GT Quality of Life

I have read in multiple places and heard from many people that GT Engineering is highly competitive, non-collaborative, and that the students are grossly overworked and unhappy. It seems like this environment has improved over the last couple years. I am very interested in learning about the current quality of life for GT engineers.

MY DD just graduated and she found GT to be very collaborative and not cut-throat among the students. Engineering is a difficult major so you need to have very good time management skills. You also need to do office hours since meeting with the professors in that setting really helped my daughter understand class material and in turn, do better on exams. She found her professors and administrators like Dr. Valle (in WIE) to be incredibly supportive.

She wouldn’t say she was “grossly overworked” but she did have a lot of work to do. With proper planning she got it done so that she could attend sporting events, be in a sorority, be part of a living community, do lots of intramurals and be on a competition team and still have fun with her friends/roommates. School did not come easy to my DD, but she is very disciplined and planned out her classes and homework so she would have time for the complete college experience. She graduated with high honors which was a surprise to us because she was probably in the lower 25% of the accepted class at admission the year she was accepted. She always felt that her professors want her to succeed.

The one thing my DD found difficult is that GT offered too many opportunities so you have to really choose what you want to do when you want to do everything. Not every student is happy, but the rigor of GT caused the students to bond over it. My DD was in a ton of study groups which she said really helped her understand her classes. My DD loved GT and would attend again in a heartbeat. What also impressed me was the kind of jobs all her friends had during their time at GT and at graduation.

If high school came easy to you, then you might find yourself having to work harder at GT.

itsv offered some fantastic advice. The workload at Tech, while rigorous, is manageable. I want to emphasize several things that itsv mentioned:

  1. Georgia Tech is not high school. You will have to study and prepare for classes and tests. This comes as a surprise to some students who breezed through high school and suddenly find themselves in need of good study habits and having to ask for help for the first time in their academic careers. Tech knows the transition to college can be a hard adjustment, even for the highly intelligent class it admits, so the school offers an abundance of tutoring oriented towards new students so that they can succeed during their first few semesters at the institute. Tech can only do so much though. Students have to choose to take advantage of the offerings. Never be ashamed to reach out for help from peers, tutors, and professors if and when you need it.

  2. Tech is a very collaborative place and has been for many years. Students help each other and professors collaborate within and across departments and schools on their research. This is not true of all universities and is a wonderful attribute of the institute. Anyone telling you that Tech is “cut throat” is either speaking only from rumors or has had a very atypical experience at Tech.

  3. Tech has over 400 students organizations, a thriving student government that gets to allocate large portions of the institute’s budget (this is not the case at many schools), the country’s largest student run investment fund, active campus media, 56 Greek organizations, a variety of intramural sport offerings, and the abundance of opportunities available in Midtown and the greater Atlanta community. Students obviously find time to get involved outside the classroom and are not just holed up studying by themselves. The key is realizing that college is not high school and you cannot do everything. Focus on academics and use your free time to get involved in the things that you are truly passionate about.

Like itsv’s DD’s experience, Tech can be a rewarding and memorable start to the rest of your life. It’s not easy, but it does not have to be soul crushing either. Anyone who gets accepted to Tech can thrive here. The keys are to stay focused, ask for help when needed, and to get involved, but not to the point over-extending yourself. Good luck!

I am in state and know a number of kids from our town that have gone there recently. All the ones I know personally are very happy. It is definitely a challenging school and if you’re not used to working hard then it may be a rude awakening. For kids that are used to balancing several hours of homework a night with extracurriculars it seems manageable. They are certainly working hard but also have time to get involved.

I think that it depends upon the particular student as to whether they are collaborative or competitive or cut-throat competitive.

My son is a junior in math and CS and finds students at GaTech to be very collaborative. Also the grading is on a curve so many students can earn As and Bs at GaTech. The grading is not that hard, and especially for humanities and social science classes, it seems everyone gets As and Bs. There are options to take honors math classes as well, for any GaTech student.(no need to be in an honors program to enroll, but prerequisites may be needed) These classes are much smaller than the regular math classes, and offer lots of math mentoring from professors. The pace is faster and homework sets are more challenging for honors math classes. Very collaborative classes.

Also many coding, robotics and electrical engineering classes have group projects so the collaboration is required to get a good grade!

Quality of life seems very high for GaTech undergrads, as the weather is nice for much of the school year.
There is a program to loan bicycles to undergrads, and fix them up for the following year students, there are weekend trips to rock climbing spots in Georgia and Tennessee, and the swimming pool at GaTech is an actual Olympic pool from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Students have many types of clubs–sports, religious, robotics, and the outdoor education classes span kayaking and more. Its the best Recreation program in the country for mountain biking and kayaking and rock climbing–
https://www.crc.gatech.edu/outdoor

@itsv and @Coloradomama have posted very relevant comments. My D2 just graduated. I would like to add - repeat AP or high school courses (Math, Physics) if you can and financials are not an issue. It is really helpful to do well at the start and begin with a high GPA, builds a lot of confidence for the following semesters.

Its a very good idea to get mathematics solid for any major at GaTech, even business. So if you have any doubts about your calculus strength, just repeat from the beginning. If you do not change majors, should still be able to finish a GaTech degree in four years. There is the option to start GaTech in the summer before the official start to freshman year as well, and take math then. That will cost an extra semester, but some will graduate in December of senior year, if they start a summer early. It will take careful planning and hard work to finish in four years, if the first summer is a light three class “semester”. Summers are also somewhat compressed, so beware of loading up too much. Summers can help catch students up who do manage to drop or fail a class. But you do pay tuition for those summers and lose the chance at working in a summer job or co op job.

@i012575 my son was given this advice by a professor at a week long out of state engineering camp. I thought it was good advice since engineering is so challenging. Take the As where you can get them! I have also heard from my professor friends that many kids who have taken the AP class in high school aren’t as prepared for the next level as those who took it in college.

@robogigi many GaTech students particulate in a three semester ir one semester co op plan which really helps with both expenses and stress. Co ops are fun jobs because you are therecto learn and GaTech has developed good relationships with the co op companies. So while you can do a four year degree with summer work, consider co op degree plans to lower the stress. You will not pay tuition for the co op semesters and you will get payed and get credits toward your co op degree program.