<p>I was impressed by Georgia Tech because when I first looked at their website, their course load seemed pretty rigorous compared to other universities, which I liked.</p>
<p>However, after reading the threads on this site, as well as (I'm not going to lie), Urban Dictionary posts, I am starting to think twice about the GT community and the GT experience as a whole.</p>
<p>I have heard of the never ending workload, which shouldn't be that bad I guess and I'm willing to work hard, but anecdotal references indicate otherwise. Also, my impression from public opinion is that the outlets for social expression is somewhat lacking.</p>
<p>I would appreciate it if someone (preferably someone who went there) would like to help me with my dilemma. I am planning to major in Applied Math, if that helps.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are many people (like schaden) who have made a career of bashing Tech. People like this typically did very poorly grade wise, didn’t get involved on campus, and now cannot seem to move on with their lives. However, Tech is not a hell hole. Classes are very manageable, especially if you are coming from a rigorous high school. You will encounter a few professors who are very difficult, but on the whole you can get good grades and have a great time.</p>
<p>I have been involved with numerous student organizations including the marching band, attend parties every now an then, spend a good amount of time hanging out with friends and enjoying Atlanta, and I still maintain good grades. Now, I am only one person, but I know numerous other people who also share similar experiences with me. I feel confident in saying that most Tech students are happy.</p>
<p>To get the most out of Tech you need to 1) study an appropriate amount (this is not really that excessive unless you were a below average applicant) 2) Get involved with something you enjoy 3) Make friends and spend time with them.</p>
<p>If you think you can breeze through like you are still in high school, never get involved, and don’t spend time with other people you enjoy being around then you may very well end up a disgruntled Tech-basher. But that only happens if you let it. Tech doesn’t make anyone hate their time here; people messing up makes them hate their time here.</p>
<p>I know four recent Applied Math grads. Two were pure Applied Math, and both will be pursuing PhDs in math, one at Berkeley and the other at Michigan. The other two were double majors, one with biomedical engineering and the other with psychology. Both of them will be pursuing graduate study in their other majors’ fields, one as a M.D. at Pittsburgh and the other at a PhD program in psych at UNC.</p>
<p>Based on my friends’ placement successes as well as my personal experience with the School of Mathematics, I think the program is good. But, I see that you’re from California. I wouldn’t pay OOS tuition to study a-math at Georgia Tech, especially if you already have so many excellent in-state options. Now, the story changes if you really, really don’t want to go to any of the UCs or if you got great merit aid from us.</p>
<p>Yeah, that was another thing I was worrying about. OOS tuition from many institutions is just absurd. Of course I am assuming that I’m not going to get merit aid.</p>
<p>I guess a good rule of thumb is if you value your life after college more than your life during college, go to Georgia Tech. However, this depends on what other institutions you are accepted to.</p>
<p>I’m a CompE at Tech, with a roommate who is a math major, and I love my school It’s a lot of work, but I’ve had the opportunities to try plenty of random things… from learning how to fence, to going to concerts in ATL, to parties, to discovering the random academic persuits that I am enthusiastic about, to being in the front row of the end zone during every football game. If you have any questions, or just need reassuring that there are plenty of social outlets to be found, feel free to ask!!</p>
<p>Our percentage of OOS students is almost triple that of UGA’s, which makes sense given that not all states have good public engineering programs whereas most states have a large flagship public university that should have at least decent programs in non-engineering fields. Even after accounting for Academic Common Market and merit-aid OOS students, there are still many OOS students who are simply willing to pay the OOS rates to study and live at Tech; I met quite a few of them during my freshman year.</p>
<p>Although my friends had excellent grad and med school placements, I still wouldn’t recommend picking us unless you just flat-out don’t want to attend a UC. I feel that in-state tuition for any of the UCs is still a great deal, even after including the tuition hikes.</p>
<p>My roommate is a second year, as I am, but she really enjoys the math program; the program at Tech has a variety of different ways you can focus the program. She’s taken all the honors math classes so far, and is branching out into the more specialized classes this fall. The program also requires a few more CS courses than most majors, as the algorithms in CS line up well with the thought processes for math. </p>
<p>The honors math classes are more proof-based than others, and they’re difficult but usually have higher averages despite the difficulty level. She likes it because it has more free electives open so that she can take more classes she’s highly interested in - it makes the work load easier when you can focus in stuff you’re interested in, and most of the engineering degrees have too many required classes for too many free electives.</p>
<p>You don’t go to Georgia Tech to have fun. You don’t go to Georgia Tech to get a better understanding of anything. You go to Georgia Tech to learn how to be endure being miserable for 4-5 years. The truth is you don’t have to have any sort of talent to go to Tech, you just have to have flesh and bones and be willing to take it up the rear from the faculty and staff. I’m so glad to be transferring from a school where everyone is a masochist to where people are friendly, happy, and on some levels much smarter.</p>
<p>Like Farmergregor said, if you value your life so much after college then maybe it is a good decision, but I don’t see why you couldn’t major in a related subject at a more “user-friendly” and happier college and be making almost as much money as you would after graduating from Tech.</p>
<p>Schaden’s problem is that his time isn’t important to him. He wastes time ■■■■■■■■ this GT board long after he left tech. Maybe that’s his problem in the first place, he doesn’t know how to allocate his time properly. Schaden, how many other GT boards do you ■■■■■?</p>
<p>I visit this site occasionally and I am so suppressed that I always see Schaden is on the GT board. It makes me think that this personnel is living in such a simple life that he has nothing else to get involved but this site.</p>
<p>Schaden, what is your status? Are you an international student live far away from home?</p>
<p>I am here to inform any prospective students of what they are getting themselves into. I have been more than generous with giving Georgia Tech some leeway rather than calling it a complete hell hole. And I would appreciate it if the ad hominem and personal attacks stopped.</p>
<p>One of the problems with your posts, schaden, is that you refuse to describe what you did at Tech that didn’t work. You won’t say which clubs, if any, you tried joining. You won’t say what interests you have and why Tech did not provide an outlet or an opportunity to create an outlet to further develop those interests.</p>
<p>Other than enjoying life, I enjoy physics quite a bit. I never got around to signing up for research since I was so bogged down with work and I transferred. Judging from these testimonials, maybe that is a good thing.</p>
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<p>They are all over the internet if you do some simple searches.</p>
<p>“arbitrarily” difficult work? That doesn’t seem like the right term. That’s vague at its clearest level. That could mean that the difficulty of courses varied to extremes. Funny how they call out those students who are complaining, and yet, they themselves are complaining. And again, I’m tired of the theory that Tech has grade deflation. There is grade inflation, it’s just not as noticeable because it started much later there. Gpas are going up over time there (up .1 since the last decade, same as us, accept we started inflating when the other private schools did). Many public schools not as difficult as Tech have similar average graduating GPAs (Tech is 3.07), so while you may do much better at the easier schools, the students attending do not fare too much better. Not too many engineering schools boast a high graduating GPA.</p>
<p>Also, coming to the realization that you are not interested engineering would sour the rest of your experience at Tech. That’s common sense. This is a risk you assume when attending. It should be well understood that there are not many fall-backs that are interesting.
I love how people always cite how people at other schools had higher grades than they did. In reality, many people at Tech had higher than they did. Perhaps study with those people; collaboration helps.</p>
<p>You have diarrhea of the mouth. “I’m here to inform perspective students.” No, you are here to b1tch and complain. The only thing you are informing people about is how miserable you are. I guess psychologically this goes back to you and your daddy issue.</p>
It’s a lot of work, but I’ve had the opportunities to try plenty of random things… from learning how to fence, to going to concerts in ATL, to parties, to discovering the random academic persuits that I am enthusiastic about, to being in the front row of the end zone during every football game. If you have any questions, or just need reassuring that there are plenty of social outlets to be found, feel free to ask!!</p>