<p>Hey y'all. I am currently a first semester freshman at GATech and recently started browsing CC again to check out the future class of 2015. I remember when I was first applying that I found it very helpful when actual GATech students were here to answer questions for me. I'm a CS major so I can probably help most with that major but I also have a lot of knowledge on the CM major and all the basic classes you will be required to take as a freshman as well. Basically if you need to know anything about school, sororities and fraternities, or Atlanta just let me know and I will do my best to answer them. </p>
<p>I hope everyone is enjoying hearing about their acceptance. I know it was one of my favorite days (:</p>
<p>Firstly, thanks for this thread. I have been accepted and am seriously considering attending GT.
I was just wondering about the grad school placement record of GT. Do a lot of students from GT get accepted at the top MS/PhD schools like MIT, CalTech, Stanford, UM, GT etc. each year? What do you think? Have you come across GT grad school placement stats or know somebody who graduated from GT and is now attending or has attended one of these top schools? How do you think GT students, especially engineers, fare in the grad school admissions race? Does the GT degree have a lot of respect among admission folks at these schools?</p>
<p>^ Im surprised, but it actually looks like it has made a lot of progress. They have to be done by fall 2011, because they are closing down major walk ways to classes in order to finish construction.</p>
<p>How much more difficult are Honors core classes? </p>
<p>Can you elaborate on the Honors Program Special Topics courses? Possibly give some actual course names? </p>
<p>How much different is the course load of an Honors Industrial Design/Arch student versus a normal ID/Arch student? (Taking out the core and special topics courses out of consideration)</p>
<p>I can answer your questions, Hassapi, as an honors program student myself.</p>
<p>Honors core courses are not meant to be “more difficult” in most cases. I took honors intro CS and honors earth science (EAS) as my core courses. In the CS one the only difference was that we had an extra semester long project to do, but it was really fun and they gave us a lot of freedom on it. The EAS class was a lot smaller than the normal EAS classes… our honors version had only 20 people in it, where the normal classes have over a hundred. That meant we had room for in-class discussion and a more laid-back class.</p>
<p>HP special topics courses are very hit-and-miss… some are very interesting, some are a bit dull. See [Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: Honors Program :: Current Students :: Courses](<a href=“Home Page | GT Honors Program”>Home Page | GT Honors Program) for the current list of special topics courses.</p>
<p>The courseload of an honors student is identical to other students except for the core and special topics courses. After you take the 2 core courses and 3 special topics, your courseload is not affected unless you choose to take extra special topics courses.</p>
<p>Most freshman dorms are 2 or 4 person dorms. The 4 person dorms are generally two rooms with an interior door between them and an exterior door to the hall way off one of the rooms. In those dorms, some people like to put all 4 beds in the back room, making the front room a living space and others like to put 2 people in each room.</p>
<p>Freshman dorms are… dorms. They’re not like a hotel and they’re probably not as nice as your bedroom at home. But then again, very few colleges have dorms that would be nicer than your bedroom at home. The purpose of dorms are to create a social atmosphere so that you meet people and make friends. You should spend most of your non-sleeping hours outside of your room.</p>
<p>I am so sorry! I completely have failed to respond to anything I know. I went through a lot of stuff the past week and now it’s dead week so everything is pretty stressed. I’ll try my best to answer everything.</p>
<p>@dreamboy18. Honestly I am not 100% sure on exact statistics of how grad students fare in getting accepted to top schools. I do however know 3 people who have graduated Tech and two are attending MIT and one Stanford. I’ve heard that while GT sends you out with a slightly lower GPA then you are used to, it is taken in to account that the school is notorious for lower GPAs. </p>
<p>@jaredk. The new building looks really awesome. The construction is a pain at times because you have to go around the zone, but it looks like it is going to be really awesome and it is coming along pretty well.</p>
<p>@Hassapi. Maea answered perfectly (:</p>
<p>@eduedm. The dorms are mainly two person or four person. The west campus dorms have higher ceilings, are much larger, and are generally nicer. I live on east side though and other then the air conditioning causing us major problems at times, don’t have much difficulty living comfortably. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time in my dorm. I haven’t had any problems with finding silent areas to study and game days have never woken me up. West campus is nice but be prepared for a LONG walk, especially on the weekends when the buses do not run. </p>
<p>@naveed. I’m sorry I don’t really have information on that ):</p>
<p>I’ve been researching GT and like others, I am seriously considering this school. The only thing stopping me is what I’ve been hearing other people say about the social life there…is hard to maintain a social life? I’m not expecting to party much in college, just want to meet some interesting people and make life long friends. Please try to answer without bias, unlike other people who talked about Georgia Tech haha.</p>
<p>And: Is the gender imbalance really that bad? I dunno if I really wanna go to a school where it is so off balance. (female btw interested in engineering)</p>
<p>@ questionstory: I think the answer to your question can be given only by you!</p>
<p>My son is a freshman @ GT, and he’s LOVING it so far! As I hear, he has made many friends, and about 30-40% of them girls … he doesn’t “party” much (doesn’t drink, as far as I know ^^), but he has ‘social’ activities all the time. </p>
<p>If you’re a person that expects ‘social opportunities’ to be presented to you all the time, then you probably won’t be happy at GT - but then again, you probably won’t like it anywhere … My point is, college life depends much on yourself: if you’re willing to put in some effort (and come up with ideas on what to do, organize yourself) you’ll have a great life wherever you go - if you just sit in the corner and study your books, you’ll be ‘miserable’ at any college.</p>
<p>Yes, you will have to hit the books at GT - maybe more than in some other colleges; and if you struggle with your academic success, you may have less time to have fun at GT.
My son seems to do just fine and enjoys life to the max - he seems to have a great social life with many friends; some of them already agreed to meet during X-MAS vacation (oos) - I think that says it all!</p>
<p>@questionstory. I have had absolutely no problem with the social life here at Georgia Tech. I decided to rush and join a sorority which I think is a great way to make new friends. My future roommates are all in my sorority and it is also a great way to introduce you to older girls as well. I will say though that before I became close with my sorority, I had WAY more guy friends then girls. Maybe this is because I live in a COED dorm but I found it much simpler and more drama free. I have not found the ratio to be that big a deal. After all, greek life is relatively 50/50. The guys talk about it a lot though! Haha. I’m not going to lie, I go out and drink on the weekends. I have had no problem maintaining good grades and still going out and having fun Thursday/Friday/Saturday. It is a lot easier to be a girl, whether you are in a sorority or not. I have met all my best guy friends through visiting the fraternities on the weekends. You don’t have to drink either. Most of them I met during dry rush! They also have some great themed parties occasionally. If you are not in to the fraternity scene, I have found that it is not too difficult to meet friends in other places. I love most everybody in my dorm and I have also found new friends in random places like the library or the laundry room. It’s all about introducing yourself to people and making the experience how you want it to be.</p>
<p>I know that this is a more technical question, but I might as well ask while the opportunity presents itself. </p>
<p>I was just accepted; however, I have not heard back yet as to when I need to send my HS transcript (GT was self reported). When did you have to send your transcript?</p>
<p>GTSweetie - sounds like you are having a very awesome and successful college experience so far. Thanks for your answer - I’m starting to believe I may want to join a fraternity but I am still not sure.</p>
<p>Personally, in the first semester I would recommend:</p>
<p>Calc I or II (4 hours)
General Chem (4 hours) or Physics I or II (4 hours)
Computing for Engineers (3 hours)
English I or II (3 hours)
Health (2 hours)</p>
<p>That’s 16 hours that apply to all engineering majors. If you are taking Calc II and Physics II together, I would drop the CS course and take the US Government requirement instead.</p>
<p>My general recommendation to everyone in their first year is to take a math course and science course every semester and no more than 3 math+science+cs+econ courses in a semester.</p>