<p>So I was accepted to Georgia Tech and I am a semifinalist for their Presidential Scholarship, but as of yet I have not had a chance to visit (I can't miss school right now, but I am going down in Jan. or Feb). </p>
<p>I really love Georgia, but I have never been to Atlanta. I like that it has a urban setting, but I am also very involved with ballet and musical theatre. I worry that GA Tech may be lacking in these areas. I am also extremely liberal...and not sure about the political atmosphere at GA Tech. I was also wondering what the student body was like? I'm not a huge party animal, but I would like a student body that does more than study...</p>
<p>Anyways, if anyone in the CC community could give me advice I would greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>Atlanta is pretty liberal city in the middle of very Red state. Atlanta has one of largest gay populations in midtown/Atlantic station area.</p>
<p>Ga Tech has very diversity population since OOS/international for the past class was 40%. Also a lot of traditional feeder schools in East Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett are full of transplants from New York/New Jersey.</p>
<p>Just kidding, but in all seriousness, my 18 years of living in Georgia have told me that the political atmosphere of Atlanta is more liberal than conservative. The rest of the state, or where I have been, is pretty conservative, but I guess that is somewhat irrelevant assuming you spend most of your time in the Atlanta area. Also, from what I hear, politics does not play a huge roll on campus anyways – which makes sense, I suppose, considering tech is an math and science school. If anything, I would say I would fit in worse with my political views than you would with yours (I am extremely conservative :P).</p>
<p>Besides that, my only experiences with Tech come from friends currently enrolled and, according to them, there is no shortage of parties. They have said there is a god bit of studying, but there is still plenty of time for fun. As for ballet and such, I am not an arts person… but from looking at jim1980’s post, apparently there is stuff. </p>
<p>Anyways, I am debating on whether to go to tech also. I got accepted, but waiting to hear from other options before I decide. Good luck in your choice, I am sure you will make the right one.</p>
<p>I don’t personally know anybody who does performing arts on campus but I know quite a few who are involved in local organizations. One of them does ballet, another is in a local symphony orchestra one county over, etc.</p>
<p>Regarding politics, I don’t think I’ve heard too much politics being thrown around on campus, so I would consider campus more politically agnostic than anything.</p>
<p>That’s probably the best description of campus. You won’t be “indoctrinated” either way in classes. Out of the 1000 faculty on campus, only 21 (2.1%) donated to political campaigns in the 2008 presidential election with a 2:1 democrat to republican ratio. If you look at similar schools, UIUC (with 3000 faculty) had just over 300 faculty donate (10%) at a 10:1 democrat to republican ratio. MIT (also with 1000 faculty) had 308 faculty donate (30.8%) with a ratio of almost 25:1 democrat to republican. </p>
<p>On campus you’ll see both the college republicans and democrats on campus, but neither dominates the other. When a campaign occurs, both parties stop by (both Barack Obama and John McCain made campaign stops). In early 2008, there were about the same number of Ron Paul signs on campus as there were Barack Obama signs. </p>
<p>There are political discussions on campus, but they are balanced. There’s not nearly the conflict between groups that you’ll see elsewhere. Tech is the most politically neutral college I’ve ever visited.</p>