<p>DD wants to do ChemE. She keeps hearing how "hard" engineering is at tech, especially ChemE, and that the workload is a real shocker compared to high school. Being a straight A IB student, that is an intimidating thought indeed. I would like the perspective from a former IB student and their take on Tech's engineering workload compared to high school. I don't think people who haven't been through IB understand it at all.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that GT’s reputation for being super difficult is exaggerated because it’s a public school that needs to let in a certain amount of people from every part of the state. You can kind of see where I’m going with that.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be too worried. The only person I know who didn’t get through Tech undergrad was a huge slackass that played Xbox from the day he arrived. Only one other switched majors out of engineering. The rest (6 or 7 people) graduated happy engineers in 4 to 4.5 years.</p>
<p>Bit too late to edit now, but I’m not from Georgia so the kids from my school that went to GT (~5 to 10% of the graduating class) were typically some of the better ones in the program. I wasn’t trying to imply GT is a cakewalk, just that good students from good programs in HS can get through it a good portion of the time.</p>
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<p>Unlike other states, we don’t have mandates restricting OOS enrollment or gaining people from all parts of the state, hence the 40% OOS enrollment and disproportionate amount of people from the Atlanta metro. And, I sense a bit of haughtiness towards the public schools in GA. Am I correct? Most of the students here are from metro Atlanta schools, not South GA schools. Cobb, Gwinnett, North Fulton, etc. are pretty damn competitive (Cobb, for example, is comparable to Fairfax County in VA due to its large upper middle class population, and high test scores).</p>
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<p>This is a true sentiment. If one works hard, he or she should learn the material sufficiently to pass w/ at least a C. However, the amount of work is much higher when compared to other universities, and the percentage of A-recipients is about 30% (seems high until you hear that most unis have a 50-60% A rate).</p>
<p>Just tell her to work hard and she should do well.</p>
<p>She should know that the women at GT have higher average grades and better retention and graduation rates. Not saying it will be a cakewalk, but women who go to Tech do well, generally speaking.</p>
<p>The students that have trouble at Tech are the ones that never had to study in High School, and finished at the top of their class. Two things work against these people. First, they come in thinking Tech will be a breeze because they were the “academic superstar” in their high school. The problem is that Tech is full of the top students from around the world, so suddenly a high school standout is now just an average student. Second, students that didn’t have to study didn’t develop effective study skills and have a steep learning curve, because they will have to study (a lot) at Tech. You can’t just wait until the night before a test to crack the textbook…</p>
<p>As long as your daughter comes in with the mindset that she will have to work hard and focus on studying, she will probably be fine. It’s the students that wait until the second or third semester to start putting in effort that have problems.</p>
<p>Just to follow up on what I mean… when I teach undergrads, I’m amazed at how much feedback I get when I assign a heavy workload. I’ll get feedback like “This class isn’t the ONLY thing in my life.” And I think that speaks volumes about how many undergraduates think</p>
<p>Many students prioritize their college life like this:</p>
<ol>
<li> Boyfriend</li>
<li> Sorority</li>
<li> Friends</li>
<li> Plans for that night</li>
<li> Weekend plans</li>
<li> American Idol
…</li>
<li> Academics</li>
</ol>
<p>What’s even more concerning is that most students believe that what they learned last semester can be completely forgotten and is wasted memory space (that they can replace with Coldplay lyrics). If I try to prove something in class using Calculus, I get hoards of students in my office complaining “But we haven’t taken Calculus in over a year!”</p>
<p>All your daughter has to do is place academics in the top 5 of her priority list, and remember that the goal is to learn material and not to just keep a 3.0 GPA, and she’ll be fine.</p>
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<p>Nahhhh :)</p>
<p>Good for Georgia then. Florida schools really bend over backward to admit students from 50 miles southwest of nowhere and it has fueled a lot of animosity.</p>