Anyone who has been to GaTech - How would you describe the student culture?

[SouthYankie]

@momsearcheng

I think drinking issue is a student problem, not a college one.

Drinking cultures do vary among schools. And Tech is not good at this. However for a student who wants to avoid alcohol it’s very doable.

[SouthYankie]

@parent365

My younger brother went to Georgia Tech, way back in the mid-90s, and he found electrical engineering to be a challenging and collaborative program. Back in those days, he said that the male/female ratio felt like 2:1, but I’m not sure if he was exaggerating or if it really was that heavily male back in the 90’s.

I was there and it was probably worse than 2:1.

[secgrad2011a1]

I knew a lot of people from Georgia when I worked in Tallahassee, FL. One business woman from Atlanta made comments about a common joke regarding Georgia Tech - “The odds are good but the goods are odd” for female students there who are grossly outnumbered by males who were stereotyped as smart STEM majors but lacking in social skills. Some people might refer to them as “inc-ls”. Apparently, there was something like a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio of men to women over there which led to the joke.

To be fair, I can say that stereotypes are often more “emotional” than “logical”. Georgia Tech is very elite for STEM programs. But I would point out that SEC schools nearby are also very strong for STEM: Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Florida. There was a story about a student who decided against going to an Ivy League school and chose to stay at Alabma for a scholarship which the Ivy League did not offer. Alabama at Birmingham has an excellent biomedical engineering program. For a “balance” one could consider the SEC schools which often have a more healthy male:female ratio and strong sports tradition with en masse of fans not typically observed at technical universities.

But I am an outsider not familiar with the school’s inner details. I defer to the view points of people who actually attended Georgia Tech. Perhaps they can provide counterexamples of that negative stereotype about the joke regarding the male:female ratio and social skills.

I was a mountain runner in Colorado before having to move to Tallahassee to find an engineering job during the recession of 2002. I loved the drive from Tallahassee to Mt. Enotah via I-75, 675, 285, 85 then into Gainesville, GA. Atlanta is a great city, and I’m sure Georgia Tech students can simply go into the surrounding town for a social life if the campus gets too rigorous or the male:female ratio is hard. I recall there was a research partnership with Emory for example.