<p>The classes I was taking:
Math 2403 (Diff Eq)
BIOL 1510 (Intro Bio , lab)
Phys 2211 Modern (Intro Phys with a modern twist, lab)
Eng 1102 (English 2)
15 hours total</p>
<p>Just thought if anyone was scared of it being too hard or adjusting to college life successfully, I could shed some light.</p>
<p>Yeah! I would be interested. I heard a 4.0 very difficult to keep at Tech. And you seem to have a fairly difficult schedule. How was it compared to high school? Also, how did you do in high school so I can kind of compare the difference?</p>
<p>I went to fairly decent suburban high school, I thought it was easy - medium. In high school, I came out with a 3.95 GPA. The classes required more effort on my part, not by much though. I think the fact I was inundated with ideas that Tech was extremely difficult, somehow mentally prepped myself. I didn’t really procrastinate anything, studied for tests, didn’t really slack off. While many of peers expressed still having a “senioritus” attitude, I felt like I was ready to put in effort. But it is not like I was studying 24/7, not by a long shot. I had my fair share of “college” fun. </p>
<p>Hm. Interesting info. I plan on attending (senior in high school right now) Tech next year, but I always hear jokes/rumors that Tech demolishes your GPA so that you can’t go anywhere for graduate school unless you were a genius who managed to get good grades.</p>
<p>Curious to see how true/untrue that really is come next fall for me.</p>
<p>I think the key to doing well at tech is having discipline. Obviously most people become more disciplined as they progress through college. That doesn’t mean you have to study 24/7( or even close to that) but that being said you do have to put in effort. Do all of your homework (you would be surprised how many people dont),take good notes in class, look over your notes at the end of the week, and actually try paying attention during lectures. If youre intelligent (which you are since you got into tech) and you try to follow those guidlines you will do well (especially during your first 2 years). That being said it isn’t always easy to follow those since college is a new environment and it can be hard to stay focused early on, which was the case for me. This is also why people tend to get more disciplined towards the end of their 2nd year (got all the partying out of their system) just my 2 cents though. Btw I’m a 3rd year industriaI engineering major f you have any other questions </p>
<p>Pleasing to hear that the horrible GPA rumors aren’t entirely true, then. I plan on being a Business major, so I’d argue that GPA is more important to me than an engineering major, especially concerning graduate school admissions.</p>
<p>Any information you can give me on Tech’s business program? I don’t mind difficulty, per se, just that I’m not particularly fond of math/science courses that are (I believe?) required at Tech as prerequisites for all majors.</p>
<p>Maybe a lot of the kids complaining about the difficulty are from weaker high schools in Georgia, and just weren’t prepared for the difficulty? </p>
<p>@Chardo That may be a slight factor, but GT is definitely a very rigorous school. I went to one of the most challenging high schools in the country,and GT definitely tests your limits. That’s why a degree from Tech has so much value. A 3.2 at GT is worth more than a 3.6 at many other schools. </p>
<p>Except graduate schools don’t care if you got a 3.2 GPA from a rigorous school like Tech. It’s still a 3.2 GPA. Which is my concern.</p>
<p>Call me weird, but I want nothing more than a Tech business school education before going to law school. I’m worried how a low GPA at Tech will look at law schools. I know certain schools like NYU specifically invite Tech kids interested in law to apply there, but I don’t know if that’s just simply Harvard style spamming or not. </p>
<p>On the topic of Tech business school, most of my friends seem to really enjoy it. Now, none of the ever complain about the difficulty of the classes, which is why the business majors are commonly made fun of. I know you guys are interested in graduate school, but in case that just changes, the job placements rates for business are great. One graduating senior friends landed a 100k+ investment banker at suntrust (probably a rare case, he did a bunch of activities, SGA, fraternity…).</p>
<p>My freshman friend whose a business major doesn’t have to take rigorous math classes, just math and science oriented towards finance. Finite Math, Survey of Calculus, CS 1315 (Media Computation, a joke compared to 1301). </p>
<p>Yeah but from my impression, business majors at tech have a totally different experience. All the business majors I see are involved on campus (perhaps they have more time…), whilst most the engineering majors are studying for the next test (yes, thats gunna be me one day.) </p>
<p>Does Tech do Differential Equations before Calc III? </p>
<p>It actually doesn’t matter. The usual path is Calc I -> Calc II -> Calc III -> Diff Eq, but you could do Calc I -> Calc II --> Diff Eq --> Calc III. </p>
<p>I just finished my first semester at Tech also with a 4.0 GPA. I was a transfer student, but when I first started I was also concerned about the reputation of Tech as being a GPA killer. I was already experienced at taking college classes and achieving 4.0, but here are the adjustments I had to make:</p>
<p>Test taking strategy: Coming in I was used to having test that were about 1.5 hours. I had to make an adjustment to taking tests in 50 min as two of my classes were three day a week 55 min classes. This wasn’t too hard. You just have to move fast and not let your self get bogged down on any one problem. I am sure this is pretty common stuff, but it was an adjustment I had to make.</p>
<p>Getting used to being surrounded by smart people: At Tech every body is smart. Of course some have more innate ability than others and there are always people more intelligent than you, but for the most part what separates the B students from the C students is how much work and effort you put into studying on an EVERY DAY basis. Of course you will get some free time. You have to approach it as a job. During the week you need to either be in class or studying until later on at night. What separates the A students from the B students is work ethic but also more of how careful you are. High B students just made more mistakes than the A students. The A students practiced there problems more to identify their mistakes and hence they were on the look out for them come test time.</p>
<p>Getting used to undergraduate TAs and recitations: Some of the larger classes are graded by undergraduate TAs. This was really frustrating on several occasions b/c assignments would not be graded consistently. I had one test that was graded by two different people. The grader of the first page gave no extra credit while the grader of the back page did. To remedy this you have to submit your test/assignments for regrade by a head TA or the professor along with a written argument of your case for a higher grade. I found this to be frustrating, but in the end I always felt I got the grade I deserved. I just had to do more work for it on the back end by arguing my case.</p>
<p>All in all, my first semester at Tech was an awesome experience. I feel like this is the school that I belong to, and I am proud of my affiliation with Tech. If you are a hard worker and you are focused on school as you number one priority then you will do just fine.</p>
<p>So a question I have for my daughter : I am concerned her public school in FL might be way too easy. We see lots of extra credit given, teachers teaching AP level classes that they have no business teaching, AP science classes with very few labs, etc… If a kid has a good work ethic, high standardized test scores and AP’s and SAT 2 tests, do they have a chance at Tech even if the high school they came from was not very rigorous? Worried because we do know a girl at Tech now who is in biomedical. Finished top 3 in our high school with all A’s but average SAT’s (2000) and ACT (31) and she is now in the middle of the pack at tech and fairly stressed out.
Advice highly appreciated! Daughter wants physics or possibly Aero/Mech E.</p>
<p>@saismom Tech will not penalize a prospective student for a sub par high school. They are looking to make sure the student took advantage of opportunities offered. That said, it can make a difference once the student arrives at Tech. At FASET (orientation) they make a big point to tell the kids that they may have been the smartest kid in high school, but at Tech they are average because everyone is smart. My daughter just finished her first semester at Tech (in BME, but she is changing). There were stressful times, but she found it manageable. She also did TechPrep prior to school starting which was very helpful and worth the $.</p>
<p>What is TechPrep? Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>@saismom <a href=“http://www.success.gatech.edu/programs/tech-prep”>http://www.success.gatech.edu/programs/tech-prep</a>. Tech Prep is hard to explain. It seems like it might be a bit “fluffy”, but it is not. My D got a 4 in (AP) AB calc (and credit for math 1501)and after Tech Prep decided to take Calc 2 at Tech (1502). She got an A. Friends who had AP BC calc and no Tech Prep did not get an A. I will say that teachers make a difference.</p>
<p>Wow! That is great advice. My D received a 5 in Calc AB and was advised to go into Calc 2. I was worried about that. So glad I saw your post.</p>
@theconformist : Doctoral programs definitely take into account the rigor and selectivity of the institution you come from. Professional schools do not do so as much. The latter wants good looking numbers, the former is willing to give some slack on super high numbers if it means a student will be more prepared for the rigors of a doctoral program. Many doctoral programs have high attrition rates whereas most prof. schools do not, so much more resilience is needed (many programs only ask for the GPA of the last two years which are usually the strongest of most students). Like, if you are considering graduate programs in the sciences, playing the same course and professor selection games that pre-healths play (I went to Emory and not even the strongest pre-healths would have a schedule like the OP unless they were physics or math majors. Even then…only those considering doctoral programs or other options would craft similar freshman schedules to that) will not end up serving you well once you are there (and then also more rigorous course work can prep you to get more out of initial research experiences as you’ll be better at problem solving and analytical thinking than those who intentionally chose creampuff science courses or instructors. The transition from classroom to lab is a little less daunting with better prep and sometimes the two will supplement each other, like doing research may help you for an advanced course and vice versa).
You want to get as strong a GPA as you can, while building a solid foundation, and getting very solid research experience for research intensive post-grad. options. They aren’t looking for perfection at the expense of preparedness. You are actually paid if you are a science grad. student and are a monitary investment, they have to be careful…Plus more rigorous courses and schools are more likely to develop your passion further. Imagine yourself going through cookie cutter courses with multiple choice or easy canned problem solving exercises when you want to be impassioned by science. Trust me, as a person who ironically struggled academically until getting to more challenging course work, you will come to value the better courses at a place like Tech/any selective school even if your GPA ends up a 3.2 (which is actually fine for many solid PhD programs. You could make up for it through research or GRE regular or subject tests. Most really do evaluate an applicant holistically once you are over 3.2). Also MBA’s if interested are more like doctoral programs in that they value work experience. Getting a good GMAT and/or GRE (which is easy with good training and some studying) in addition to work experience will make one competitive despite mediocre GPA. Law and med schools are the ones that value super high grades (and thus fostering some odd mixture of hard work and “faking it until you make it” when approaching undergraduate work for many pursuing those). But many MBA’s (especially top ones) don’t really want you with under 2 years of work experience post-undergrad.