Should I stay?... Or should I go?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

<p>I've been browsing CC on and off for the past year or so, but (obviously) have never posted up until this point. My frustration with my situation has built to the point where I've decided that I should vent... Here goes.</p>

<p>I went to a VERY small private high school in rural south Georgia. My graduating class had only 24 students. I was ranked 3rd in my class with a 98.8 high school average (4.0 UW GPA, 4.3 W GPA). I missed out on Valedictorian by less than a tenth of a point (due largely to my rather uncompetitive grades as a freshman).</p>

<p>I took the PSAT twice in high school and made 72M/68CR/64W as a sophomore and 74M/74CR/71W as a junior. I ended up being a National Merit Scholar for my PSAT scores. I only took the SAT once and got 700M/770CR/710W. I know that I had a much better math score in me, and feel confident that had I retaken that darned test (I HATE the SAT) that I would have made a 750-800 in Math. My attitude in high school, though, was that my 2180 was good enough...</p>

<p>I only applied to one school (you guessed it): Georgia Tech. I seriously visited only three colleges prior to making a decision: GT, UGA, and GCSU (although I had previously visited Emory as well). Out of the three GT was the clear choice, especially considering my intentions to major in an engineering field.</p>

<p>I entered GT as a freshman last fall, and I was woefully unprepared for the huge transition... As I was living off-campus, I had no support system in place and ended up withdrawing from school after two weeks due to a plethora of reasons. These included: struggles with anorexia, homesickness, and (as odd is this is going to sound) fear (of living in such a large city, specifically).</p>

<p>During the spring semester, I attended a local community college. I despised going to a CC with a passion and was completely out of my element. Most of the people there had no real intentions of finishing college and were simply postponing having to enter the workforce. Most professors seemed shocked to have someone who was actually willing to engage in intelligent academic conversation in their class. Needless to say, I finished the semester with a 4.0 while having to put in hardly any effort.</p>

<p>I was convinced from my time at the CC that I was ready for GT this time. That going elsewhere and seeing the alternatives had shown me how much I really wanted to be at GT, so I applied for readmission for summer and was accepted.</p>

<p>After three weeks of classes, I am once again left wondering what I am going to do... I feel like I chose the wrong school, and it's too late to do anything about it. I don't hate GT by any stretch, but it just doesn't feel like the right place for me. Everyone else that I know absolutely loves college, but for me, it feels like a chore. I feel like I'm all alone... Living off-campus was probably a bad choice, but I'm scared to death of meeting new people, as I'm not the most socially adept person in the world.</p>

<p>It's not too late to transfer, as I currently do not have any credits that would not transfer to pretty much any major university (ENGL 1101, ECON 2106, HIST 2112, POLS 1101, HPS 1040, MATH 1501<em>, CS 1371</em>, PST 3109<em>, and CHEM 1310</em>), but I'm extremely hesitant to do so. I am absolutely certain that I do not want to go to UGA, which is what most friends/family have suggested when I presented the idea of transferring. I feel like if I did decide to transfer, though, that I would have a fairly wide range of good universities that I could realistically be accepted to as a transfer student.</p>

<p>I'd love to get some input from the Georgia Tech people on here. I know that most of you guys love GT and are going to encourage me to stick it out here (which I most likely will end up doing), but I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to see if anyone here struggled to find their niche at Tech... and if so, how they coped with those difficulties.</p>

2

<p>I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed about my post …</p>

<p>I’m NOT a GT student, but a father of a current student (just finished freshman year). So you might simply ignore my input because I actually don’t know too many details about GT. </p>

<p>On the other hand, I get the impression that your problem is not really GT-specific … </p>

<p>You seem to be quite an intelligent young person, you achieve very good grades, however “only” (it appears) in an environment that you feel comfortable in (small cozy HS or not very challenging CC).
On the one hand, you seem to be quite aware of your “special” situation and have quite a developed sense for reality (judging your HS grades, admitting to be unprepared for GT, realizing the lack of support system, etc), but you seem to be unable to draw the necessary conclusions out of your observations. You realize that you need a support system, but you are afraid of meeting new people … </p>

<p>Interestingly you haven’t mentioned at all anything about your major … ?? What do you have a passion for? What are your hobbies? </p>

<p>Based on your post, I’d say you need to pay a little more attention to your environment and realize what is important for you to succeed in college. This is probably quite independent of the college itself - a relatively large college like GT might enhance the effect, and it probably also doesn’t help that GT is one of the ‘tougher’ colleges in the nation. </p>

<p>My son went to GT, having great grades in HS, and we were actually not really worried about his grades, but much more about his social life. We tried to emphasize the importance of discipline in doing homework while at the same time putting time aside for fun! Living in the dorm helped a lot, since all his peers were in the same situation. Soon he had a bunch of friends and hobbies, giving him some daily dose of fun & distraction from his homework. </p>

<p>I assume it might be a little easier in a smaller (or perceived 'easier) college to build your social network, but you’ll have to actively work on it at any college! As long as you are not aware of it or willing to work on it (and take the required action), you’ll never feel good at any place! (This is where your major is coming in: if you are locked in on e.g. BME, there is no real alternative to GT - at least not instate, as far as I know). </p>

<p>Try to find & live out your passion - this will help a lot! And, you know it, you need to work on your social skills - being a good team member is a MUST in today’s world!!</p>

3

<p>I strongly suggest living on campus. The friends you meet there (if you aren’t social, your roommates will be and will make you be as well) will help you get through the next four years.</p>

<p>What was your reason for living off campus?</p>

4

<p>@eml2505-</p>

<p>I’m not disappointed in your reply at all; I’m actually very grateful for it. I really have tried to branch out some this semester, but my attempts really haven’t led to anything. It seems like there isn’t a whole lot going on on campus, hopefully that’s just because it’s summer. The only thing that seems to be going on socially are a few parties at fraternities on the weekend and that really is not my scene at all. It just seems so challenging to establish a social network when most people already have their groups of friends mostly established (I’m hoping that when the freshman class comes in during the fall that this will improve the situation).</p>

<p>My current major is ME, but I came in as a BME. I think that’s part of what drove me away from Tech at the beginning was that I wasn’t really doing something that I loved, rather something that I thought would look impressive. I was planning on going to med school after graduating from Tech (BME seemed like a good major choice for that path), but then I realized that I was only interested in med school because of the high average salary of doctors… ME is much more suited to my interests than BME was, and like you said, there are also a lot more options for ME if I do decide that Tech isn’t for me.</p>

<p>@gthopeful</p>

<p>My best friend applied to Tech at the same time that I did, and we both really expected him to be accepted (1910 SAT, 3.8 GPA, excellent extracurriculars), but his overall impressive stats couldn’t overcome his relatively low math SAT score apparently. Once it was apparent that I didn’t have a roommate for my freshman year, I began to panic at the prospect of rooming with someone whom I didn’t know and potentially wouldn’t get along with. Although after a not-so-stellar first year at UGA, my best friend has informed me that he plans on transferring to Tech after the 2011-2012 school year (he has to take Calc I and II before he can transfer), so if he does come here, that would probably help me a lot. He and I have known each other since middle school, and I feel like having him here would help me branch out a lot since he’s much more social than I am.</p>

5

<p>It’s because it’s summer. As for, friend formation. It doesn’t seem that Tech is cliquey to me (if you wanna see that, come right on over here and visit sometimes). Even as an outsider, I find it easier to mingle, however I’m clearly quite social. However, if it’s easy for me, you could probably make something happen. Also, since you’re engineering (ME at that), it could be difficult to find a solid school to transfer to in that field (I guess OOS places like Purdue, VT, etc. come to mind). Just wait until the semester kicks up. It’ll be much better. I did both summer sessions last summer at Emory, and you can imagine the boredom as we are much smaller (okay, except when the farmer’s market and such events started to kick up again. The visiting scholars on campus were cool too). If I started here in the summer, I wouldn’t like it here just as you don’t like Tech. Wait until the social and academic scene is in full swing. Give things some time. Also, I agree with some others about living on campus. It seems to provide a much better experience (you are more deeply immersed in the campus life and socialization is infinitely easier).</p>