Princeton Review says GT has bad dorms, professors, and no class discussion!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

<p>I thought GT was a great school five minutes ago. Then I found out that Princeton review said that the professors got low marks, that there is little class discussion, and that the dorms are bad. How true is this? I mean, aren't GT dorms just the Olympic Village? And I assume that had to be pretty good! Plus, I looked at the faculty and stuff and many of the folks came from like University of Iowa whereas UT (otro choice) has some better people there.</p>

<p>I'm just having a really tough time deciding between GT and UT.</p>

2

<p>their new dorms for upper classmen, north something or other looked very nice when I saw two of them, freshmen dorms are just that, freshmen dorms, doesn't get too much better or worse most places. I believe the upperclassmen ones were the olympic village.</p>

<p>In the one class I sat in professor was enthusiastic and seemed to do a god job, although I had trouble following as it was physics II and I didn't do the assigned reading and hadn't gone to any of the previous lectures since I obviously wasn't in the class since I'm a high school student and my ap physics class hasn't gotten as far as they were yet. Still I could get the general gist of what he was saying.</p>

3

<p>Link to the Princeton Review thing?
GaTech is also one of my final options, I'm having a reaaally hard time deciding!!!</p>

4

<p>Okay here's the skinny as I know it:</p>

<p>Yes, the Freshman dorms sucks, but that's only because they're 300 years old. After Freshman year though it's all over with. The Olympic Village by the Varsity is nice on East Campus, and there are tons of on-campus apartments on West campus. Check the GT virtual map for reference: <a href="http://gtalumni.org/map/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://gtalumni.org/map/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Some of the professors at Tech do have a reputation for having an accent or speaking little English; however, you can work around it. Not all are like that, and you'll be able to manage with one through office hours, etc.</p>

<p>As far as class discussion goes, I'm not sure, but I can assure you the first two are nothing to make you choose another school over.</p>

5

<p>I am currently a sophmore at Tech, and I think I can answer your questions.</p>

<p>As to the dorms...yes, the freshman dorms are really small. Traditional, two people in a room, communal bathroom and showers for the hall. And yes, they are old. But it's not all that different from most other schools I visited (Clemson, NC State, UGA, UNC, Duke, etc...); they might be a little smaller.</p>

<p>But after your freshman year it gets a lot better. We recently got a hold of the last of the Olympic dorms- all dorms built by the Olympics are now the property of Georgia Tech. They are all apartment housing. This means that all seniors, juniors, and the vast majority of sophmores living on campus are in apartments- individual rooms, a bathroom for every two people, kitchen, living room. It's actually a pretty sweet setup.</p>

<p>Professors...I can't really compare to other schools (obviously- I only go to Tech :-p). Yes, some really suck. I have one right now who isn't good at all. But they're the exceptions. On the whole, my professors are engaging, interested in what they're teaching, explain the subject well, and are willing to help you out if you are willing to put in the effort. So there's definitely good and bad, but I would say that my experience with professors has been positive.</p>

<p>Discussion. This is one I can't really have an opinion on. The reason for this is that I am still a sophmore and am just now getting into major-specific classes. So for the most part, my classes have been really big- a couple of hundred people. Classes this size are not geared toward discussion. In fact, it normally never happens. Plus, Tech is extrememly demanding academically; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We cover a lot of material at a fast pace, especially in technical courses. So every minute is valuable, and the professors tend to lecture rather than discuss. The few classes I have had that were smaller (30 people or so) were different- there was some discussion. But it really depends on the class. And if you're like me and take very technical courses (I am aerospace engineering), you probably won't get a lot of discussion, at least in your first two years. Beyond that I can't say, since I haven't gotten there yet.</p>

<p>Hope I was able to help!</p>

6

<p>
[quote]
I thought GT was a great school five minutes ago. Then I found out that Princeton review said that the professors got low marks, that there is little class discussion, and that the dorms are bad. How true is this? I mean, aren't GT dorms just the Olympic Village? And I assume that had to be pretty good! Plus, I looked at the faculty and stuff and many of the folks came from like University of Iowa whereas UT (otro choice) has some better people there.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Here's my experience.</p>

<p>Professors</p>

<p>Last semester, I was very satisfied with all of my professors. I took four classes, three of which were taught by Ph.Ds. In none of the classes did the professors discourage class discussion. My professor for intro CS still tried to encourage questions and thoughts even though the class had over 100 students. They all lectured pretty well and were organized.</p>

<p>This semester, it's a bit mixed. Four of my professors do a good job and are very open to questions and encourage class participation. The fifth is not so good.</p>

<p>I strongly disagree that the professors here can't teach. That has not been my experience.</p>

<p>As far as the origin of our professors, take a look at our math department. I see Ph.D.s from UCLA, Berkeley, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, Northwestern, Brown, Princeton, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Harvard.</p>

<p>Dorms</p>

<p>I live in a west campus dorm. Our rooms are fairly big, are carpeted, and have movable furniture. I'm very happy with where I live.</p>

<p>All of the apartments on west campus were originally constructed for the Olympic athletes in 1996. They're still quite nice. Last year, we acquired North Avenue Apartments, which can store essentially the entire second-year class. Their location is a bit suspect, but the apartments themselves are top-notch.</p>

7

<p>My take:
The freshman dorms on East Campus are tolerable, and the apartment housing is great. There are always some trade-offs, and if there was any negative to apartment-style housing, I'd say that it is the decreased amount of "community" feel that you get in traditional dorms. And while the traditional dorms are a bit small and perhaps have a bit of temperature regulation issues in some buildings, they are currently working on adding improvements such as per-room temperature control to them.</p>

<p>As a sophomore, I have now had a pretty good mix of professors. Obviously, as some others have said, intro-level classes with large lecture sizes just don't work well in a discussion-based setting, but you will eventually reach your upper-level, specialized courses, which often offer a greater degree of interaction with the professors. I myself am taking at least 2 classes this semester where discussion and group activities play a major part.</p>

<p>Of course, you'll always have a few professors that aren't as great as others, but by and large I have really liked most of the ones I've had, even those that were difficult. My current physics professor even goes so far as to encourage people to call him in the evening if they need help on homework.</p>