<p>I've been scouring the forum and it seems that there are two different opinions on GT academics. The first one comes from people who were really smart in HS. They say that it is really hard and that no matter how hard you try you will still fail. The other opinion comes from average students . They say that GT is hard but if you try, you can get A's. So...Ummm...Which one is true?</p>
<p>My cousin entered with a 3.3 gpa in high school. he did not really click in high school right away, but he always had a hard work ethic. he said that once he got to tech, they taught him so much. he said you just really need to stay on top of your school work and work hard. he is now in med school. sorry if this is confusing…but I think you get my point: WORK HARD!
J</p>
<p>Plenty of people get great grades at GT; it’s all about your work ethic. The people who yell about how hard it is usually never learned to study (and still haven’t??). I’ve seen 1600’s do poorly from slackness and people in the 1000’s and 1100’s graduate with highest honors. I think it’s just that the people doing well don’t sit around on chat forums complaining about the workload!</p>
<p>The thing with tech is that everyone is very smart and unless you’re a genius, you’re not getting by without putting in the time to study. People who aren’t in the upper percentile of intelligence will have to work harder and the people who are will have to work less. The bottom line is that you need to make sure you know your stuff well enough to beat out the kids in your class so you fall under the A/B curve. This to me was the hardest part about tech. There were times where I studied very hard for an exam, felt very comfortable with all the material and either barely made the B curve or just missed it because kids in my class just knew the stuff better than I did. That doesn’t mean I didn’t understand the material or that I wouldn’t have gotten and A at another school. My experience in my major classes (Cmpe/EE) was about 10-15% A’s 15-20% B’s. So best case in a class of 40 people, 14 people are getting at least a B. This probably isn’t that bad at typical schools where there is a wide spectrum of kids in the average class, but like I said, everyone one at tech is smart and they are all studying too.</p>
<p>I came into Tech as one of the people who never learned to study in high school. Grades were never a problem and I just got by with straight A’s. I was expecting the quintessential college life when I came here (ie- partying all the time, classes are voluntary, don’t really have to do the hw if it’s not required). And I had a 1.9 gpa at the end of my first year.</p>
<p>I realized right then that Tech students don’t really have a ‘normal’ college experience, per-se. I’ve buckled down. Learned to study and do it often. I go to every single class and do all the ‘suggested’ problems and non-required readings/hw and my gpa is just about up to a 3.0. If you stick with it and actually work, Tech is not as hard as many say it is. The time commitments that your professors tell you at the beginning of each semester are not simply projections, there actually telling you how much time you will need to spend on that class every week to receive a good grade.</p>
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<p>At Tech, you miss both the typical college “party all the time and rarely go to class” experience and the “move into mom’s basement until age 30” experience.</p>
<p>I’d say it is as hard as they say. At least that has been our son’s experience and that of his girlfriend. Of course, part of that may be because they spend time on their relationship that others spend studying. Be prepared to either work hard or retake classes!</p>
<p>thanks for the responses! </p>
<p>One last question, what is the difference between a college chemistry class (intro) and a high school ap chem class? If I took ap chem as a junior in hs and look over my textbook during the summer, will I do reasonably well in the college course?</p>
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<p>And that seems to be the ‘normal’ experience from most of my friends at other colleges, other parts of a normal college experience seem to be not working too hard to obtain a 3.0 gpa.</p>
<p>RE :
At Tech, you miss both the typical college “party all the time and rarely go to class” experience and the “move into mom’s basement until age 30” experience.</p>
<p>I’ll take Tech and the Hard Work over this Any Day !</p>