<p>Oh, and we’ve never had an A+ here.
I’m just trying to say that it is not as easy at other top schools as many people at Tech convince themselves to believe.</p>
<p>I could go into a very direct comparison based upon the work I’ve done here and the similar work that my friends have done there (I’ve seen their tests and problem sets and stuff, and am surprised at how different the format is. At least sometimes it’s somewhat easier).</p>
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<p>I got out last month and I’m away at a summer job now, so I don’t have a copy of the commencement program with me, but I agree. I remembered from the program that for many of the majors, including those in engineering, most students within those majors graduated *with honors<a href=“ie.%20GPA%20before%20commencement%20%3E=%203.15”>/i</a>. In fact, unless your major was very small (eg. applied mathematics), chances are, if you were listed under highest honors, you were far from alone.</p>
<p>I also know that among a graduating class of ~2,000, about thirty-seven students graduated with a 4.0, with just about every major represented among those thirty-seven.</p>
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<p>I believe [they</a> do](<a href=“http://www.finaid.gatech.edu/policies/grades/]they”>Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Financial Aid). bernie, it’s an informal term for “grade substitution.”</p>
<p>Is the whole A/B/C/D/F-4/3/2/1/0 idea advantageous or disadvantageous? Do students get more inclined to blow stuff off when they’ve got a 95/85/75 and their grade can’t really change all that much?</p>
<p>Freshman forgiveness at Emory is when they get to withdraw without penalty after the 4-6 week deadline to do so. They get to withdraw up until finals. It’s basically failing out of a class which is common for freshmen (our post-freshman GPA average is about 3.0 too, but it tends to go up over time as opposed to down. And many pre-med/science major freshmen w/d from a course so their actual performance is not indicated by their GPAs). And 37 4.0s is a lot. I don’t think there were any in the last class from Emory, and that had 1900-2000 students. No matter how close many people are, hardly no one here graduates with a flat out 4.0. Normally its maybe like 1-2 per class. Keep in mind, the first A- in a class ruins it. I think +/- makes you work harder. You are indeed rewarded for being rewarded for being on the high in of the range, but the low end really hurts, and getting to the flat grade (say B, which can be 83-84 for uncurved/adjusted courses)is slightly harder to attain. I think I hate whoever invented the A- and B- (again, this B- is one of the most demoralizing grades you can get if you are working your butt off in a course and expect at least a B). +/- can hurt at a tougher school. And Slight Manifesto, as said, +/- hurts if you are on the bottom of a range, but helps if you are at the top. I guess it is supposed to equal out to the traditional flat grade system, because where we get a 2.3 for a 78, you get a flat 2.0 for an 78 at say Tech (or Mercer, they have the same system). But it can be analyzed in reverse, where 82.5-83.5 gets you 2.7 here, it gets you 3.0 at Tech. Again, if anything, +/- just makes you “feel” bad sometimes. While you may not get to feel the pleasures of being rewarded for your 77 in a class at Tech, you don’t feel the pain of being hurt by your 82 here. It’s like a 2-way streak. It also makes getting solid As rather difficult. I got a 92.7 in biology II and got an A- for example. I was really ****ed because I worked so hard to make a turn-around from the B- first semester (where I honestly had to get minimum C on the first exam to start putting in serious effort).</p>
<p>I have only ever met Emory law students, they struck as very similar to other law majors. After having worked with engineers from other schools there is a difference. Tech grads seem more well rounded while grads from other schools seem more specific to major in their knowledge.</p>
<p>I’m talking about undergraduate though. It would only make sense that a law student from an engineering school will be more well-rounded. If you go here, for example, you are more likely to stick to political science, international politics, etc. Admittedly, the school is so pre-professional/professional school oriented, that many are not willing to stray out of their comfort zone. Seems that many science majors, for example, don’t know/associate with many students in the humanities/social sciences and vice versa. Not to mention both sides seem to dodge classes “on the other side” at all cost. However, there are definitely exceptions. Admittedly, being pre-law in any of those majors (history, political science, international affairs) at Emory is hard. Some even venture to say it’s a bit too difficult. I guess that’s because they don’t expect to have to work hard in social sciences. But they should realize they are at a high-ranked liberal arts research institution. However, I know some people doing going to law school upon graduation with degree in biology or chemistry. I imagine they were inspired to pursue patent law. due to the fact that biomedicine, drug discovery, and biotechnology (due to the program with you guys at Tech) are now huge at Emory. Especially since Dr. Liotta.</p>
<p>As for the polarization, I think the establishment of all of the interdisciplinary initiatives and majors/minors such as NBB and anthropology are attempting to close the gap.</p>
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<p>This is exactly why I put up with GT for four years. I’ve always had a willingness to explorer and learn but tech is overkill in many ways. Now i’m out, my resume is stacked, and I shouldn’t ever have to worry about $$$. I always said “four years of hell is worth if it can help provide for my lifetime.” To be honest, it wasn’t four years of hell. It was just a lot more work than I could have ever anticipated.</p>
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<p>As a CmpE i can’t vouch for this. Cracking the book and pulling an all nighter will get you flunked out probably as soon as possible unless you’re some kind of EE savant.</p>
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<p>I’ve come across this myself from people telling me “you had to take class!?!?” This was coming from a conversation I had with an ME that was shocked I took thermodynamics as a CmpE.</p>
<p>Alot of people make the mistake of thinking anyone that complains about Tech is a slacker who slept through H.S and still made good grades due to low standards. That could not be anymore incorrect. I have friends with 3.8, 3.7 gpas that think it still sucks. I think the school is veeeery boring for outsiders (international and out of state students). Most students from GA have friends from H.S and go home almost every weekend, which enables them to “feel at home”. As a result there are weekends when the campus is dead; zero exicitement whatsoever. The school is also in the middle of a city unlike U.G.A, unlike Athens, Atlanta is not a college town. You need to be 21 to really enjoy the Atlanta night life; it is not like New York or Paris where there is soo much to do besides clubbin. Not to speak of the crime rate and sketchy people you meet. </p>
<p>I don’t think the student body is diverse we simply have a huge asian (and indian) population, and most of the students are booring. It is very common to see a lot of people playing video games on Friday night. I believe this owns to the heavy emphasis on gpa and SAT scores during the admission process. The admission set out to pick people they believe are technically sound enough to handle the rigor of Tech without paying much attention to the people’s background or personality.</p>
<p>Most times I get very frustrated with Tech; I am Nigerian but spent most of my HS yrs in Paris. Never really got an oppurtunity to go out an explore Paris like most of my friends because my guardians were very strict. I thought college will be different, exicting. I thought it will present me with the oppurtunity to find myself and meet incredible people but instead it is rather drab. Its like ordering the delicous -looking Big Mac you saw in the new Mc Donalds ad and getting a cold sloopy burger instead. My roommate has a car so I’ve been around Atl and I roam around the campus searching for lively paties but to no avail. My frustration led me to binge drinking which eventually caused my grades to plummet (I went from a 3.8 1st semster to a 3.4 second semster), and a trip to the ER (due to acohol poisoning).</p>
<p>Sure GT will get you a job interview earlier than your counterparts in VT or UT Austin, but at the end of the day you might emerge a better person from UT Austin or any other school with high chances of getting the same type of job as the GT grad. Most decent engineering schools run the same curriculum—at the end of the day you learn thesame things. Soo think long and hard before coming to GT</p>
<p>Right now I am trying to get into the coop program and bring my grades up. I dont care about anything else , I just want to get out of GT with excellent grades. </p>
<p>Note: Keep in my that most people on this forum have a very optimistic (for lack of a better word) view of Tech. I think the reality is worse than it is portrayed to be.</p>
<p>I guess I just got such a good impression and fell in love with it so much from the start that I don’t see how I will possibly hate it. I loved everything about my visit and everything I learned about the school before I visited. How could I possibly hate it? I mean, to be honest, I’m not video games on Friday night most weeks, but I’m sure I will still be able to find a wide variety of friends there who would enjoy going to a Braves game on a Friday night but still have the option to play video games with friends if I wanted to.</p>
<p>You won’t be able to argue against the whole ratio thing anymore soon. Tech is 36% women for the class of 2014. It has a rising trend so it could be 40% by 2015 with a bit of luck.</p>
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<p>Tech is not a commuter school. Most of the campus lives on campus either through the Department of Housing or with Greek Life. I lived in a traditional dorm my freshman year, and there was never a time where I asked myself, “Hey, where’s everyone been for the past two days?” If you live in a suite or apartment and you haven’t developed a good network of friends, then of course it is much easier to feel alienated.</p>
<p>I don’t know what “zero excitement” dead weekends you’re talking about. Home football games are always packed, even the weekday games. During regular semester weekends, I have never been past the SAC fields without seeing people play soccer or frisbee. What’s more, since my freshman year, RHA has always co-sponsored GT Gamefest at Klaus, where you’ll find three packed lecture rooms filled with high-powered desktops and laptops and Tech students playing games with each other. And if you don’t like playing sports, watching sports, or playing video games, we have many student organizations on campus. I joined RHA my freshman year, and we had a meeting every Thursday, and my sub-committee always showed up to discuss the agenda for the week. If you joined a student organization but it never hosted any meetings or people didn’t come, which organization was it?</p>
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<p>We’re a state flagship, but given our size and selectivity, we don’t need to consider “soft” subjective criteria that smaller and more selective universities generally have to consider due to their applicant pool’s size and calibre. Now, in my opinion, the committee that decides who receives the President’s Scholarships does pay attention to “background or personality,” which is why you will always see President’s Scholars run for major SGA positions and take leadership roles in their fraternities or sororities.</p>
<p>Do I think everything at Tech is hunky dory and the best ever? No, not at all. I always thought the CRC was horrendously managed; the managers don’t respond to any feedback whatsoever. But there is a reason why Georgia Tech has an alumni giving rate of 29%. It’s one thing to have a good salary post-graduation; it’s an entirely different thing to give it back.</p>
<p>I’ll throw in something to the contrary, since it hurts me to see the school I love slandered so.</p>
<p>I’m going into my 4th year at Tech this fall, and I LOVE this school. If I were to go back in time, and were offered admission to any school in the United States, I would have chose Tech again. That’s how much I love it here.</p>
<p>The academics are tough, but I feel that it’s much better in the long run. Tech has pushed me very hard and made me capable of doing things I never thought I would be able to do. I’m not talking about pulling multiple all-nighters in one week (thankfully I’ve only ever had to do that once), but being shown that I can learn anything I want to with the right attitude. I think the secret is to REALLY love what you’re studying. Everyone I know who is very passionate about what they’re studying is generally happy with the schoolwork here.</p>
<p>I remember being in your situation, and being very worried that this school would devastate me, that it was full of boring people, etc. etc. Maybe I just got really lucky, but I’ve found that to be far from the truth. The people I’ve met here are the best friends I’ve ever had. I’ve met the craziest, coolest, smartest, wildest people I’ve ever known here. They’re there if you look for them.</p>
<p>In there interest of full disclosure, though, I’ll mention how my circumstances differ from the typical Tech student. I’m in the fraternity system - though Greeks are a pretty large minority at Tech. But, probably 95% of the people I know are in the Greek system, so I can’t say much about people outside the Greek system. I’m also not an engineering major - I’m a double major in applied math and physics. I also don’t play video games, which puts me in a miniscule minority at Tech. But, this is probably the primary reason why I’ve met so many cool people - I don’t sit in front of my computer all night!</p>
<p>The campus most certainly is NOT dead on the weekends. The only times I’ve EVER had a boring weekend at Tech is during the summer. But, what do you expect with 2/3 of the students gone? This is almost entirely a function of living on fraternity row, though. I can’t speak for people outside the Greek system. My experience, though, is that sparks can be struck anywhere on the weekend. I should also mention that I’m an out-of-state student - I knew zero people when I came to Tech.</p>
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<p>we must be living on two different planets but GT’s campus is empty on weekends excluding football days and a couple frat houses. And then on Sunday, all the cars come rushing in and the parking lots fill up again.</p>
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<p>Of course it’s empty. That’s why you never, ever see a bunch of South Asians play cricket at the SAC fields on Saturday mornings. And it’s also why you never, ever see a slew of non-white ethnics playing soccer there, as well as why you never, ever see any frisbees being thrown to and fro at that location over the weekend.</p>
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<p>Of course the foreigners can’t drive anywhere since they didn’t bring a car from their home country. But everyone else does leave. That’s why you only see 4 people tops when walking from west campus to east campus on the weekends.</p>
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<p>Excluding the international students, everyone else leaves campus on the weekends? Is that why there’s always parties going on in the Greek Sector on Saturday nights? Is that why Woodruff and Brittain are both empty on the weekends? Is that why anyone who goes to the CRC on Saturday mornings is guaranteed to be alone?</p>
<p>Every time someone posts a counterexample to one of your arguments, you simply limit the scope of your argument. Everyone leaves campus on the weekends, except the internationals. Tech has an active frat system, but the frats are lame. And so forth. You’re no longer at Tech, and you seem to be happy at your new school, so it all worked out for you in the end. Instead of making overexaggerated arguments about why Tech is bad, why don’t you suggest that prospective students consider your new school?</p>
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<p>Over exaggerating is saying zero people are on campus during the weekend. Being realistic is saying there are usually around 4 people in between west and east campus on the weekends. </p>
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<p>And every time I say anything remotely negative about GT I’m instantly marginalized by all the lurkers on here. All I am saying is GT is not the place to go to have a care-free fun 4 years where you can meet a lot of girls, which many of the posters on here have even agreed to themselves.</p>
<p>Yeah, because the students at other top schools have carefree fun all 4 years. That’s what college is about. You could have stated your point better than that. I hope you didn’t actually mean that.</p>
<p>I am going to college for a care-free fun 4 years only to meet girls.</p>
<p>NOT.</p>
<p>Get out of here you clown.</p>