higher rate because the institution is required to serve the state; out-of-state admission for computer science and engineering is in the single digits.

Similar colleges

Matched on institutional character, overlapping majors and comparable cross-source standing.

Purdue University

West Lafayette, INPublic

Purdue has frozen tuition since 2012, holding in-state cost at $9,992 for more than a decade while ranking #46 nationally and top-10 for engineering. It graduates more astronauts than any other institution outside the service academies, and at a 49.9% acceptance rate it is meaningfully attainable — rare among schools with these engineering outcomes.

Acceptance rate
49.9%
Average net price
$14,600
Median earnings (10 yr)
$72,424
6-yr graduation rate
83.1%
US News · National universities#46 of 436Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#62 of 500Washington Monthly · National universities#44 of 442+3 more on profile

44,503 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 11 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo, CAPublic

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has held the #1 spot among regional universities in the West for decades, built on a 'Learn by Doing' curriculum where lab and project work is required from the first year. In-state tuition runs $13,596 against median earnings of $90,768, and its architecture program is among the best in the country.

Acceptance rate
31.3%
Average net price
$16,665
Median earnings (10 yr)
$90,768
6-yr graduation rate
86.4%
US News · Regional univ. (West)#1 of 118Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#55 of 500WSJ · U.S. colleges (WSJ)#48 of 500+2 more on profile

21,996 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 6 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MIPublic

Michigan is the strongest all-around public university in the country by breadth, ranking top-25 nationally while enrolling 34,177 undergraduates. In-state students pay about $18,000 in tuition for a program that competes with private universities charging three times that; out-of-state students pay roughly $60,000 and receive limited need-based aid.

Acceptance rate
15.6%
Average net price
$13,138
Median earnings (10 yr)
$83,648
6-yr graduation rate
93.2%
US News · National universities#20 of 436Forbes · Top colleges (Forbes)#21 of 500Washington Monthly · National universities#29 of 442+3 more on profile

34,177 undergraduates · mean consensus percentile 4 (across ranked lists; lower is better)

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