student life

<p>hi, im a high school junior entering my senior year in fall 2011, and i was wondering, what is student life like at GA tech? i know thats a broad question,i guess what i should ask is, what is life like as an engineering major? whats it like to be in the band? whats it like if youre not from georgia (im a jersey girl)? thanks very much!</p>

<p>Life at tech is fairly well whatever you make it:) I’m a girl in engineering, about to start my third year at Tech. I’ve studied abroad, worked both an internship as well as several semesters of working as a Teaching Assistant for CS, been really involved with music at GT, and done a variety of sports from beach volleyball to kayaking in my free time! I’ve met some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, truly inspirational people that I consider myself lucky to know (How can you not be amazed by someone who worked in high school on an ambulence crew - in the middle east, in a war zone - that’s intense!). There is the best combination of college life (Greek life, football, campus events) and amazing academics (top 10 public unis, top 5 engineering in the nation). </p>

<p>As far as life goes - a few things I can promise you: you will meet amazing people. you will work harder than you knew possible. you will learn more than you knew was out there. You’ll laugh at the nerdiness of Humans Versus Zombies. You’ll sing Ramblin’ Wreck at the top of your lungs (ESPECIALLY if you’re in band - band has some of the strongest continuing GT traditions of any organization on campus), and you will be changed as a person. The rest is up to you - you can have a crazy party life, you can keep it quiet and make awesome friends, you can do whatever you want. Socially, your life is up to you in college :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I’m not saying it’s a perfect life, it’s hard enough that you’ll be braindead sometimes. But the good times make up for it, at least to me. If you have any more specific questions, then feel free to ask - I know a fair bit about everything here, so hopefully I could help!</p>

<p>wow, thank you! :slight_smile: it sounds like there is a lot to keep you busy, which is wonderful because thats what i need in a school. you said youve studied abroad…how was that? ive been researching the study abroad program because im interested as well, did you find that it was useful and did you enjoy it?</p>

<p>Study abroad is one of my favorite things that I’ve done in college. It depends on what type of program you’re looking for, but there’s a fair few. Some of them are language-intensive programs; you study for 6 weeks in a country and get 9 hours of credit in that language. Then there are programs like the Oxford program. That one, a group of 20 to 30 students is led for 4 weeks around Europe with a professor, getting credit for art history, and then settles down in Oxford, England for another 4 weeks taking more relevant engineering classes. </p>

<p>The program I went on was Georgia Tech Lorraine, which is actually a satellite campus in the same way that Georgia Tech Savannah is. You take classes there (they have a selection of around 40 engineering classes, including almost all of the necessary ECE courses as well as a number of general engineering and math classes). They even have a large amount of student research positions available for ECE there.They don’t handle any of the traveling for you, but you have every Monday off, so students travel on the 3 day weekends. It’s harder, because you have to plan all of your trips, but when you’re finished, you’ve learned so much more than classes, whether it’s trying to buy a train ticket from the teller that only speaks French, to time management working to study for a DSP test in addition to traveling on a weekend. </p>

<p>There is programs in almost any country you’d care to name, and GT will work with you - if there isn’t a program in a country you want to study in, you can usually set up an exchange with a university there, provided you speak the language.</p>