<p>To kind of lump everything together... The campus is very nice, there is lots of grass outside the studetn center but thats about it. They keep it in great shape. The only downside to the campus is the city...I wanted a city at first but once the homeless people start wandering in it gets a little annoying. When applying for housing try to get west campus. It is farther from classes but the dorms are nicer and you are closer to the rec center. East campus dorms are right on the highway so it gets noisy. West campus is more in the woods kind of. All the dorms have wireless internet now which is nice. The food at Brittain dining hall(east campus) is terrible. Slightly improved fromlast year but the food as well as the employees are still terrible. As far as dorms go on east campus smith and harris are the best for freshman experience. They are all good on west campus. GT has great programs for basically anything from science to even business. The classes are definitely hard but dont worry about that too much. Once grades are scaled you will pass. The amount of HW you get depends on your professor. I have had some that give no HW and some that give a ton. The facilities are amazing. They just finished buidling the new college of computing and are building a new nanotechnology building. The only buildings that arent too nice are the physics building and buildings that contain Gen ED classes. ANy other questions just ask...</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, passing a course isn't enough. The university counts D or above as passing, but most engineering majors require a C or better in math, science and engineering courses. According to my son, a great many of this year's freshmen students are having to retake one or more classes because they got a D. Many HOPE scholarships are now gone. I hope they all get their acts together after this first semester and don't continue having to repeat classes. </p>
<p>The university seems to expect these bad grades since they instituted a "Grade Forgiveness" policy that allows you to wipe clean a bad grade in two classes your freshman year if you retake it within the first two years. </p>
<p>Despite the rigor, my son has no regrets at choosing Tech.</p>
<p>I am at tech and live in Folk. Great dorm but a hike from my classes. The food is fine. I have unlimited meals and eat about 5 times a day. I have classes around meal time so I snack before class and eat less after class. I get to the gym which is great about 3 times a week</p>
<p>I agree that the classes are hard but there is tutoring available and the freshman experience is there to make sure you stay in. </p>
<p>As for the curve someone mentioned, I have to agree. I had AP calc credit and took calc II my first semester. I did well, 4.0 with 14 hours and faculty honors, but only scored a 55 on my calcII final. </p>
<p>Even with a 55 I still had one of the highest grades in the class on what I consider the hardest exam I have every taken...Each question was three parts that had to be added together to get a final answer that you had to pick from a 7 multiple choice list. </p>
<p>I love tech. I like to learn but I have to work very hard. The m/f ration is not very good but Ga State is next door and they have girls and UGA is an hour away and they don't have many boys so we see their girls who all know we are going to make lots on money in 4 years. Sooner with the coop program which is outstanding </p>
<p>Being in the city, if you like entertainment, is a real plus and the mountians and camping are only 90 miles away. The new buildings are great. My profs were good and I established communications with them early. </p>
<p>The key to tech is focus. I am not any smarter than anyone else here but I do get my work done rather than game all night. </p>
<p>If you went to a rigorous HS you are a step ahead. I had 23 hours of AP credit when I got here and I am competing on a curve with kids who have never taken an AP class so I have a bit of a work rate advantage and it shows in the grades. That is likely to change next year as the other students get used to the rigor of tech but for now it is a definite an advantage for me.</p>
<p>A friend of mine, who is at UGA, has a mother who taught english at tech. She also taught at uga. She told my dad that the uga kids would come to her office asking her to change a grade, please help me keep the hope scholarship, etc.</p>
<p>The tech kids came by her office asking, "What do I need to do to do better in the future?" No begging for grade changes. </p>
<p>I tend to agree with her assessment. I saw some questions about tech in this thread and decided to chime in. Hope this information is useful.</p>
<p>Last point is a number of atlanta kids take some of the harder classes in summer school at community college and have the credit transfered over. Mainly they take physics or english in the summer at GA perimeter which is a lot easier. The credit transfers but the grade does not. </p>
<p>I didn't do this. With a lot of kids from out of the country. the english class curve is pretty friendly to a native english speaker. LOL</p>