I’m concerned about my sons chances of success at Georgia Tech “riding the curves” in the math classes. We are from OOS. Stem high school IB program. SAT: M/740;CR/620;W/700. Thanks in advance for any insights.
I was worried about the same thing last year before I came to Tech. Now that I have been here over a year, I can tell you that “riding the curve” is not always necessary in the math classes. Most of it ends up depending on the professor your son gets. Some will be inherently easier than others. It is annoying, but that’s just the way things are. Also, not all professors curve. My Calc 2 professor last semester did not, but my Diff Eq professor this semester says that she plans on curving. Some professors shoot for a certain average grade in the course and will then curve the course accordingly. Because if this, expecting to be able to ride a curve up to a higher grade is not a good strategy. As far as your son’s chances at success, it is all going to depend on him. The fact that he went to an STEM IB program high school may help some, and a solid SAT shows that he is obviously a fairly smart kid; however,from what I have seen in my classes, those kinds of things don’t really end up mattering quite so much. The fact is that the courses are designed to challenge the students. I have seen people with near perfect SAT and ACT scores barely squeak out a C while others who were towards the lower end of the admission spectrum get an A. It all depends on the amount of time your son puts into the class. If your son puts in the amount of time needed and uses the resources Tech has to offer, he will do just fine.If he does not, the class may end up getting the best of him. From what I have seen, the majority of the people who constantly complain about how impossible it is to do well at Tech are the ones that aren’t putting in the amount of work needed. It takes a lot of hard work, plain and simple. Hope this helps.
Thank you trout freak. Great points. Best of luck for your continued success at GT.