<p>Hi, I'm a junior in high school and am looking at a lot of schools, trying to gather some information. So basically, tell me what is good and stands out about GT compared to other schools of similar caliber (similar to the engineering school, that is). Also, a few specific questions: I am from Minnesota, so how "southern" is GT. Would there be a huge culture shock coming to Atlanta from the north? Does is ever get really hot and what is the climate like down there for most of the school year? And lastly, is the male/female ratio really noticable outside of class or is it not a huge deal? Thanks.</p>
<p>great place to work hard for awesome outcomes: top grad schools or job opportunities. Lots of focused, practical people who can laugh at calc jokes yet like going out to football games, basketball games, road trips, concerts, etc. People are much more down to earth and not full of themselves nor conceited than the private schools, yet more intelligent/harder working than typical state school. Go visit and see if it is a good fit.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply! Also, could you answer some of my more specific questions that I had at the end?</p>
<p>Regarding the specific questions:
- There’s really no culture shock you should worry about. Atlanta’s a very cultural city, so there’s no really dominating “Southerness” about it.
- The hottest it’s been here is about 90 for a week or so in late august, but that went away pretty quickly. At the moment, it’s in the 40s, and it’ll be almost freezing later tonight. There’s been a LOT of rain recently, but locals have said it’s definitely not common to have this much rain. I really couldn’t say then on average precipitation.
- M/F ratio is only as bad as you make it. It’s easy to mix with others; there are many co-ed residence halls, and even a couple of fraternities are co-ed. The ratio for this freshman class is the highest ever (two thirds male to one third female), and it may be even better next year.</p>
<p>The poster above me gave a good feel of the campus, but I have one more thing to add: you’re in freaking ATLANTA! There is no reason to be bored here. Trust me, if there’s nothing on campus at a particular time, there are unlimited things to do around atlanta (especially once you get your MARTA card).</p>
<p>I’ll throw in a few things. If you’re trying to compare GT to schools like UIUC or Michigan, you’ll see similar academic quality and job opportunities. The difference is just the campus and location.</p>
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<p>It’s not “southern” inside the city limits. There are some remnants of “southernness”, (e.g. you’ll see sweet tea on every menu), but the town really isn’t southern at all. Most of the people in the city are northern transplants (Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York) or are international. I moved to Atlanta from New York and saw no immediate difference other than how people speak. Outside of the city limits, it’s an entirely different story. </p>
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<p>No.</p>
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<p>“Really Hot” is a relative term. In addition, there’s “dry heat” (Phoenix) and “wet heat” (Houston). </p>
<p>Atlanta is a dry heat (low 90’s in the summer), which is a good thing. It’s not called “Hotlanta” because of the weather. If you’re out of town in the summers, it won’t be that bad, but coming from MN, it will be pretty rough the first year. </p>
<p>On the plus side, in Atlanta you can go outside in the winter. It snows once a year or so.</p>
<p>The biggest downside to Atlanta is the lack of a beach. It’s 3 to 4 hours to the nearest beach (though they are pretty nice - consider UT-Austin is 4 hours from a beach, and that beach is Galveston, which is too disgusting to swim in, and MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and UCLA are near beaches that are too cold to swim in).</p>
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<p>That depends. Are you the sort of person that stays home on weekends, is anti-social, expects women to find you, then throw themselves at you? If so, you’ll definitely notice the “ratio”. But if you are at least somewhat social, go out on weekends, and spend time meeting people, it’s not that big of an issue. The girls from Agnes Scott (all girls school) come to campus for fraternity parties, there are plenty of women from other colleges (Georgia State, Kennesaw State, UGA, etc.) out around the city on weekends, etc.</p>
<p>In my experience, though, girls at Tech are different than girls at other schools - and this can be either good or bad. </p>
<p>At other schools, there are people that have no interest in grades and just want to have a good time. You’ll see people passed out in the quad on Wednesday, there are “easy classes” and people can register for “slacker majors”. Tech doesn’t have any of that. The easiest major (management) is literally the most difficult major at UGA (the professors cross teach, so the classes are the same). Admission is difficult, and the people that apply are generally pretty motivated and results oriented. As a result, you don’t see many people primarily focused on partying (men and women). So the ratio of “nice girls” to “wild girls” is pretty high. If you want a wild girl, you need to head off campus. </p>
<p>You’ll find something similar at most of the top academic schools, though.</p>
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<p>There will be a noticeable difference in the way people dress/act/drive/talk, and in food. </p>
<p>The main difference is clothing, or at least it was for me.</p>
<p>How do people dress differently? Other than the fact that everyone in the south wears sandals in the summer.</p>
<p>The frat boys/girls dress in a way that is pretty uniquely southern.</p>
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<p>Boat shoes with khaki shorts, a front tuck polo shirt, college hat with unkept hair sticking out from the sides, and some sort of shell necklace is pretty standard fraternity dress around the country.</p>
<p>the fraternity scene can be pretty southern. i wouldn’t say the shell necklaces and things like that are that common anymore. the attire is more southern than it may seem with lots of PFG type shorts and shirts, along with polo and brooks brothers. the fraternity scene is just as good as any other southern school, mostly just a bit smaller. if you end up wondering where all the good looking party girls are, it’s probably because you didn’t join the greek system. going greek at tech will open you up to the “college” experience a lot of kids are looking for.</p>
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<p>If you spend time at KA, maybe. I was president of a chapter and didn’t notice anything all that “southern” about it.</p>
<p>i’m not trying to say they’re all like that. but a good number of fraternities tend to be like that.</p>
<p>Which ones? KA is the only one that comes to mind.</p>
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<p>Thats what I meant by people dressing differently. There’s a pretty noticeable population of Greeks on campus too.</p>
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<p>I never saw anyone wearing boat shoes in Baltimore, no one would even dare wear shorts above the knees, and pastel colors on guys were gay, and croakies were for old men…not so down here. All of that is the norm in most southern schools.</p>
<p>GP Burdell- I don’t know what kind of fraternity guys you see around campus, but front tucked polos and shell necklaces are definitely GDI and not fratty (Down South, that is. Up North it’s the ‘cool’ thing to wear).</p>
<p>Basically, at least from my part of the North, the main differences are:</p>
<p>-Lanyards, cargo shorts, baggy trousers, shorts below the knees, printed tees, guys spiking their hair, jewelry on dudes of any kind (you know, that New Jersey guido look)…stuff that was cool up there…is NOT that cool down here.
-Girls actually dress up to go out. Up North it is perfectly acceptable to go to parties in a t-shirt and jeans but most girls down here like to wear dresses.
-Guys tend to dress more in polo, brooks brothers, vinyard vines, columbia down here…up north its stuff like abercrombie, american eagle, urban outfitters</p>
<p>This is not to say that people don’t dress like northerners down here, or that people from Baltimore don’t dress like southerners…but from traveling 700 miles from my home to Tech, the majority of people dress pretty differently. I felt pretty out-of-place my freshman year, dress was probably the biggest noticeable difference between Bmore and ATL. But I must say, I tend to like this southern style much better than northern style. Change is fun!</p>
<p>well KA is the most obvious one, but Sigma Chi, Beta, and SAE all act pretty much the same way. they just don’t wear confederate soldier uniforms</p>
<p>Wait are you telling me people down there wear shorts above the knees and dress up to party and don’t wear like abercrombie or AE? That’s wierd not gonna lie. Honestly why would anyone want to wear short shorts?</p>
<p>Apparently. Also, I’ve recently discovered that there’s another Georgia Tech that I’ve never visited.</p>