<p>ellemenope,
Yes, it's the weeder syndrome. GT tends to take kids whose numbers may be a bit more borderline (relatively speaking) than other engineering schools, then lets 'em sink or swim. I've read that they are aware of this reputation and are trying to make the place more hospitable, but it seems a pretty ingrained part of the culture.</p>
<p>Oh, good lord, GT as a weeder school. I sure remember that! The valedictorian (I think) of my senior class was also one of my circle of friends. He always outpaced us all at math, through all of high school. By contrast, I was so busy dealing with family stuff that I barely passed Pre-Calc. </p>
<p>He went off to Tech and I went to a nearby women's college. A couple of months into our freshman year, I went to visit him -- and ended up tutoring him in Calculus, because he was on the verge of failing! He had TA who didn't speak English. The TA would walk into the giant auditorium "classroom", write problems and formulae on the board for an hour, and then leave. That was class. Complete sink or swim. By contrast, my professor made it her mission to ensure we understood what we were doing completely. I took my notes and explained everything to him that we had studied so far during the year.</p>
<p>I have no idea if he managed to survive, because we lost touch not long after that, but I remember the look of desperation on his face and how terrifying it was for him to be literally failing out of GT after 12 years of perfect grades. When my son was looking at schools, I explained weeder-style schools to him, and he wanted nothing to do with that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Interesting GT comments. I was going to encourage my son to look at it, but now ... not sure. I have a friend whose son went there on scholarship to study engineering. I remember he pretty quickly switched out of engineering. I have no idea whether he stayed there at all.</p>
<p>I discouraged my son from attending the local university. I think it's a better experience to get away at least a decent distance from home. </p>
<p>I don't think he wanted to attend that close to home anyway (about 10 to 15 minutes), so it wasn't an issue with us.</p>
<p>Here's an article about a GT freshman who was accused of cheating (circa 2001-2002). The original Jay Mathews article is not on the Post archives (though it used to be, which is where I found it several years ago):
Trying</a> to Learn Against Georgia Tech Ethics</p>
<p>The ensuing controversy showed that this was not an isolated problem and it prompted internal changes to the Honor Code and due process procedures.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this cemented our family's decision to avoid the Ramblin' Wreck. Wrecked my brother's life, and messed up the plans of several of my highly intelligent, motivated friends.</p>
<p>We are currently in the college visit process and will be applying late summer/early fall. I have only been to one school that gave me a gut feeling and knee jerk no to even thinking about applying. Daughter is disappointed with my distaste for the school, but sometimes as parents you just "know" that a school would be a disaster for your child emotionally,socially and spiritually and in the end academically. She will not be permitted to apply.Period. I told her she can always refuse to apply to a school that I would really like for her to attend as a way of getting back at me!
This school would have been an uber reach for her, but I'm not willing to take that chance. She will now look for a different uber reach school and is fine with this alternative.</p>
<p>hope can you be more specific about reasons if not the school itself?</p>
<p>This is my first post on College Confidential. Hope I know what I'm doing. </p>
<p>Columbia_Student mentioned that colleges send applications to her student because he/she scored 800 on Math SAT. I didn't know colleges did that. My 8th grader just got an 800 on his Math SAT but I wouldn't see how any school would know anything about that since I only had his scores sent to one school being that I really don't know when he'll go full time to college.</p>
<p>In keeping with the thread, my son has expressed an interest in Caltech. However, I'm not sure he could ever get in and I'm not sure he would be ready for that environment as an undergrad. We have a friend who went there as a young grad student and he had strong reservations about undergrad work there. So, at this point, I'm discouraging my son from thinking too seriously about it.</p>
<p>sb...
I sent u a PM</p>
<p>Our S expressed an interest in applying to the Naval Academy. We have, over the years, adopted/sponsored mids and enjoyed it very much. However, my W and I felt strongly that the Academy wasn't the right place for our S and we told him to re-think things. Turns out, he was trying to save us money.</p>
<p>The school in question is a top 20 school, very expensive, private and highly selective. It is not an Ivy. I noticed that the students just seemed to be miserably unhappy, never saw a smile on anyones face, people walked by themselves and they all looked really nerdy and geeky. We ate lunch in the freshman dining hall and I saw more of the same thing. At least the food was decent.Our tour guide was clueless when both another mom and I tried to ask about any school traditions or events that students look forward to each year to enhance bonding,school spirit,etc. They do not exist at the school. She looked down her nose at me when I asked about school festivals, dances,etc. The only thing she could come up with was camping out for basketball tickets. This just was not the place for us. I would rather not say the name of the school as I don't want to get flamed.</p>
<p>I understand ;-) thanks for the additional details!</p>